The Celtic Manor is a hotel and resort in the city of Newport. It is the venue of the 2010 Ryder Cup - the first time the cup has been played in Wales.
The resort is a golf and country club and a hotel in an inland rural location characterised by rolling countryside. It developed around a Victorian country house which had served as a maternity hospital for much of the 20th century and was opened as a seventeen bedroom hotel in 1982. The first golf course was opened in 1995 and the golf facilities have been expanded several times. The hotel has developed into a 400 bedroom spa and conference centre. It is owned by Terry Matthews.
As of 2005 the resort has three golf courses:
- Wentwood Hills (opened 1999): The regular venue for the Celtic Manor Wales Open , on the PGA European Tour.
- Roman Road (opened 1995): Another championship course which will host the Wales Open during expansion work to reconfigure Wentwood Hills for the Ryder Cup.
- Coldra Woods Academy Course (opened 1996): A par 59 practice and teaching course.
Wentwood Hills is being remodelled for the Ryder Cup, making the new version effectively the first course to be purpose built for the tournament. The new course will comprise nine of the existing holes and nine new ones. The layout is intended to allow large galleries to conveniently follow the small number of concurrent matches which are played during the Ryder Cup. The course will have only one fairway crossing, and there will be open views of the sixteenth, seventeeth and eighteenth holes, which will be situated in an ampitheatre. The spectator capacity will be 50,000.
External link
Official site