While there are many hurdles to be cleared before a likely pre-Christmas announcement, O’Brien’s success in securing the biggest team event in golf for the Catalan resort means that England’s wait to host the biennial showpiece will extend into a third decade.
The Dubliner (66), who already owns the Quinta do Lago golf resort in Portugal and recently completed the purchase of the nearby Conrad Algarve hotel for a reported €200million, has owned what was formerly known as PGA de Catalunya since 2008.
He has invested tens of millions in upgrades to the courses and the hotel, as well as the construction of luxury apartments and houses on the property.
Widely expected in Spanish media circles for weeks, The Telegraph reported yesterday that the announcement of the Catalan resort as the host venue is imminent.
However, Berni Álvarez, the new Counsellor for Sport in the Catalan government that assumed power in August, cautiously told the Catalan daily El Mundo Deportivo that many details had yet to be ironed out.
“The Ryder Cup is on the table; it’s an option, a viable one, but the parties involved still have much work to do,” Álverez told the paper.
“We are open to the Ryder Cup, but we must first have the budgets.”
It only remains for the Catalan government, the Generalitat, to sign off on its €40million, seven-year commitment to the deal.
That appears to be a mere formality, and Ramón Nogué, President of the Catalan Golf Federation, made it clear that the once difficult-to-access resort is now ready for the matches.
“To get to the course we used to have to drive there on winding roads,” he said of the luxury resort on the Costa Brava, 10 minutes from Girona Airport and just over an hour’s drive from Barcelona. “Now we have great motorways to get there.”
The resort was built on land formerly set aside for a Formula One track, eventually built closer to Barcelona, and its Stadium Course was designed by Angel Gallardo and Neil Coles with the 1997 Ryder Cup matches in mind.
While there was also interest from Portmarnock, the 1997 edition eventually went to Valderrama, owned by another multi-millionaire, the late Bolivian tin magnate, Jaime Ortiz-Patiño.
Awarding the Ryder Cup to wealthy proprietors is nothing new, as it is the ultimate trophy for golf-loving business people who already own everything that money can buy.
Smurfit’s The K Club won the bid for the 2006 Ryder Cup, Sir Terry Matthews the 2010 matches at Celtic Manor in Wales, while another McManus’s Adare Manor will host the centenary event in Limerick in 2027.
“No other Irish club could afford the investment required to stage a Ryder Cup,” Smurfit told Golf Digest Ireland in 2006.
“Don’t forget that the Ryder Cup is a business. A big investment goes into it, and the PGA and European tour rely on it to generate income.”
On the US side, the 2021 event at Whistling Straits was awarded to Whistling Straits in remote Wisconsin, owned by the late bathroom fixtures billionaire Herb Kohler.
“From its inception, our Stadium Course was designed and built to host the world’s largest events – and hosting the Ryder Cup would be the realisation of this vision,” O’Brien said during the 2023 bidding process when his resort lost out to Marco Simone in Rome.
After building a third course at the resort was ruled out, the Ryder Cup course will combine holes from both the Stadium Course and Hills Course at the resort, which held the Final Stage of the European Tour Qualifying School from 2008 to 2016.
The hilly, tree-lined venue hosted the 2014 Spanish Open when Miguel Ángel Jiménez won after a playoff.