The man who brought the Ryder Cup to the land of his birth hasn't played more than a dozen rounds of golf in his life.
''Mostly because it takes four hours to go round. And this place,'' Welsh billionaire Sir Terry Matthews said with a sweep of his arm, ''would take me a month or better.''
The Twenty Ten course, one of three on the grounds of the Celtic Manor Resort that Matthews began work on nearly 30 years ago, is a state-of-the-art layout with an old soul. Located just a 10-minute drive from the Roman ruins at Careleon, the Twenty Ten has set a standard that future Ryder Cup hosts will struggle to match.
Matthews, who made his fortune in the electronics business, had renowned architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., design the course and then brought in the European Tour's design team to look after the details. From the intricate drainage system underground to the steeply sculpted hillsides that afford viewers the same panorama whether they're standing alongside the fairway or dining in a corporate hospitality tent, no detail went unexamined.
''We started with a clean sheet of paper. At the last Ryder Cup at Valhalla, they had 49 parking spaces for buses. We've got 140 and we're sitting between the main arteries to two of the largest cities in the United Kingdom, so people can come in here just ahead of tee time and leave almost as soon as it ends.
''And yet,'' he added, ''because we're sitting in a valley, you can't even pick up the road noise.''
Matthews estimated he spent an additional $50 million preparing the facility for the matches, including construction of a 100-meter (330-foot) suspension bridge across the River Usk so players can reach the practice area.
''That was really not the smartest use of funds,'' he laughed. ''So while not everything was a business decision through and through, make no mistake - that's what's driving just about everything. ...
''It's about the brand. If I go to Beijing or Delhi, Sydney, Singapore or Johannesburg, they all know about the Ryder Cup. It's one of the most important sporting events on the planet. And because of that, people now know about Celtic Manor.''
