Rome will host the 2022 Ryder Cup after the Italian capital today (Monday) edged out competition from Austria, Germany and Spain to land golf’s showpiece team event.
The announcement made by Ryder Cup Europe will see the tournament staged on the continent of Europe for the third time. Italy has never previously hosted the event, which takes place every two years and pits Europe’s best golfers against those from the USA.
The Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, located 17km from the centre of Rome, will follow in the footsteps of Club de Golf Valderrama in Spain (1997) and Le Golf National in France (2018) – when the 44th Ryder Cup is staged in the autumn of 2022.
Four contenders remained in the race to host the 2022 Ryder Cup after the Portuguese Golf Federation (FPG) in April confirmed it would no longer be submitting a bid to stage the event. Turkey and Denmark also withdrew their interest in the early stages, leaving Italy, Austria, Germany and Spain in the running.
Ryder Cup Europe said the Italian bid was “consistently strong” across all the areas evaluated and in particular in its pledge to undertake a complete reconstruction of the golf course at Marco Simone. The organisation also cited a “hugely significant” commitment to the Italian Open European Tour event in terms of guaranteeing a €7m ($7.6m) prize fund for the championship for 11 years, beginning in 2017.
Keith Pelley, chief executive of the European Tour, which acts as managing partner of Ryder Cup Europe, said: “I would like to offer my congratulations to Italy whose bold and ambitious bid has seen them become the host nation for the 2022 Ryder Cup. History has shown time and again that the Ryder Cup is pure theatre with the players the stars, and there is no question that the Eternal City of Rome will provide a wonderful backdrop for one of the great occasions in world golf.
“With Paris in 2018 and now Rome in 2022 being the respective host cities for Europe’s next two stagings of biennial contest against the United States, the magical appeal of the Ryder Cup is set to continue. In addition, we have exciting plans for the development of the European Tour and our International Schedule for the benefit of all our players, and Italy shares this ambition. Their commitment to the Italian Open will provide an inspiring benchmark.”
Europe’s Ryder Cup director Richard Hills added: “The Italian bid was consistently strong and impressive across the board in terms of infrastructure, commercial structure and government support. It was a worthy gold medallist in this particular contest, although there were three impressive silver medallists too in Austria, Germany and Spain, who conducted themselves in a professional manner throughout the process.
“The plans outlined for the golf course at Marco Simone are spectacular alongside the commitment to develop all levels of golf in Italy, and we look forward very much to working with the Italian 2022 Ryder Cup team over the coming years.”
Since the inception of the European Tour in 1972, Italy has hosted 54 European Tour tournaments with nine Italian players having lifted a total of 20 European Tour titles between them, the most successful being Costantino Rocca with five. In addition, Italy has played host to 82 European Challenge Tour events and eight tournaments on the European Senior Tour.
