Ryder Cup Rants

Next years Ryder Cup may be still over a year away, but the organisation is well underway. As the Ryder Cup Diary has it, people can now start volunteering for the event:

Volunteers each receive a Volunteer Badge, which grants admission to the grounds on all six days of the Ryder Cup and admission to the International Pavilion. Volunteers will also receive a volunteer uniform. The uniform will consist of a golf shirt, pants, wind jacket and hat

So far the usual volunteer package. But here comes the difference: The fee for volunteering is $220.This seems a little odd to me. You take your work time off to be able to volunteer and you have to pay for it? Sure, it is a big event that will certainly attract lots of spectators and volunteers. Last year, I volunteered at the FIFA World Cup that certainly is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and they managed to do without a fee.

A little into the future, American Arena is commenting on the german application to host the Ryder Cup in 2018. A discussion about a possible venue is still open, only few golf clubs in Germany would have the capacity and the course for such an event. Bad Saarow has a challenging course but not enough hotel capacity for the event and Berlin is an one hour drive away. Bad Griesbach maybe, you can also speculate how Golf Valley near Munich may have developed until then. To build a new resort is currently the option for the PGA of Germany and the Langer Golf GmbH. We’ll see!