Turkey readying Ryder Cup bid for 2022 after Turkish Open success

Officials are looking at the European Tour's season-ending event in 2016 as a stepping stone to hosting Ryder Cup in nine years time

Agency
Tuesday 12 November 2013 10:06 GMT
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Turkey is set to bid for the next available Ryder Cup in 2022 following the success of last week's Turkish Airlines Open.

World number one Tiger Woods was among the 78-man field for the £4.4m event after also appearing in an unofficial match play event last year.

Turkey is also in contention to take over from Dubai as the venue for the European Tour's season-ending event in 2016 and Ahmet Agaoglu, the president of the Turkish Golf Federation, views that as the stepping stone to staging the Ryder Cup.

"We are candidates for the Race to Turkey in 2016 and what comes after that? The Ryder Cup," he told several national newspapers. "We have the idea to host the Ryder Cup in 2022. We will bid for that. Either in Istanbul or Antalya."

The European Tour is expected to invite formal bids soon after next year's match at Gleneagles and when asked about Turkey's chances, chief executive George O'Grady said: "Turkey would have as good a chance as anywhere.

"We have been staggered by the success of this tournament. This is a country where anything is possible."

That would seem to include building a brand new course, with the Antalya region which hosted last week's event actually being in Asia rather than Europe.

"Turkey is in Europe," Agaoglu added: "But if we need to, we can build a course on the European side of Istanbul."

Valderrama in Spain was the first course outside the British Isles to host the Ryder Cup in 1997. The biennial contest will be staged in Paris in 2018.

PA

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