Ryder Cup: Scotland takes over as host for 2014 at Gleneagles

The Ryder Cup golf tournament has been officially handed over to Scotland.

First Minister Alex Salmond received the ceremonial silver putter which denotes Scotland taking over tournament preparations.

It was passed over at the 2012 closing ceremony at Medinah in Chicago, where Europe won after a record comeback.

The Ryder Cup, held at Gleneagles in 2014, is expected to inject £100m into the local and Scottish economy during the week of the tournament alone.

In a weekend of high drama in Chicago, Europe won eight of the 12 singles matches to stage a stunning comeback and beat the USA 14½-13½, retaining the Ryder Cup.

Alex Salmond received a ceremonial putter to mark the passing of the Ryder Cup venue

More than 250,000 spectators from around the world are expected to visit the Perthshire venue for the event.

The closing ceremony for this year's Ryder Cup in the US had a Scottish flavour to mark the return of the event to Scotland for the first time in about 40 years.

Classical violinist Nicola Benedetti and Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, lead vocalist in the animated film Brave, did a live show of Scottish music, performing a new collaboration of traditional Gaelic material before a speech by Mr Salmond who welcomed the world to Scotland in 2014.

Mr Salmond told BBC Scotland: "After the Olympics and the football World Cup, this is the biggest watched event on the planet and coming to Scotland, all this excitement, all this enthusiasm, this massive generation of atmosphere - you can feel and taste it now, it's going to be massive, huge, or, as they say in America, awesome."

Dr Mike Cantlay, chairman of VisitScotland, said: "The closing ceremony at Medinah marked the start of Scotland's reign as the host nation of The Ryder Cup and we are determined to take full advantage of that fact.

"The £100m boost the 2014 Ryder Cup will bring to the Scottish economy is obviously fantastic in its own right but we are working hard to make sure that Scottish golf and Scottish tourism will benefit from this magnificent tournament for years to come.

"There is no doubt 2014 will be a year unlike anything we've ever seen in Scotland, with the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup."

The Ryder Cup closing ceremony was watched in an estimated 500 million homes in 183 countries worldwide.

A video titled Scotland's Getting Ready was shown, which featured people playing golf at various Scottish landmarks.