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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
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Ryder Cup comes to MSP
It's next weekend, to be held at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, about 20-25 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
At least one European team player arrived yesterday afternoon, through CLT so I assume it was AA or BA/AA. The American team was reported to have arrived into MSP last night around 9 pm.
The airport is expected to be extremely busy during the next week with about 60,000 people expected for the Ryder Cup. However, they claim they're prepared and will even use all TSA security lines.
The airport has a special PGA Lounge, which is said to be open to all. It looks nice on local TV news, but I can't determine where it's located. There are a bunch of simulated golf things, I think meant to represent holes on the Hazeltine course.
Hotels are also extremely full and expensive, with some ordinary rooms downtown selling for $800 per night. I'm guessing that restaurant reservations will be impossible and bars will be packed, especially downtown, around the airport, and in hotels in Edina, Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Richfield, etc.
Traffic is expected to be bad. There's a whole fleet of official vehicles parked at the Sheraton Bloomington along I-494 west of the airport. They're all matching
grey Mercedes cars and SUVs. Spectators will park elsewhere and take shuttles to the course, although some of these parking lots were flooded by heavy rains.
Allow lots of extra time or avoid MSP if you can until this is over.