A few tweaks for 2010 Ryder Cup host

I posted a link to a wire story about this yesterday via our Twitter account (@GCM_Magazine), but when a press release about this hit my in-box this morning, I decided to bring it to the broader world of the blog: Celtic Manor in Wales, which will play host to this year's Ryder Cup competition, is getting a few tweaks in advance of the event.

Most of those tweaks are being made in consultation with Colin Montgomerie, the captain of the European team this year. And one of our own, GCSAA member Jim McKenzie (pictured right with Montgomerie), is right in the middle of it all as the director of golf courses at Celtic Manor.

Here's the official release, courtesy of our friends at Buffalo Communications:

Celtic Manor Wales Open to Provide Rigorous Dress Rehearsal for 2010 Ryder Cup

Updates to Twenty Ten Course Include Improvements to Bunkers, Rough and Greens

(NEWPORT, Wales) -- The Celtic Manor Resort -- host of golf's 2010 Ryder Cup and premier luxury retreat less than two hours outside London -- announces the PGA European Tour's Celtic Manor Wales Open (June 3-6) will provide a final opportunity for leading professionals to experience its Twenty Ten Course under tournament conditions before October's Ryder Cup.

European captain Colin Montgomerie has directed a substantial improvement program over the winter, including changes to bunkers, rough and greens. 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 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, 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," says McKenzie.


"The greens will also be a lot firmer which is something we've been working toward 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 from McKenzie and his team and has been scooping out a huge swale to the left of the 11th green, increasing the chance of misdirected shots 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," adds 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-5, 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 on holes 7, 10, 12, 13, 15 and 18. Drainage in these and other bunkers has also been improved."


Europe's Ryder Cup Director Richard Hills says: "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 offers spectators the chance to enjoy family attractions in the tented village and provides great value for a full-day outing.
 
Past champions of the Celtic Manor Wales Open include Ryder Cup stars Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Ian Poulter, Paul McGinley and Paul Lawrie.
 
For more information or tickets, visit www.walesopen.com.