The Ryder Cup has been a big draw for blue-chip companies and their lavish hospitality budgets but the financial climate has seen businesses, fans and sponsors tighten their spending.
"I think the last two years have been a vicious learning curve of how things can change. Things do change: timings of when people will commit, whether it be to sponsorship, whether it be to hospitality or to buying a ticket, that pattern has changed,” Richard Hills told Reuters.
"We're not sold out at the moment [for 2010 hospitality]. We'll work as hard as we can to sell out but I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't hit the exact target on the corporate spend. We'd be naive to think that in the current climate we would hit them all."
The comments have come only a few days after Premier League side Manchester United revealed spending on their corporate hospitality packages were down this season.
