Europe sets date of May 17 to reveal host venue for 2018 Ryder Cup

The venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup – with contenders in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands -- will be announced on May 17, European Ryder up officials have announced.

It will be only the second time that the match has been staged in continental Europe after Valderrama on Spain's Costa del Sol played host in 1997.

The official announcement, to be made at the European Tour's Wentworth headquarters, comes at the conclusion of the first formal bid process undertaken by Ryder Cup Europe, which commenced at the end of 2008.

"It has been a hugely challenging and stimulating process, taking almost 18 months to complete," Said Ryder up Europe Director Richard Hills.

Sweden were also involved in the early stages, but pulled out last March for financial reasons and said it would focus on the 2022 match instead.

An evaluation panel then undertook a detailed process to validate the five bids, including site inspections, and each of the candidates submitted a bid document.

"On May 17 we will be able to announce one gold medalist and four silver medalists,” said Hills. "All five could have hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup based on the detail and quality of their bids and, although one country will be successful, we look forward to continuing our close relationships with each one of those five countries in the future."

The only well-known course in the running is Le Golf National near Paris, which has been the venue for all but two French Opens in the last 20 years.

Germany wants it to be at Wittelsbacher Golf Club an hour north of Munich, Portugal at the new Comporta Dunes project south of Lisbon on the Alentejo coast, Spain at Tres Cantos north of Madrid and the Netherlands at The Dutch 45 minutes from both Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

"At the outset we said that we wanted to make the right sporting decision and the right commercial decision,” said Bid Director David MacLaren. "We then set our five key criteria against which the bids would ultimately be judged; provision of a world-class golf course, infrastructure required to deliver the Ryder Cup, government, private and golfing support, commercial opportunities for Ryder Cup Europe and the contribution of the host nation to the development of golf."

Next year's match is at Medinah near Chicago on Sept. 28-30 and Europe next stages the match at Gleneagles in Scotland in 2014, with the exact date still to be announced.