Ireland looking to Ryder Cup legacy

How do you follow that? Quite simply, you don't.

It's an impossible ask to replicate the success that the 36th Ryder Cup at The K Club was in every single facet, but somehow those involved in promoting Ireland as a golf destination - both for tourism but especially for future tournaments - must attempt to maintain the momentum, the current buzz-word in golf, generated by this match.

Sure, the obvious thing is to play host to another Ryder Cup. After an overdue wait to stage it a first time, Ireland proved to be up to the demands. But, as far as staging it again in the short term, that is just not possible.

The 2010 Ryder Cup match will be played at Celtic Manor in Wales where, wise men that they are, the Welsh tourism authorities have all but copied the Irish blueprint in bringing their message to the world and ensuring that their staging is as successful as last week's.

After that, the 2014 match will be held at Gleneagles in Scotland, which means the next available time slot will be in 2018.

However, that match will most likely be staged in either France (the favourites, who have adopted the same approach of Dr Michael Smurfit at the K Club by elevating the French Open to a huge tournament in financial terms in their efforts to win the match for Paris National) or Sweden, with the losing bid country most likely getting to stage the match in 2022.

The likelihood after that is the Ryder Cup will return to England, which last played host at The Belfry in 2002, all of which means that the next genuinely free date won't be until 2030, at the earliest; and that's a long, long time away and so far into the future that it cannot possibly be part of any immediate plan to follow-up on the all-round success, despite the weather, of the 2006 Ryder Cup.

So, what other avenues are available to Ireland in terms of attracting other international golf championships? The next all-out attack will be to try to win the bid for the 2011 Solheim Cup, the women's equivalent of the Ryder Cup.

It is the only major team event that has yet to be held in Ireland, and there are two separate bids submitted - one from Lough Erne in Fermanagh and another from Killeen Castle in Meath - to play host to the match in five years time.

Although there are two Irish bids submitted, five other countries - Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and England - have also made submissions to play host to an event. Ireland, though, are up against it in attempting to win the bid. The favourites are England, who have never played host to the Solheim Cup.

If Ireland don't win the Solheim Cup bid for 2011, it means that the next available date will be in 2014 - again, too far down the line to be part of the momentum effect from The K Club.

All of which leaves regular tournaments on the PGA European Tour, or World Golf Championship events. In a team context, the World Cup of Golf would probably be the most attractive.

However, given its traditional date in November/December after the European Tour and US Tour have effectively come to a grind, it is not a time in the calendar that would suit Ireland.

Ireland has already played host to two American Express championships, at Mount Juliet in 2002 and 2004, and staging it again is definitely a possibility.

As far as regular European Tour events go, there is a contract in place for the Smurfit Kappa European Open to be held up to 2014 which ensures that one of the tour's flagship events will be staged here for the best part of a decade to come.

But the tournament most in need of benefiting from the momentum of the Ryder Cup is the Irish Open. The tournament will be staged at Adare Manor in Limerick for the next three years but, as things stand, there is still no title sponsor on board and, if it is to regain its place as one of the most sought after titles on the European Tour, one suspects that a serious cash injection in upping the prize fund will be required.

The Ryder Cup may have left a legacy, but it has also left a big gap to fill.