Golf chiefs launch 2010 Ryder Cup countdown

THE organisers of the 2010 Ryder Cup confirmed preparations were under way for a successful tournament when the dates of the event were announced yesterday.

Europe and the USA will go head-to-head at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, South Wales, in the week beginning September 27 – two years after Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, hosts the event.

Tournament bosses were joined by the Welsh Assembly’s First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, in Cardiff to announce the dates.

They unveiled a placard with 184 weeks – the amount of time before competitors tee off – on the steps of the Assembly.

European Tour chief executive George O’Grady said: “We have had a meeting chaired by the First Minister today and the preparations are excellent.

“This means that the countdown has truly begun for when the Ryder Cup will be played in Wales for the first time.

Russell Phillips, Celtic Manor’s facilities and construction chief, said: “The course is complete, which is the first milestone, and we will play some golf on there in June this year.

“The clubhouse is due for an official opening in October this year.”

Morgan said: “It’s our Olympics – we can’t host the Olympics because we are too small a country, but we can host the Ryder Cup.

“It’s the largest tournament that we can host effectively and we are determined that it will be Wales’s showcase to the world.”

In the same week as the main match at Celtic Manor the Junior Ryder Cup will be at Gleneagles in Scotland. Last year’s match ended in a 6-6 tie.

Meanwhile former Ryder Cup star Barry Lane goes down memory lane in Portugal this week. But it is not a nice memory.

One of the European Tour’s longest-serving members led the Portuguese Open at Oitavos by one shot with one hole to play two years ago – and then crashed to an horrendous quintuple-bogey nine.

Instead of celebrating just his sixth victory in over 500 Order of Merit events the title went to Paul Broadhurst and Lane was left to reflect on a five-minute nightmare.

Having just watched Paul Lawrie toss away the lead with a triple bogey on the 17th Lane went into a bush with his closing drive, hacked across the fairway into more trouble and then with his third shot caught a tree root and saw the ball gently loop over the out of bounds fence a few yards away.

Even a bogey would have put him into a play-off, but there was no way back after that and after eventually slumping to fifth place he sighed: “One shot has cost me dearly – but that’s golf.”

Lane, now 46, has not won again since, but it has not stopped him trying – and he said today: “I’d love to have the same situation again.”