Celtic Manor changes on course

FINAL changes to the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor for this year's Ryder Cup are currently being made by Jim McKenzie, the Scot in charge of the courses at the Newport venue.

"We lost several days in our planned maintenance programme when snow covered the course for days at a time during January and February, but we've been working hard and putting in extra man hours to recover that lost time over the last few weeks," said McKenzie, the director of golf courses at Celtic Manor.

"We've been putting in the course refinements discussed with Colin Montgomerie and Ryder Cup Europe, most notably adding a greenside swale to the left of the 11th green, which also involved remodelling the greenside bunkers. Further remodelling work has also been done on a number of other bunkers around the course as well as making significant improvements to drainage within the bunkers.

"We've got a busy couple of months ahead preparing for The Celtic Manor Wales Open and we will continue to work closely with Colin and Ryder Cup Europe on some of the smaller refinements they will want to make to the course ahead of The Ryder Cup. It will be a busy summer but everything's on track."

A second ticket ballot will remain open until mid-April and can be accessed through the official Ryder Cup website, www.rydercup.com/tickets