Ryder Cup 2010

In 2010, Wales’ Celtic Manor Resort was the host venue for a Ryder Cup which provided a series of firsts.

It was the first time the prestigious golfing duel between Europe and the United States had been held in Wales and, due to the persistent weather suspensions, it became the first Ryder Cup to spill over into what became known as ‘Magic Monday’ with a fourth day of play.

Ten years on from the event, BBC Sport takes a look back at the competition through the eyes of those who helped shape it, to see how Colin Montgomerie’s men secured a famous 14 ½ - 13 ½ victory over USA.

The Ryder Cup would never have come to Wales had it not been for the country's first billionaire. Sir Terry Matthews knew a thing or two about securing big deals, but it was nostalgia that led the high-tech entrepreneur to purchase the Celtic Manor in 1980.

As a former maternity hospital it was Matthews' place of birth and he was drawn back. “Driving down the M4, I looked up at the building and it was boarded up,” explains Sir Terry.

At the time, hosting a Ryder Cup wasn't even on the agenda. But, after ploughing more than £100m into building a hotel and two golf courses on the site, Sir Terry was determined to put Wales on the map and attract golf’s biggest showpiece.

Like a pied piper, he made sure that both the National Assembly for Wales, as the Welsh Parliament was then known, and the Welsh Development Agency threw their full weight behind the bid to host a Ryder Cup. The game was afoot.

His vision was simple, but the task was anything but.

Firstly, Sir Terry didn’t even have a suitable course to host the Ryder Cup. But moving mud and earth wasn’t going to be an issue, in fact transforming the landscape was the easy part.

Working alongside his friend and renowned golf architect Robert Trent Jones Sr, he set about purchasing more land around the River Usk and then amalgamated nine holes of what was then known as the Wentwood Hills course with seven new bespoke holes, along with the remodelling of two more.

His desire was to create a natural amphitheatre fit for the Roman remains which can be found just a stone's throw away in nearby Caerleon.

Creating the first purpose-built Ryder Cup course with uninterrupted viewing for up to 50,000 spectators was key and Sir Terry’s mantra of ‘If we need it, we’ll build it’ paid off big time.

“We built it to fit their requirements. What I’ve learned in my businesses over the years is you give the clients what they wanted. That’s what we did with the Ryder Cup and it turned out to be one of the very best events,” he said.

In 2001, the then unbuilt Twenty Ten course beat off the Scottish quartet of Gleneagles, Turnberry, Carnoustie and Loch Lomond, as well as Slaley Hall near Newcastle, to be awarded the right to host the 2010 Ryder Cup.

 “The Ryder Cup really put Wales on the map - the first Ryder Cup in history to go to four days,” Sir Terry said.

"You can’t believe how many friends I had from all over the world ringing me up to say how sorry they were about the weather, and that I must have been upset.

The 2008 Ryder Cup had seen the USA end the streak of three successive victories for Europe. The win at Valhalla was the Americans' largest margin of victory since 1981, so when Colin Montgomerie was chosen to lead Europe into the 38^th playing of the Ryder Cup, he knew he needed to restore some pride to a European team who had failed to shine under Nick Faldo.

“Winning the Ryder Cup, regaining the Ryder Cup, is right up there, I knew the pressure,” notes Montgomerie.

The captain’s picks were to be vital. Montgomerie changed his picks format from two players to three.

With only three players in the world's top 10 qualifying automatically, Monty opted to bring in Luke Donald, the experienced Padraig Harrington and hoped his selection of the in-form Edoardo Molinari would create a winning combination alongside his brother Francesco.

Lee Westwood was the best European player going into the event; as the number three in the world he topped both the World Points listing and European Rankings for automatic selection.

Germany's Martyn Kaymer had just won the US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, while Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was to make his Ryder Cup debut at the Celtic Manor, establishing a partnership with his countryman and reigning US Open champion Graeme McDowell.

Montgomerie, whose Ryder Cup record as a player was exemplary - losing just nine of his 36 matches - knew that his team would need to perform at the top of their game and wanted to replicate the 2006 heroics of Wales’ greatest golfer Ian Woosnam in front of an expectant home crowd.

“My abiding memory of that Ryder Cup was the people of Wales,” states Montgomerie, “and how they contributed to the victory.”

“Drying out was more difficult than winning I think!” laughs Montgomerie, as he looks back.

"The memories will stay with me for a lifetime. I don’t think Wales worked very hard on that Monday; the offices must have been empty because they were all standing on the 17^th green! It was quite incredible scenes.”

The USA had selected Corey Pavin to lead the Star-Spangled Banner.
The 1995 US Open winner had a reputation as a fierce fighter. Nicknamed 'the Bulldog’, he had intensified the USA v Europe rivalry during the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island which was dubbed 'the War on the Shore'.

Pavin had the luxury of four captain's picks which allowed him to blend youth with experience.

The wild cards also allowed him to select the out of form Tiger Woods, who had been beset with injury and marital problems. In 2010 it was the first year Woods had failed to win a single event since turning professional.

One of Pavin's other picks was 21-year-old rookie Rickie Fowler who performed brilliantly on his debut. His fightback from three down with three to go against Edoardo Molinari in the singles pushed Europe all the way.

“We just got smashed on the third session,” recalls Pavin.

“I get asked if I would do anything different. Looking back I feel very comfortable with everything that I did, there’s not one thing that I would change.”

“Our guys played well. Europe just played better.”

