France won a five-way battle to host the 2018 Ryder Cup despite a last-minute sentimental charge from Spain. The event will take place at the Le Golf National Course in Versailles, and while we've never played that, we just have to state that any club with the stones to name itself "Le Golf" deserves respect.
The Ryder Cup usually takes place in the United Kingdom when it's on the other side of the pond; Spain is the only other continental destination to host a Cup, back in 1997.
The European Tour made the decision, and officials pointed out that the "outstanding spectator viewing" was a key element. Take a look at that 18th hole above; those grandstands have more viewers than most Major League Baseball games.� The course can host about 70,000 visitors, and you can bet that most of them will be sniffing arrogantly as the U.S., led by captain Phil Mickelson (just you watch), comes to town.
Spain's bid to host the course at the proposed Tres Cantos course near Madrid got a boost, in a bit of a morbid twist, from the passing of Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros.
Interestingly, only two of the five bids actually have courses completed. France received a huge boost from its golf federation, whose 400,000 members agreed to pay 3 euros a year for 10 years to help defray the costs. The French bid also has an astonishing course-construction component which calls for the establishment of a hundred courses around France to help spur interest in the game.
In the coming years, the Ryder Cup will be held at Medinah in Illinois (2012), Gleneagles in Scotland (2014) and Hazeltine in Minnesota (2016).
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