Sport

A valley of pain as rain ruins years of hard toil

GOLF/UNDER THE WEATHER WALES’S BIG DAY: THE TOURIST billboards depict a countryside bathed in glorious sunshine. “Hello

Sat Oct 02 2010 - 01:00

GOLF/UNDER THE WEATHER WALES'S BIG DAY:THE TOURIST billboards depict a countryside bathed in glorious sunshine. "Hello. This is our country" they proudly proclaim. And, in playing host to the Ryder Cup, the biggest international sporting event ever to be held in Wales, that pride was anticipated to leave "a lasting legacy" that would impact the economy and boost golf tourism into the future.

As such, yesterday’s long-awaited first day of play proved to be a disaster for Wales. The abiding image, which no amount of marketing money can change, is of incessant rainfall and torrents of water gushing down fairways. Of fairways pot-marked by puddles, and of bunkers filled with a substance akin to quick sand.

You could, of course, blame Nick Faldo. He brought bad karma to the valleys with his jibe at the closing ceremony at Valhalla two years ago. “See you at Celtic Manor in two years,” he said, adding: “And remember to bring your waterproofs.”

Unfortunately, he was correct; one of the few things Europe’s captain of 2008 got right. And while the Welsh tourist board made known their angst at the time, his prophecy came true.

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In fact, the weather at this time of the year was always likely to be a factor. Why, oh why, was it moved to October?

Traditionally, the Ryder Cup has taken place in September – but the move to an October date was effectively pushed onto organisers by the arrival of the FedEx Cup, the play-offs on the US Tour which culminates in the Tour Championship and compounded by the requirement for a week’s grace period between the third and fourth legs of that megabucks series.

It was always going to be a gamble moving the event to October, and unfortunately it fell at the first hurdle.

It’s a shame for the Welsh, and in particular Terry Matthews, who bankrolled the development of this luxury five-star resort in the Usk Valley.

It’s a shame for the European Tour too, who, credit where it’s due, put in place the infrastructure – from the grandstands to corporate hospitality pavilions that even have binoculars locked down for patrons to cast an eye over virtually the entire course – to event manage the show. And, most especially, it was a shame for the spectators who were short-changed by the weather.

The irony? Last week, the traditional slot for the Ryder Cup up to the last time it was staged in Europe at The K Club in 2006, was apparently perfect weather for golf! The hosting of the Ryder Cup economically impacted the City of Newport and other cities such as Cardiff and even as far afield as Bristol and Cheltenham.

Indeed, hotel room take-up for this weekend in the region is 162 per cent up on the same weekend last year and a recent survey of the impact of the Ryder Cup for Wales conservatively estimated the event is worth €80 million to the economy.

For this week’s match, the Celtic Manor’s 400 rooms are, naturally, full. Two hundred and fifty rooms have been allocated to the golfers and their entourage – doctors, dieticians, coaches etc – and tour officials with the remaining rooms put aside for Matthews to host guests and business partners.

Matthews has invested €29 million in developing the resort, including bankrolling the redevelopment of the Twenty Ten Course to play host to the Ryder Cup, while a €2.25 million “legacy fund” will fund some 40 projects around Wales aimed at increasing the number of golfers.

Golfing tourism in Wales has also improved in recent years, from an estimated €18 million before the country was awarded the Ryder Cup up to a current level of €33 million on the back of a strong marketing campaign on the theme of, “Golf as it should be.”

Unfortunately for the Welsh, the money and ingenuity that enabled them to snatch this edition of the Ryder Cup from under the noses of the Scottish – who have to wait until 2014 at Gleneagles for their turn – and all the years of planning couldn’t account for the forces of nature.

At the time of Faldo’s jibe in Valhalla, the European Tour’s chief executive George O’Grady attempted to pour cold water on the remarks. “It’s in a valley, it does rain and you’ve got to look at these things with a bit of humour,” he said.

Unfortunately, the rain fell and fell and fell to seriously disrupt the first day’s play. They’ve two – or more probably three days left, running into Monday – to hope that the legacy for a worldwide audience is not of the rain rather than the golf.