Golf Ryder Cup 2031 competition to be held in Catalonia

The 2031 Ryder Cup golf tournament will be held at the Camiral Golf & Wellness Resort (formerly known as the PGA) in Caldes de Malavella, a town in the northeast province of Girona. The tournament pits the European and United States golf teams against each other. 

According to sources close to the organizers, the official announcement is expected on Tuesday, with a press conference scheduled for July 25 to provide more details.

This would be the tournament’s second appearance in Spain after being held in Andalusia in 1997, but the first appearance in Catalonia. 

Sources from the Catalan government have not officially confirmed the tournament’s 2031 arrival, although they admit that negotiations have advanced. 

The mayor of Caldes de Malavella, Sergi Mir, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that — pending official confirmation from the organization and Spanish and Catalan governments — the fact that the town will be hosting the event in 2031 is “great news.” The international tournament would generate “many other events around it,” bring “quality tourism” and put Caldes “on the world golf map.”

An economic impact of over €1 billion and the arrival of around 300,000 visitors is estimated for the event. 

Mir recalled that the event was held in Paris in 2018 and Rome in 2023. 

“Therefore, being able to say that Caldes is positioned alongside these two great European capitals is very important,” he said. “And what I want as mayor is also for the town to make the Ryder Cup its own, the events associated with the tournament, and to get the most benefit and profit from it.”

Previous Controversy

In past years, work had been done to host the competition, but the Catalan government halted it in 2023, rejecting the urban planning modification, which included the construction of a third golf course, as well as 12,000 square meters of tourist accommodations.

The tournament’s director, Guy Kinnings, said he was open to adapting the resort’s two existing courses. In a letter in summer of 2023, Kinnings urged the government to reconsider its decision to avoid the event going someplace else. All despite the Spanish government had already backed the project.

Associations and parties such as the Naturalists Association of Girona were opposed to the possible construction of a third course, citing that expanding the facilities would destroy “more than 200 hectares of protected forest and agricultural land” and is incompatible “with the climate emergency and the global consequences of luxury tourism.”

When asked about potential future developments, Mir stated that he is “convinced” that everything will be done “with enormous respect for the environmental and urban planning regulations that pertain to an event of this kind.”