The Celtic Manor Wales Open steps up another level this year as Europe’s leading golfers get one last chance to prove themselves on the stage for The 2010 Ryder Cup.
As the contenders for Europe’s Ryder Cup team seek to impress skipper Colin Montgomerie, the £1.8million tournament will also provide a final dress rehearsal for The Twenty Ten Course which promises to provide so much drama in The Ryder Cup.
Under Montgomerie’s instructions, the course has undergone a substantial improvement programme over the winter and it will be the toughest layout ever set up in the decade-long history of The Celtic Manor Wales Open.
Purpose built for the team match play excitement generated by The Ryder Cup, the course features water on six of the last eight holes and is poised to produce a thrilling climax when the eyes of the golfing world are trained upon it in October.
Before then, The Twenty Ten hosts its third Celtic Manor Wales Open from June 3-6, having won some rave reviews from Ryder Cup stars and other leading players on the European Tour when it staged the event in 2008 and 2009.
One such enthusiast, European captain Montgomerie, has been working closely with Celtic Manor’s Director of Golf Courses, Jim McKenzie, to implement some final tweaks to the layout.
“We’ve deepened a number of bunkers with larger faces and the rough will certainly be consistently thicker than it has been in previous years,” said McKenzie.
“The greens will also be a lot firmer which is something we’ve been working towards since the course opened in 2007 and which has always been a high priority for Colin Montgomerie. It means only properly struck iron shots will be rewarded by stopping quickly on the greens.
“The course has now had the benefit of a few years of growing in and I’m confident it’s the toughest, but fairest, golf course we’ve seen for the Celtic Manor Wales Open.”
The biggest single revision has seen McKenzie and his team scoop out a huge swale to the left of the 11th green, increasing the chance of shots misdirected that way finding the lake or leaving a tricky tight lie from which to get up and down.
“I think it will be a huge advantage for Colin to see the refinements that he has recommended in tournament play before the Ryder Cup,” added McKenzie, former head greenkeeeper at the West Course at Wentworth.
“The most notable change to the landscape of the golf course is the new swale spilling off the left of the 11th. It’s made the green a much narrower target, as it should be for a reachable par-five, and will leave players with their hearts in their mouths if they pull their approach shots that way.
“The remedial work has also seen us remodel the greenside bunkers with larger faces and similar bunker reshaping has also been done on holes 7, 10, 12, 13, 15 and 18. Drainage in these and other bunkers has also been improved.”
Jeppe Huldahl’s winning score in last year’s Celtic Manor Wales Open was a modest nine under par, as The Twenty Ten Course showed what a fearsome test it was going to provide under the pressure cooker atmosphere of The Ryder Cup.
It promises to provide an even sterner examination this June as many of Europe’s Ryder Cup stars and hopefuls gather to learn the layout and seek to catch the eye of Montgomerie.
Europe’s Ryder Cup Director Richard Hills said: “We are delighted with the superb progress made on the Twenty Ten Course by Jim McKenzie and his team, in consultation with Colin Montgomerie, ahead of The Celtic Manor Wales Open in June and The Ryder Cup later in the year.
“This is the 11th Wales Open and the third to be played on The Twenty Ten Course and spectators will again enjoy the great viewing opportunities that this excellent golf course offers.”
As well as top class sporting action at one of the European Tour’s leading events, The Celtic Manor Wales Open also offers spectators the chance to enjoy family attractions in the tented village and provides a great value, full day out.
Past champions of The Celtic Manor Wales Open have included Ryder Cup stars Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Ian Poulter, Paul McGinley and Paul Lawrie.
Any European following in their footsteps this summer will not only have boosted their qualifying prospects to the tune of the £300,000 winner’s cheque, they will also have given Montgomerie the broadest possible hint at their ability to play the Ryder Cup layout.
