One of the most significant aspects of the agreement for hosting the Ryder Cup 2031 at the Camiral Golf course in Caldes de Malavella is the organisation of a DP World Tour tournament over the next five years in Catalonia. The first edition will take place next year and the last, at least for now, in 2030, just one year before the great showdown between the United States and Europe.
The tournament will be named the Estrella Damm Cataluña Championship and will be played in the three years leading up to the Ryder Cup at the Camiral Golf course, on the same design where the Ryder Cup will be held in 2031. As Ten Golf has already reported, this new course will be a composite, a mix of the Stadium course and the Tour course, the two 36-hole courses currently available at the Girona resort. Therefore, it will be played there during the years 2028, 2029, and 2030. The reason the first two editions of this tournament, inheriting from the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters, will not be played there is that two and a half years are needed for the construction of the mentioned Ryder course at Camiral Golf.
What remained to be known is where the first two editions will be held and the date. For now, according to Ten Golf, the tournament will be played in 2026 at the Real Club de Golf El Prat in Barcelona, with the chosen date being the second week of May. Initially, unless the current agreement changes, it will be the week of this year’s Turkish Airlines Open, from 7 to 10 May next year. It will therefore be played between the Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship. Specifically, it will be the week before the second Major of the season. The idea was to place it in the calendar in autumn, in October, but for now, it will remain in May due to the European Tour’s own needs. India took the Sotogrande date and its bid has been very strong, with a significant financial injection, an important prize fund, and the presence this year of a player like Rory McIlroy.
What is still uncertain is where and when the 2027 edition will be played. El Prat could repeat, although there are other courses that have also shown interest and stepped forward to be hosts. One of those showing the most interest is Infinitum Golf, in Tarragona, where the DP World Tour School’s grand final has been held in recent years and which has already hosted a European Tour tournament in the past. As for the date, there is also no definitive decision on whether it will remain in May or move to autumn, where the most important DP World Tour tournaments currently take place.
In any case, the news reported by Ten Golf is that the first Estrella Damm Cataluña Championship will be held from 7 to 10 May at El Prat. The prestigious Barcelona course has hosted a total of eleven different DP World Tour tournaments. The first was in 1978, a Spanish Open won by Brian Barnes, and the last was another Spanish Open in 2015, with the victory of the Englishman James Morrison. Among the winners at El Prat are Seve Ballesteros (twice) and José María Olazábal. They triumphed in the Benson & Hedges in 1981, Sanyo Open in 1985, and Sanyo Open in 1986, respectively.
