Germany presented their official bid to host The 2018 Ryder Cup during a visit by Ryder Cup Europe’s Evaluation Panel to the Bavarian capital of Munich on May 11 and 12.

The Bavarian State Chancellery building in Munich was the impressive setting for RC Deutschland GmbH to make their presentation at a press conference involving a number of key figures from the political, business and sporting spheres.

Siegfried Schneider, Minister of State and Head of the State Chancellery, and Norbert Löhlein, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and President of the Bavarian Golf Federation, delivered an address before handing over the Bid Document to Ryder Cup Director, Richard Hills.

The Ryder Cup 2018 Evaluation Panel, who were visiting the fourth of five candidate nations bidding to host the match in eight years time, also spent time at Wittelsbacher Golf Club on the Rohrenfeld Estate close to the picturesque town of Neuburg an der Donau just an hour’s drive north of Munich.

A strong delegation of officials from the RC Deutschland 2018 bid team were in attendance as  His Royal Highness Duke Max in Bavaria, President of Wittelsbacher Golf Club, addressed the audience in the existing clubhouse before the party experienced a tour of the projected new course and hotel complex close by.

Christoph Hillenbrand, District President of the Government of Upper Bavaria, was the principal speaker during an afternoon workshop which included talks from Erwin Langer, Chairman of the Advisory Board and Florian Bruhns, Managing Director of RC Deutschland GmbH.

Earlier, Langer had read a letter strongly endorsing the German bid from his brother, two-time Masters Champion Bernhard Langer, who was unable to make the trip to Germany due to playing commitments in the United States. Also present at a function at the splendid neoclassical Prinz Carl Palais in Munich was former Bayern Munich and German international goalkeeper, Oliver Kahn, one of the bid’s ambassadors.

The Ryder Cup delegation was warmly received by Bernhard Gmehling, the Mayor of Neuburg and District Administrator, Roland Weigert, and Hills commented: “We were impressed by the commitment and passion shown by everyone we met in Bavaria and the level of support in the region for the German bid.

 “We have now been officially presented with four of the five bids and they are all of a consistently high standard. We now complete the process in Madrid before beginning the evaluation and validation of all five bids.”