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2018 Ryder Cup Boosts French Economy But Golf Remains Minority Sport In The Country

This article is more than 4 years old.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

When the home team thrashed the United States in last September’s Ryder Cup there was little doubt that it was a multi-dimensional success for the continent of Europe.

Not for the first time in this competition’s recent history this was a victory for solidarity over individualism. It was also a strategic coup as the shallow and narrow confines of the fairways at Le Golf National neutered the threat of America’s big hitters. And captain Thomas Bjørn, heavily criticized by some for favoring experience over form in his team selections, was proved emphatically correct in his choices.

Now the results of a report commissioned by the French Golf Federation suggest that the home nation’s economy was also a winner.

Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University’s Sport Industry Research Centre compiled the study and concluded that the 2018 Ryder Cup boosted economic activity in France by €235.7 million.

The figures take into account spending by the 270,000 spectators and other attendees (spectators alone accounted for 220,000 commercial beds in Paris with 8% of visitors extending their stay beyond the golf), plus organizational spending on course and infrastructure upgrades, the development of 100 municipal golf facilities and other indirect or induced spending.

It more than doubles the £106 million figure estimated when the match was last in Europe at Gleneagles, Scotland five years ago.

Guy Kinnings, European Ryder Cup director, said: “ The 2018 Ryder Cup was undoubtedly the biggest and most successful to be staged in Europe  with the considerable achievements of Thomas Bjørn’s team at Le Golf National matched by the wider commercial impact the event had outside the ropes.

“The figures demonstrate the major benefits hosting a Ryder Cup brings to a country through spectator and visitor spending, in addition to the golfing legacy, which in France included the creation of 100 short courses.

“The significant increase from the 2014 economic activity in Scotland also underlines the continued growth of The Ryder Cup’s global appeal as one of the world’s biggest sporting events.”

Pascal Grizot, France Ryder Cup 2018 committee president, added: “From the beginning we always kept in mind that we wanted to show that our country could benefit from welcoming the Ryder Cup. The teamwork across the board helped deliver that and it has also dramatically improved the audience of golf in France and served the development of the game.

“A separate report from the French authorities will be released soon with comparable numbers, which confirms the very positive economic impact for the region of Paris and the city of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.”

The report authors concluded: “The legacy of Ryder Cup 2018 is likely to become more apparent over the next decade with a multitude of new municipal courses inspired by the event continuing to grow the golf market in France; whilst Le Golf National will host the Olympic Golf tournament during the 2024 Paris Games and continue to enthuse French people.”

It would be remiss not to add that even at the match itself there were local doubters, most markedly when it was noted that the site was effectively an anglicized zone for the week with food and drink imported from the U.K., staff from that same country and facilities set up for the convenience of British workers.

When asked for their opinions of the Ryder Cup legacy at April’s Trophee Hassan II French journalists responded with shrugs and then pointed fingers at the schedule to show that the Open de France, for so long a jewel in the European Tour’s crown with a July date, big prize fund and Rolex Series status, is now a sponsorless calendar-filler event in October.

French golf journalist Philippe Chassepot was not surprised that the event was a huge success, but suggests that the size of the event and its importance to the European Tour (it is the circuit’s prime revenue earner) made it inevitable and that the long-term effects may not be revolutionary for the sport.

“We knew, months before September 2018, that everything would be all right,” he explains. “But the influence in the country? There is no way you can change cultural or sporting habits overnight. So as soon as the event was over, we got back to our daily life: bad golf courses in winter time, weak money to upgrade them, old players on the course talking about their new driver or their next holidays in Turkey or Mauritius.

“We are not a golf country. The pessimist version: we'll never be one. We've been waiting one century for our next winner of a major and we don't currently have a single player in the world’s top 100.

“There are obviously plenty of reasons to explain this, so how can a three-day golf event in France change this? To make people run to golf courses and discuss golf on a daily basis? No chance. We are stuck with mediocre golf and there is no reason things are going to change.

“An optimistic version now: maybe a young guy, somewhere in France, saw this beautiful competition on TV. Maybe he found Ian Poulter wonderful, maybe he fell in love with the Fleetwood-Molinari bromance. Maybe he decided to grab a club on the next Monday. Maybe he'll be good at it, and so passionate that he'll win the British Open in 25 years. Maybe he's so charismatic that people will realize golf is much more than a sport. Maybe two or three young players will try to emulate him and maybe the dynamism will be so strong that in one century or something, we will say: well, France is now a big country in golf, thanks to the wonderful Ryder Cup organized there in 2018.

“But is it optimism or utopia?”