“If you build it, he will come.”

Those famous whispered words inspired Kevin Costner’s farmer character in the film Field of Dreams to turn a cornfield in rural Iowa into a baseball field.

But can a similar dream come true in Bolton, where there are ambitious plans to host one of golf’s most prestigious events, the Ryder Cup?

The Ryder Cup, held every two years, is the biggest team prize in a sport dominated by individualism.

Over the course of three days, it sees the best golfers from Europe take on the cream of the United States crop.

The two continents take it in turns to host the event, with highly partisan fans making the atmosphere more like what you would encounter at a football World Cup.

While crowds do flock to major golf tournaments like The Open, they rarely capture the public imagination as much as the Ryder Cup does.

Maybe it is easier to support a team rather than an individual. Deafening chants of “U-S-A” and “Olé, Olé, Olé” would suggest so.

Some golfing traditionalists may bristle at rowdy crowds cheering whenever an opposing team’s golfer misses a simple putt or slices a tee shot into the water.

But it certainly makes for captivating television.

It is why the 1991 Ryder Cup, held at Kiawah Island in South Carolina, will forever be known as The War on the Shore.

Golfers, so used to competing only for themselves, are honoured to represent their country or continent.

For a few days at least, they are turned into team-mates.

Friendships are forged, sporting reputations are enhanced or destroyed.

It all began with a golf-mad seed merchant from St Albans in Hertfordshire.

Attending a qualifying tournament ahead of the 1926 Open Championship, Samuel Ryder was dismayed to see American and British golfers standing apart from each other.

In an attempt to inject a touch of friendly rivalry, he set up a competition between the two factions.

A prize fund of £5 (worth a staggering £259 in today’s money) for the winning team was offered, along with a post-tournament buffet of champagne and chicken sandwiches.

Possibly encouraged by Britain’s victory, Scotsman George Duncan suggested making it a regular event… and so it began.

The first official Ryder Cup was played the following year, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Possibly still recovering from their week-long passage across the Atlantic, the Great Britain and Ireland team were thrashed by their American hosts.

Decades of US domination ensued.

One-sided sporting competitions are not a great way to tempt the crowds, though, and so in 1979 Team Great Britain and Ireland became Team Europe.

In the years that followed, the Ryder Cup became a real contest.

Fans on both sides of the Atlantic were increasingly hooked as great European players like Spain’s Seve Ballesteros and Germany’s Bernard Langer became household names.

Bolton wants to transform currently undeveloped parkland on the outskirts of the town into a world-class golf course capable of hosting the Ryder Cup when it is next played in England.

Its bid for the 2035 event has been put together by developers Peel Land and supported by both Bolton Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Peel Land has planning permission for the £240m project to build a golf complex and more than 1,000 new homes on mainly green belt land at Hulton Park, near Westhoughton.

The park forms part of an estate owned for more than 700 years by the Hulton dynasty. After falling into neglect, it was bought by Peel in 2010.

It believes its plans would ultimately benefit the region’s economy by £1.6bn and create an international venue capable of hosting a wide range of events.

Peel argues that hundreds of jobs would be generated.

Bolton Council initially approved development plans for Hulton Park in 2018, despite hundreds of objections.

In 2020, the government said it could go ahead if the proposed golf course won a bid to host the Ryder Cup in either 2031 or 2035.

With a Spanish resort landing the former event, Bolton’s hopes now rest upon 2035.

While the Ryder Cup was historically played in England every four years, the country has not hosted it since 2002, when golf fans flocked to The Belfry in the West Midlands.

Subsequent European editions have taken place at courses across the continent.

There is a strong expectation in the golfing community that a course in England will be granted the honour of hosting the 2035 Ryder Cup.

But as a member of Bolton Council’s planning committee points out, there is “no guarantee” that it will be played in England, let alone in the Greater Manchester town.

Councillor Debbie Newall said: “There’s nothing been said that assures me that the Ryder Cup is coming to Hulton.

“It isn’t. We’re on a shortlist of three but there’s no guarantee that it’s even coming to this country.

“The whole Ryder Cup thing, in my opinion, has been a red herring from start to finish.”

For the last seven years, there has also been sustained opposition to any development of the Hulton Park estate from many nearby residents.

Planning permission, originally rejected by Bolton Council, was only granted after two Planning Inspectorate inquiries.

Richard Knight, on behalf of Peel Land, said a decision about who would host the 2035 Ryder Cup was not expected “until next year at the very earliest”.

At a recent council planning meeting, he said: “We remain shortlisted by UK Sport and Ryder Cup Europe, and an update… from UK Sport officials confirms that the selection process in now moving forward again.”

According to Golf Monthly magazine, the Ryder Cup is jointly administered by the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe, with each organisation taking it in turns to pick host venues.

The magazine said Ryder Cup Europe was 60% owned by the PGA European Tour, with the PGA of Great Britain & Ireland and the PGAs of Europe each having a 20% stake.

When it comes to choosing host venues, Golf Monthly said five main factors were considered:

• If the venue is a world-class golf facility
• If the venue has requisite infrastructure suitable for staging an international event
• If the host country has demonstrable support from its government, golfing community and private sector
• Available commercial opportunities
• The country’s contribution made to the development of golf

Leaving aside the possibility of bids from across the continent, Bolton’s domestic rivals are thought to include the London Golf Club and the Luton Hoo resort in Bedfordshire.

Perhaps Bolton needs to reverse that Field of Dreams quote.

We will build it, but only if they come…

Additional reporting by Chris Gee, Local Democracy Reporting Service