Turkey has withdrawn its bid to host the 2022 Ryder Cup citing environmental concerns as it would require cutting down between 6,000 and 15,000 trees.
Turkey was among seven European Continental nations vying to host the biennial event and had nominated the Montgomerie Maxx Royal -- the course and venue for this week's Turkish Airlines Open.
However Turkey, who notified the European Tour late last week of its decision, will now focus on building a new golf course, and without any environmental concerns, in a move that could see the country bid for the staging of the 2026 Ryder Cup.
"Unfortunately the problem of hosting the Ryder Cup in 2022 is that the Montgomerie course is a resort course and not designed for a big scale golf tournament like a Ryder Cup or even a Turkish Airlines Open," said Ahmet Agaoglu, President of the Turkish Golf Federation.
"If you notice there is not one grandstand on the golf course this week and there is just no place for them due to the enormous amount of trees.
"We have calculated we would have to cut down 6,000 to 7,000 trees and something like 15,000 trees on the Faldo Course just to make way for everything that goes with hosting a Ryder Cup.
"All the trees are numbered and licensed and environmentally it would be impossible to get permission to cut them down.
"Turkey is now a member of the G20 nations and the country is very sensitive about environmental issues, so we consider ourselves a developed country."
Agaoglu will be looking to avoid a repeat of the protests two years ago when Istanbul witnessed huge demonstrations when some 2.7 million trees were felled to make way for a new Istanbul Airport and a third Bosphorus Bridge.
"We estimate the Ryder Cup will cost Turkey between 100-200 million euros to host and we have shown our commitment to big tournament golf with the hosting again this week of the Turkish Airlines Open," added Agaoglu.
"One way or another we will be hosting the European Tour's Final Four Series until 2023 that will be the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.
"That gives us another nine years and along with the Challenge Tour event, we are already going to spend something like 70-85 million euros on these tournaments.
"So together with this continued investment and the new Ryder Cup course we will build, that will cost an extra 30-40 million euros, it will show our commitment to European golf."
Turkey's withdrawal from the 2022 Ryder Cup contention leaves six contenders – Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Source: AFP