Ahead of the 15th edition of the ISPS Handa Wales Open, the Chief Executive of The European Tour, George O’Grady, has paid tribute to Sir Terry Matthews, the owner and chairman of this week’s host venue, The Celtic Manor Resort.
At a lavish gala dinner held on Tuesday night, Sir Terry revealed that the resort – which four years ago staged one of the most thrilling Ryder Cups in living memory – will undergo significant expansion over the next two years, with the addition of a vast convention centre amongst other improvements.
This week’s ISPS Handa Wales Open, which features one of the strongest fields in the history of the £1.8million tournament, will therefore be the last held at Celtic Manor until that expansion project has been completed.
But with both The European Tour and Sir Terry keen to continue a relationship which began in 2000 with the inaugural Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open, and was cemented with that most memorable of Ryder Cups in 2010, it is likely that the Tour will return to the Usk Valley in the near future.
O’Grady said: “On behalf of everyone connected with The European Tour and Ryder Cup Europe, I would like to thank Sir Terry for his total commitment firstly to The 2010 Ryder Cup, and also to the 15 editions of the Wales Open. His vision in helping to develop golf in Wales and open the eyes of the world to Wales as a business, tourist, and golfing destination is highly commendable.
“We also applaud Sir Terry’s plans to develop The Celtic Manor Resort as a futuristic convention centre, and are delighted that we will continue our dialogue to bring The European Tour and tournament golf back to this spectacular venue in the near future, when his plans are fully realised.
“Sir Terry and his team, with the total support of the First Minister and the Welsh Assembly and everyone in Newport, have totally delivered on all their promises and have been such a pleasure to work with. The European Tour looks forward to returning as soon as possible.”
For his part, Sir Terry was rightly proud of the manner in which The Celtic Manor Resort had changed the golfing landscape by putting Wales firmly on the map.
He said: “We made a huge commitment to bringing The Ryder Cup to Wales, and it was a privilege to realise that dream. One of those commitments was building the Twenty Ten Course and building this clubhouse you see here. We’ve got great golfing facilities here – there aren’t too many venues in the world with three championship golf courses. We’ve now had the Wales Open here for 15 years, and the changes that have been made to the resort in that time are incredible.
“What can we say about that Ryder Cup? It was the longest ever, it was a world famous event and it put Wales on the map. People all over the world know where Wales is now – they didn’t before. If I go to Australia or China, and believe me I do, they all know about the Celtic Manor. So we met the commitments we made, and had a lot of fun in the process.
“But in my life, nothing is ever finished – it’s always a work in progress, so we are progressing. The excitement certainly hasn’t finished – not by a long shot. A lot of people say, what next? You had The Ryder Cup in 2010, the Nato World Summit last week, but what next? If you think the excitement and the enjoyment has ended, it most definitely has not.”