Rain battered the Welsh course on the opening Friday morning and by 09:43 play had to be suspended. There was a comical sight of the USA caddies buying new waterproof clothing from the on-site megastore following the drenching the players had endured.

Play did resume in the four-balls but only one session could be completed, with the USA taking a 2½ - 1½ lead.

In order to fit all of the matches in, three sessions of four matches each were converted into two sessions of six matches on the Saturday, but more rain led to further delays and with just six foursome games completed the USA stood 6-4 up.

But the weather seemed to inspire the Europeans for the rest of the weekend. In every single match of both foursomes and four-ball golf Europe dominated.

Only the USA pairing of Stewart Cink and Matt Kucher could muster a half. Europe led for the first time 9½ - 6½ and as the drenching Welsh weather continued, for the first time in the event's 83-year history, the Ryder Cup was forced to be extended into a Monday – Magic Monday.

Europe and the United States had set up an intriguing final day's play. The European team spirt had seen them take the lead but, in the singles, the USA had - on paper - the stronger line up of individual golfers.

Both teams traded punches like two heavyweight sloggers, but it was the Americans who landed the biggest blows.

Rallying from their poor weekend performance they took 7 out of the possible 12 points, with the huge electronic scoreboards slowly turning from blue to red. It was to come down to the final pairing: Graeme McDowell versus Hunter Mahan.

To date, just seven Welshmen have played in a Ryder Cup.

Woosnam is by far the most decorated, while Dai Rees and Brian Huggett both played instrumental roles.

Heading into 2010, the last Welshman to have been selected was Phil Price who had famously beaten Phil Mickelson 3&2 at the Belfry in 2002.

The hunt was on to see if Wales could be represented on home soil and going into the event it seemed that a young prodigy who Monty had earlier dubbed "the best putter in the world" could have a chance.

Rhys Davies had burst onto the European scene. The then 24-year-old had won his first European Tour title at the 2010 Trophée Hassan II in March and then at the 2010 Celtic Manor Wales Open, he shot a final round 62 to set the course record on his way to finishing as runner-up.

Despite not receiving a captain's pick, he did get a phone call from Montgomerie who asked him to become Team Europe’s 12^th man - a job which would see him enjoy a privileged pass to go into the team room.

“As a player I wanted to play and compete, but it was just all about the team," Davies said.

“Monty didn’t really give me a role as such, it was more the experience of being around the Ryder Cup team and although I wasn’t there as a player they really embraced me.

“I remember the first day being really dark. Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson were out in the first match and I was speaking to Dustin before he went out.

"He couldn’t go to the range because it was so dark. The sun hadn’t even come up, the weather was really bad, but I remember being with him and just hearing the noise from outside. It was surreal because you couldn’t see anything, yet you could hear the fans singing and cheering on the first tee."

Davies’ main role was to help move Monty around the course, following the matches from his captain's golf buggy.

 “We were driving alongside the embankment near the 16^th hole where there was a huge amount of people," Davies said. "Almost Mexican wave-style we could raise the crowd in a light-hearted, entertaining way – we got a good kick out of that!

“At times there was a lot of confusion with the format changing all the time due to the weather.

"We were hanging out in the team room when the play was delayed and I remember that a new Tiger Woods computer game had just been release, so the players were all playing as themselves – they were all laughing about the rating that they had been given and saying they were better than how the game had ranked them!

"But we never mixed with the Americans. In fact, I think they sound-proofed the locker room which was good based on the final day.

“When I got back into the clubhouse after the win I remember giving Monty a big bearhug and then going into the team locker room. There were these massive magnums of champagne - as big as I’ve ever seen, I didn’t even know you could make bottles so big - ready for the celebration, and I sat down with José María Olazábal who was really emotional and he just turned to me and said: 'Rhys, this is what the Ryder Cup is all about'.”

Less than 20 golf courses in Europe have hosted a Ryder Cup, so much was made about the Ryder Cup legacy with talk from all the organisers about leaving a long term and lasting impact.

It certainly changed the way golf is run in Wales for the better. Before the bid there were men's and women's golf unions, each run separately.

As part of the 2010 bid they merged into the Golf Union of Wales, now Wales Golf – the first of the home nations to do so and 10 years before the R&A merged with the Ladies’ Golf Union.

Golf Development Wales (GDW) was set up and, thanks to a £2m cash injection, it co-ordinated the effort to grow the game and increase participation.

It set up 38 legacy projects which were everything from driving ranges to practice facilities, as well as new short courses. These are still in existence with around 500,000 people have taken part in their schemes – one in six of the population of Wales.

“The overall economic impact of the event was something in the range of £82.4m and in terms of golf tourism we are still reaping the benefits of the event," states Event Wales deputy director Rob Holt, the former Ryder Cup Wales chief executive and GDW chairman.

But after the Ryder Cup band wagon had left Newport, there was a period when it looked like golf had left Wales too.

Between 2015-2019 the European Tour's Wales Open which is also held on the Twenty Ten course was not played.

The Challenge Tour and Ladies' European Tour events came to an end, as did the men’s Senior Tour events. However, Royal Porthcawl did host the men's Senior Open in both 2014 and 2017.

This year also saw the return of top-level competition to Wales, with the Celtic Classic and Wales Open back as part of the Covid-19 Summer Swing of British events in 2020.

Next year will see the 2021 Women’s British Open being held at Royal Porthcawl, while the Curtis Cup will take place in Conway.

It’s certainly been an eventful 10 year for golf in Wales.