Nabil Hassan at the Celtic Manor
BBC Sport takes a sneak preview at the 2010 Ryder Cup course |
After some five years of work and �16m of expenditure, Celtic Manor's 2010 Ryder Cup course is finally ready for play.
On 4 July the new lay-out will be open to the playing public. Just a few months later in October will come the official launch, with clubhouse and other facilities also set for completion.
As expected with a project funded by billionaire Sir Terry Matthews, no expense has been spared in hosting golf's flagship event.
Around 50,000 spectators daily will be present when the finest from America battle against the cream of European talent.
When Celtic Manor was awarded the 2010 Ryder Cup, eyebrows were raised that Wales could host such an event.
But with the course complete, no-one can argue that Matthews and his team haven't done everything possible to provide the most spectator-friendly event, as well as a true test of golf.
Gone are the tortuous uphill final stages of the Wentwood Hills course, and in come the redesigned and rebuilt holes that make up the new Ryder Cup range.
"The new holes have been designed not only with the players in mind, but also with the consideration of the spectators that will circulate around them in their thousands," said Celtic Manor PR manager Paul Williams.
With sand imported from America and grass grown at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth, every last detail has been thought of and executed to deliver a successful Ryder Cup.
The new course will be a par-71, measuring 7,493 yards, with nine new holes - the 1st to the 5th, and the 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th.
Also, nine holes from the former Wentwood Hills course have been extensively remodelled - the 6th to the 13th and the 15th.
The course has no fewer than six "signature holes" - the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 14th, 15th and 18th - each featuring notable water hazards.
 The 14th should prove one of the most challenging holes |
Most striking is the sight that confronts golfers on the 14th. A par-four at 421 yards, long hitters will be tempted to carry the entire length of the lake to the right - a risky shot for any golfer - to leave a straightforward short iron or wedge into the green. More conservative players may opt for the safety-first approach of laying up in the middle of the unguarded fairway, before attacking the narrow green from a more awkward angle across the second stretch of water to the left.
It is one of a number of holes that have been designed with the four-ball at the Ryder Cup in mind.
Anyone who played Wentwood Hills will appreciate the amount of effort that has gone into producing the new course.
But what exactly went into it?
The project necessitated the movement of more than 800,000 cubic metres of earth and rock, weighing in excess of 1.1m tonnes The new holes, along with the new driving range and practice greens, cover no less that 120 acres of land alongside the River Usk Over 15 miles of underground drainage has been laid to ensure that the course is maintained to the highest possible specification Over two miles of buggy paths have been laid out to ensure that the course is highly accessible to the Ryder Cup captains A new access road is being constructed for the new clubhouse At the peak of construction in the summer of 2005, there were 110 people working on the site Most impressive, though, is not the stern test that this course will undoubtedly provide but the intense atmosphere that will be produced on the closing holes.
At 16, 17 and 18 spectators will, for the first time in Ryder Cup history, be able to see the action as it unfolds from banked arenas. They will provide a cauldron of noise the likes of which will not have been heard at a Ryder Cup before.
Many will argue that the Celtic Manor lacks the Ryder Cup tradition of the Belfry or the beauty of Valderrama, but what it lacks in history it makes up for in planning. And boy has some planning gone in to hosting the 2010 Ryder Cup.
Matthews talked of a vision, a vision which many doubted he could deliver.
But just a few years on, he has delivered a course that will do the history of the Ryder Cup proud.
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