Ryder Cup to be held Rome for first time in 2022

Rome will host the Ryder Cup for the first time after Italy beat rival bids from Austria, Germany and Spain to host the major golfing event in 2022.

The biennial men's golf competition features teams from Europe and the US, with the venue alternating between both continents every two years.

The 44th edition of the Ryder Cup will be hosted at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Guidonia area, located near Tivoli around 25km northeast of the capital. The course, which hosted the 1994 Italian Open, will be completely renovated for the Ryder Cup.

The reconstruction of the course is expected to form part of Italy's bid for the 2024 Olympics, whose logo of the Colosseum in the colours of the Italian flag was unveiled on 14 December in Rome.

The Italian capital is competing against Paris, Los Angeles and Budapest, and the winning host city will be selected by the International Olympic Committee in September 2017.

Golf returns to the Olympics next year in Rio de Janeiro, featuring the men's and women's individual events, after an absence from the games since 1904.

Golf commentators believe that a decisive factor in Italy's successful bid for the Ryder Cup was its pledge to boost the Italian Open to a €7million tournament for 11 years from 2017. In the meantime the current €1.5 million prize fund for the Italian Open will increase to at least €3 million in 2016.

This will be the third time that the Ryder Cup takes place in continental Europe, after Valderrama in southern Spain in 1997, and the 2018 edition scheduled for Le Golf National in Paris.