Celtic Manor Wales Open in earlier time slot
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2003 The Celtic Manor Resort Wales Open | Preview | 28 May 2003
The European Tour heads to Newport in Wales this week for the fourth staging of the Celtic Manor Wales Open.
Celtic Manor Resort Wentwood Hills was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr, his father having played a role in the design of the first course on the resort, the Roman Road course.
The course opened in 1999 and has played host to this event in subsequent years. In 2001 it was named as the venue for the 2010 Ryder Cup reflecting the regard in which it is already held just four years after opening. It is interesting to note, however, that considerable course changes are again planned for the Ryder Cup. It currently measures 7400 yards (6750 metres) and the greens are sown in Providence Creeping Bent and IGER-bred ryegrass varieties on the fairways and tees.
In the three stagings of the event to date the winners have been Steen Tinning, Paul McGinley and Paul Lawrie. The event has been played later in the year around August the last two years so this is quite a schedule change for the tournament.
Colin Montgomerie heads the list of players lining up this week along with Michael Campbell, staying on in Europe after an unsuccessful stint in the US. Locals Bradley Dredge, Ian Woosnam and Philip Price are there as are Ricardo Gonzalez, Mathias Gronberg and last week’s winner Ignacio Garrido.
Australasians entered at this stage are Campbell, Richard Green, Nick O’Hern, Jarrod Moseley, Peter Fowler, Stephen Scahill, Terry Price and Lucas Parsons.
The event is worth just over 2 million euros with a first prize of 350,000 euros.
