France is named host for the 2018 Ryder Cup

I was supporting the bid and therefore I am sad that in 2018 the Ryder Cup will not be hosted in Germany. I did not have much time to dig in on the media echo, yet, but just my 0,02 EUR before heading to bed on the topic... and warm congratulations to France. Well deserved.

2020 would be in the US. 2022 in GB/I, 2024 going back to the US. And next to the year 2018, 2026 would most likely be the next chance for mainland Europe to receive the honour of hosting this prestigious event. Facing this long time, you would think the candidates would gear up, fight hard and do everything in its power to impress the Bid Committee and receive this one. Which France did. Let alone the other bidding countries, let's just compare a few things between France and Germany.

Race To Dubai Rankings (May 17th, 2011)

Rank	Player Name	Prize Money	Rank	Player Name	Prize Money
3	KAYMER Martin	€ 1086206
			24	BOURDY Grégory	€ 301910
			25	HAVRET Grégory	€ 300221
			28	JACQUELIN Raphaël	€ 290529
			43	GONNET Jean-Baptiste	€ 227812
			78	WATTEL Romain	€ 122318
			122	DUBUISSON Victor	€ 67428
125	SIEM Marcel	€ 64838
			158	CÉVAËR Christian	€ 42045
			169	KALEKA Alexandre	€ 34208
			181	RIU Victor	€ 27050
			221	QUESNE Julien	€ 10650
			226	DELAMONTAGNE François	€ 9500
227	BUHL Sebastian	€ 9300
			250	GUERRIER Julien	€ 6100
			252	BILLOT Jean-Nicolas	€ 5400
			181	HEBERT Benjamin	€ 5000
	5 Players	€ 1281037		15 Players	€ 1512138

You get the picture and can imagine how things currently look like on the Challenge Tour.

European Tour Tournaments (2011)

Munich	BMW International Open	€ 2000000	Lumbres	SAINT-OMER OPEN	€ 600000
			Paris	Alstom Open de France	€ 3000000
			Paris	The Vivendi Trophy	€ 1150000
	1 Tournament	€ 2000000		3 Tournaments	€ 4750000

Please note that France hosts five Tournaments of the Challenge Tour and Germany none (as in zero).

Courses

Here for me lies the crux of the matter. Le Golf National has been tested with great tournaments and has proven to have the proper dramatic design needed within a Ryder Cup. It still has a lot of space for improvements and tweaks, if needed. The German course is still in construction schedule, though.

Le Golf National is right outside of Paris with 22km driving distance to Paris-Orly and 45km to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, (25km to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar). The planned site of the German course would've been 80km away from the airport. And with all due respect to the people living in Ingolstadt, Manching, and Neuburg: It simply does not compare to Paris.

Support

I do not follow French mainstream media, so I cannot make a comparison here. Within the German golf community the support was strong, although I wouldn't say enormous, but in mainstream media the bid was entirely ignored. I do not feel disappointed about this fact, since you only occasionally hear about golf on a side note on sports pages, but it surely reflects the current state of Golf in Germany.

All in all I'd say Germany can wait, but will it be able to run for 2026? I personally think the chances are dim. Spain was already knocking on the door, trying to make sure Seve got his due. The Swedes, who are almost a traditional golfing nation, have retracted from this race early, probably to ante up on the next one. And Portugal is one of the favourite locations of the press over in GB/I, which has shown its influence on the committee this and last year. Let's see - it's Europe, we play as a team, so who cares ;-)