Turkey has withdrawn its bid to stage the Ryder Cup in 2022, leaving five nations in the running ahead of this month’s inspection visits from tournament officials.
Ahmet Agaoglu, president of the Turkish Golf Federation, said: ‘We have greatly enjoyed working on this project and assessing whether we would be in a position to launch a viable bid to host the 2022 Ryder Cup. Although we believe that Turkey is now an established golfing destination, with a collection of world-class courses, it has not proven possible to secure the necessary logistical arrangements in order to proceed and so we have reluctantly decided to withdraw from the process at this time.
The Maxx Royal resort in Belek, venue for last year’s Turkish Airlines Open, was understood to have been Turkey’s preferred venue.
Germany’s bid was inspected last Tuesday (March 17), with visits to Spain and Italy scheduled for this week. Officials from Ryder Cup Europe plan to visit Austria at the end of the month, while there is no date confirmed for the visit to Portugal.