It's the time of year when the air is heavy with Ryder Cup rumours and speculation. Players are planning their schedules around a last-gasp effort to make the team or impress the captain enough to warrant a pick.

The Wales Open was no exception to this hypothesising only with a more long-sighted proposition in mind, namely the push to have the Celtic Manor host the 2009 Ryder Cup.

All sorts of dignitaries assembled near Newport for the Welsh submission of their bid presentation to the Ryder Cup Committee. The committee members were helicoptered over the Celtic Manor resort as play finally got under way on Friday last. The first minister for Wales, Rhodri Morgan was there, Sir Terrence Matthews made an appearance and Tony Lewis, the ex-cricketer, was also there to throw his weight behind the Wales bid.

The whole show of politicians, billionaire business tycoons and ex-national heroes goes to show what a complete and utter farce the Ryder Cup has become. A vehicle for the self-serving interests of the wealthy and those on their coat-tails. Golf, and particularly the golf course, have been placed well down the pecking order of priorities for this publicity bandwagon.

But if the prospective venues for the Ryder Cup appear as hollow vehicles for an individual's personal interest the European Tour ultimately suffers.

Similar to the corporate machine that ground into action back in the 1990s when Dr Michael Smurfit took over the European Open and realised his ultimate goal of hosting the Ryder Cup, Terry Matthews' corporate machine began its bid in earnest last Friday for something that used to be considered sacred and now seems to be available to the highest bidder.

The Celtic Manor course that has been presented is, in its current state, more suitable for hosting the Welsh downhill skiing championships than the Wales Open. Built on a terrain that is ideally suited to grazing sheep or goats, or people with one leg shorter than the other, it is a disgrace that a Ryder Cup Committee would even consider such a venue.

The company that is going to revamp the course is the European Tour's design wing, European Golf Design, not the original course designer, Robert Trent Jones Jnr.

One of the main problems with this Wales bid for the Ryder Cup is you hear too much about the infrastructure, facilities and crowd capacity and not enough about the quality of the golf course.

I was privy to an innocent conversation in the lift at the Celtic Manor hotel on Sunday. A nine-year-old girl was posing a question to her mother after the last two rounds had been washed out, which reduced the tournament to 36 holes with a three-man play off on the only hole that was playable on the course, the par-three 12th. The little girl was wondering if this was what was happening in August, what would it be like in September when the Ryder Cup might be hosted at the same venue.

"Mummy does that not mean that this is not the right place to play golf?," she asked. Why can the Ryder Cup committee not apply such innocent but indisputable logic? It is time for somebody in a position of power to put a halt to this interminable decline in standards in the choosing of venues for such a prestigious event.

If not, the tag of distinction will be reduced to some ragged old banner to which no self-respecting golf spectator will be attracted.