Stepping onto the first tee I can’t help but be reminded of the Ryder Cup especially as the hoardings around the first tee are still in place and with the crowd roaring in my imagination I take the tiger line down the left and just clear the bunkers.
It is early May and the course is in immaculate condition, they certainly know how to sculpture and present the course. The first plays down wind and I only have a wedge in. The greens are firm and its one pitch and through the back but I make the up and down for par and walk to the second all square! Yes, if you are European its match play all the way, if you are playing alone you have an imaginary opponent be it Rickie Fowler Hunter Mahan, my opponent for the day – oh yes it's that match!!
The fifth is a beautiful little dogleg right that has a little brook protecting the front of the green and the small white cottage in the background to the left of the green adds the right amount of charm to proceedings.
The sixth holes brings you down onto the original course but this track has come a long way since it was the Wentwood Hills and this risk and reward par 4 has Ryder Cup match-play written all over it.
The back nine starts with a 210-yard, par 3 from the back tees and starts a run of holes that are both memorable – because of that final day coming to mind – but with water coming into play from the 11th to the 15th holes position and strategy are the keys. The 15th is memorable because it’s the hole that a lot of the professionals tried to drive during the Ryder Cup and successive Welsh Open championships – there is talk about moving the tee lower but I think this would be a big mistake, I believe it would be wiser to cut the grass to speed up play.
What can I say about the 16th and 17th holes that has not already been said before, in a European’s golfer's eye they will always be known as the McDowell holes and as I get to the green I am already looking to see the spot where THAT putt started. The 17th where the cup was won and those memories of the players being engulfed bring a smile to my face.
The 18th brings the whole course to a fitting finale and to see Nicholas Colsaerts plaque at 445-yards for his drive brings memories of that Welsh Open flooding back. The 2010 course at Celtic Manor isn’t just a game of golf it’s a pilgrimage, it is about walking in the same footsteps as your heros on that rained sodden weekend back in October 2010. As I hole my putt on the 18th – an up and down from the back bunker – I salute the imaginary crowd on the balcony, you can’t buy those memories, but you can certainly relive them again and I am glad I had the opportunity to do so.
