September's Ryder Cup match between Europe and the USA at the Belfry, near
Birmingham, is on course to make a handsome profit for the European organisers
of around £8.5 million - a substantial surplus that will match the profits from
the four previous home matches added together.
While American figures for the biennial contest have been freely available for
years, financial details about the match in Europe were scanty. Now, however,
The Scotsman can reveal it wasn’t until the match was held at the Belfry in 1985
(when Europe won by five points) that the contest first turned in a £300,000 profit.
As recently as 20 years ago, when the match was staged at Walton Heath in Surrey,
the Ryder Cup reported a deficit of £50,000. This was typical of the event’s mixed
fortunes during a period when philanthropy was required to keep the match going.
For example, at Lindrick, in Sheffield, in 1957, only the support of a local steel
merchant saved the day.
After spending close to 60 years on the breadline, the Ryder Cup finally went
into the black in 1985.
Thereafter, the success of the European team in defending the cup at Muirfield
Village in Ohio two years later stoked enormous interest for the return to the
Belfry in 1989 when the surplus increased to around £1 million.
Thanks to the Sky television deal, the growth of the match accelerated in the
Nineties. In 1993 there was an excess of nearly £4 million while the first visit
to Spain for the 1997 match at Valderrama generated around £4.25 million.
At least double that sum is expected this year. Looking further ahead, a figure
of £10 million is on the cards for the K Club in Ireland in 2005, and a £12 million
profit pencilled in for the successful venue in 2009.
In other words, over the next ten years the Ryder Cup will be worth more than
£30 million to the organisers, compared to around £8 million in the previous decade.
It’s against this background of rising profitability that a struggle is taking
place for control of the event’s future in Europe. At present the six-man Ryder
Cup board is made up of equal representation from the Professional Golfers Association
and the European Tour.
The Tour, which looks after the interests of the top players, has made it clear
it wants a bigger slice of the cake and greater involvement for continental Europe
after a team of independent auditors suggested looking at ways of making larger
profits for the match.
Although the PGA, which represents club professionals and has been the guardians
of the match since 1927, is prepared to negotiate on money matters with the Tour,
it is determined to surrender neither its influence nor its 50 per cent representation
on the Ryder Cup board.
Figures indicate that while the Ryder Cup has been in profit since 1985, the surpluses
have not been quite as grand as some imagined. Indeed, there could be a case for
arguing the match underperformed economically in Spain when the margin of profitability
at Valderrama only increased by around £250,000 on the previous home contest four
years earlier at the Belfry.
Money was clearly not the only motive when the decision was taken to reward Spain
for the contribution made by its players to the event.
If the same logic was applied this year, then surely there would be unanimous
support for Scotland’s 2009 bid.
Over the past 22 years, only England have provided more players for the team than
Scotland. Wales have contributed just one.
A glance at the current Ryder Cup table indicates little has changed in this respect,
with no fewer than three Scots filling places in the top ten automatic qualifiers.
For 2009, though, the Tour is known to favour the bid mounted by Celtic Manor
in Wales, apparrently because it promises greater financial benefits than the
bids made by Slaley Hall in the north of England and Loch Lomond, Turnberry, Gleneagles
and Carnoustie in Scotland.
However, since the PGA’s chairman, Phil Weaver, will have the casting vote when
a decision is reached in September, it’s by no means certain yet which of the
six venues will eventually come out on top.
One of the duties the Ryder Cup board must fulfill because of their Category ‘B’
TV deal with the government, is that five per cent of all broadcasting revenues
must be used voluntarily to support the grassroots of the game.
In order to satisfy that condition, the PGA has played a key role in ensuring
Ryder Cup money filters down from top to bottom.
According to the PGA’s accounts for 1999, investments worth over £300,000 were
distributed to deserving cases. Some £30,000 was invested in tournaments for assistant
professionals; £50,000 established a training diploma; £24,000 created a careers
video for schools; £73,000 promoted National Golf Week; a game improvment unit
cost £35,000; £10,000 went to the Golf Foundation junior programme at the Open,
and £3,000 to a similar initiative at the Walker Cup; £45,000 went to subsidise
the British Pro Tour; and £50,000 to the Challenge Tour.
Similar contributions were made in previous years taking the donation to grassroots
golf over the past four-year cycle of the match to around £1 million.
In essence, this means all the cash the PGA received from the last TV deal was
spent on growing the game and promoting junior golf.
On top of that, the PGA has invested £250,000 in a training academy at the Belfry,
as well as another £250,000 in a new sports science facility due to open in October,
thanks to assistance from De Vere Hotels.
Further afield, a donation of £75,000 was pledged last month to the golf union
of Ireland for a centre of excellence in Belfast.
The PGA has also been criticised for not doing enough to support golf on the continent.
Yet after the match at Valderrama a cheque for £400,000 was presented to the Spanish
Federation to help build a municipal course in Madrid, which is expected to be
completed shortly.
While office accommodation and support is also provided for the PGA of Europe,
the British PGA sees no reason why it should feel in any way defensive about promoting
the game in a country which contains more than half of Europe’s golfers.
