France Get The Ryder Cup – Golf USB Flash Drive to the Fore

Well that was a bit of a surprise. The bookies favourite to secure the rights to host the 2018 Ryder Cup was Spain but Le Golf National course, near Paris, was chosen ahead of Spain and other strong bids from, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands.

USB golfbag

For France it’s the first time they will have hosted the biennial Europe versus United States match. Surprisingly it’s only the second time the match has been played in mainland Europe.

"France's bid was exceptional. They have a first-class tournament venue already built," said European Tour chief executive George O'Grady.

Whilst it may have come as a surprise there was plenty of support for the French bid not least from registered club golfers in France who each donated 1 euro to the bid process and the French government who got behind the bid.

Le Golf National is a widely recognised as an outstanding golf course that provides excellent spectator viewing and the promise of exciting climaxes to the matches. The course is comparable with a links course with plenty of challenges across water to test the players and to keep the supporters engaged. Congratulations to France and bring on 2018!

Like any major sporting event the Ryder Cup will generate a huge amount of interest from sponsors, corporate hosts and equipment manufacturers who will be vying to get the maximum exposure for their company, brand or products. Outside of the usual media opportunities this typically manifests itself in a wide range of promotional products

USB Golf Ball

including golf umbrellas, caps, t-shits, mugs and other branded golf attire and equipment.

Will we see promotional USB flash drives take a bigger slice of the spend associated with the 2018 Ryder Cup? Well, given massive surge in interest in USB flash drives lately and given how easy it is to produce them in custom shapes like golf balls and golf bags the answer is most definitely “yes”.

USB flash drives can of course be pre-loaded with lots of product brochures, sales brochures, movie clips and audio files – it’s not unreasonable to think that a promotional USB flash drive could be pre-loaded with a  “fly-thorough” of each hole on the Le Golf National Course, with commentary from a gold player or pundit, movie clips from previous Ryder cups and details of the product or service they are promoting.

Flash drives branded up with the Ryder cup decals, manufactured in the shape of a relevant piece of golf equipment and loaded with golf memorabilia are likely to prove popular but more fundamentally will help drive business/loyalty for the brand associated with it.