Nicklaus keeps Gleneagles on course for cup

FINAL tweaks to the PGA Centenary Course ahead of the 2014 Ryder Cup, including an eagerly-awaited decision on the much-criticised closing hole, will be on the agenda when Jack Nicklaus pays a visit to Gleneagles in the next few weeks, writes Martin Dempster.

The man who designed the course, originally known as the Monarch's when it opened in 1993, was unhappy about changes being made to it by another architect, Scot David McLay Kidd, without consultation with him.

Bosses at the Perthshire resort then agreed it was the "right thing" to get the 18-time major winner back on board.

Alterations suggested by Nicklaus on his last visit have already been made and now Bernard Murphy, the Gleneagles general manager, and his team are waiting to get the views of the American again before deciding on what is still needed to be done ahead of the first Ryder Cup to be held in Scotland for more than 40 years.

"We are due a visit from Jack in the next month or so and we are hoping at that time to really bottom it out as we hope that by the first week of May next year the course will open with all the changes already made," Murphy told Scotland on Sunday at the opening of the resort's Dormy Clubhouse following a 3 million revamp.

"He last came a couple of years ago and that's what has given rise to a set of plans that we do have, such as the changes we made in the winter to the seventh green. There are also plans to change the tee composition on the 10th because it doesn't quite work for the spectators at the moment. But there are a couple of areas where we have still to decide between a couple of options.

"From the previous visit (by Nicklaus] we have a set of detailed plans for each of the holes and he is going to take the time out to go around the course and oversee any fine-tuning of those plans."

While Murphy played down one suggestion that the routing of the holes could be changed for the match in three years' time, he acknowledged an important decision still to be made involved the 18th, which many people believe is not in keeping with the dramatic closing holes in recent Ryder Cups.

"There are a couple of proposals doing the rounds at the moment but I am not really able to say where that will land," added Murphy. "We are not thinking along the lines of a total revamp, Jack didn't feel that it needed that. "There is a bit of debate about whether it should be a very long par-4 or play as a par-5, as it is today."