Celtic Manor Resort

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The Celtic Manor Resort is a hotel and resort in the city of Newport, owned by Welsh/Canadian billionaire Sir Terry Matthews.

It is the venue of the 2010 Ryder Cup,marking the first time the Cup will be played in Wales.

1 Background
2 Development
3 Facilities
- 3.1 Wentwood Hills
4 References
5 External link

[edit] Background

The resort consists of a golf and country club and a hotel. The hotel is located on the south-facing side of Christchurch Hill in urban East Newport. The golf courses themselves extend over the ridge and down the north-facing side of the hill into the rural vale of River Usk, characterised by its rolling countryside.

[edit] Development

The resort developed around a Victorian country house which had served as a maternity hospital for much of the 20th century, and was where Sir Terry Matthews was born.

Matthews bought Celtic Manor in 1980, ploughing £100M into the project. Firstly the 19th century Manor House was renovated, while in 1991 plans were unveiled to develop two new golf courses and a convention centre between the manor and the River Usk. Matthews had become friends with golf course architect, the late Robert Trent Jones Snr, who's family roots were in Aberystwyth. Work began on the Roman Road course in 1992 - named after the main route connecting the fortress of Caerleon with the town of Caerwent which cross the land. In 1994 the £10m golf clubhouse, 400 bedroom spa and conference centre were started, as well as the 4,000-yard Coldra Woods course.

Matthews commented that: ""I think the resort can act as a magnet to draw new investment into Wales from across the UK and overseas. I did my best to put up a building that you can see from the West End of London and I didn't come far short of it!"^[1].

[edit] Facilities

As of 2006, the resort comprises:

A 330-bedroom, 32-suite luxury hotel
2 Presidential suites
1,500 delegate convention centre
Exhibition Hall
40 function rooms
4 restaurants
2 health clubs
16 treatment room spa
3 championship golf courses:

Wentwood Hills - opened in 1999. The regular venue for the Celtic Manor Wales Open, on the European Tour.
Roman Road - opened in 1994. Another championship course which will host the Wales Open during expansion work to reconfigure Wentwood Hills for the Ryder Cup.
Coldra Woods - an Academy Course opened in 1996. A par 59 practice and teaching course.

[edit] Wentwood Hills

Wentwood Hills is being remodelled for the 2010 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, seventeenth and eighteenth holes, which will be situated in an amphitheatre. The spectator capacity will be 50,000.