Take slice of Ryder Cup, says RBS

GOLF clubs and professionals are to receive free business advice to help them make the most of the wave of interest in the sport generated by the Ryder Cup being held in Scotland next year.

Paul McGinley captains the European team in the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. Picture: Getty

Royal Bank of Scotland, which will provide banking facilities for the event’s estimated 100,000 spectators, is to offer seminars for clubs, as well as one-to-one advice from relationship managers.

Seminars will take place in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth, while a final “webinar” will remain on the internet and will be accessible to everyone.

The Ryder Cup, which is being held at Gleneagles in exactly a year’s time, is forecast to bring £100 million into the Scottish economy thanks to the enormous publicity surrounding the biennial tournament between America and Europe.

RBS will unveil its business support programme at the “Year to Go” event tomorrow, which will see cup captains Paul McGinley and Tom Watson sharing their plans for the tournament.

Chris Sullivan, head of RBS’s corporate banking division, said that part of the bank’s role was to help the business community, and the seminars would prepare golf clubs for the likely surge in interest from the general public.

“There will be more interest in golf and we need people to use that [to build their businesses],” he said.

“There’s plenty of money to lend, so I’m telling managers to get out there and find people who need it and will have a good chance of paying it back.”