Golf: Welsh leaders back Ryder cup bid

The South Wales Argos, 31 October 2000

Major figures from across the political spectrum were today throwing their weight behind the bid to bring one of the worlds biggest sporting events to Wales.

The Celtic Manors current Welsh international Eleanor Pilgrim this morning teed off the ceremonial first ball into Cardiff Bay to send the bid document to the European Professional Golfers Association.

First Minister for Wales Rhodri Morgan, Plaid Cymru leader Ieuan Wyn Jones, Minister for Culture and Sports Jenny Randerson (Liberal Democrats) and Conservative Leader Nick Bourne were also among those who hit balls into the water during the symbolic teeing off ceremony for the bid to bring the Ryder Cup to the Celtic Manor in 2009.

The PGA will make the decision between the Celtic Manor, Scotland, Sweden and Slaley Hall in Northumberland, in January.

The send-off was also backed by representatives of bid partners the Welsh Development Agency, Wales Tourist Board, Sports Council for Wales, Welsh Golfing Union, Welsh Ladies Golfing Union, Newport County Borough Council and The Celtic Manor Resort.

Bid chairman Tony Lewis, former England cricket captain and ex-chairman of the Wales Tourist Board, believes that support is representative of the backing for the bid throughout Wales.

I have never felt such a surge of enthusiasm as for this historic bid, he said. "The telephone at the bid office never stops.

The whole prosperity of Wales can be affected and that is why Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister, launched the bid.

The Wales Tourist Board is a crucial member of the Bid Team. Wales is not perceived as a golfing destination in the same way as Scotland and Ireland, because it lacks a strongly established image.

"Wales does not attract golfing tourists in anything like the same quantity. The Ryder Cup is the single best opportunity to change this situation.

The Welsh Development Agency sees that a growing golf industry will help create a well-rounded and trained workforce in the tourism and leisure industries.

The hope is for new jobs, industry regeneration and a motivated workforce.

Leader of Newport Council Sir Harry Jones said the authority backed the bid.

He said: It is with pride and enthusiasm that Newport council supports this initiative for 2009. It will result in Newport and Wales being the focus of world media attention.

One Man’s Ambition - People’s Choice

The Western Mail , 31 October 2000

Wales submits its bid for the 2009 Ryder Cup today in the confident knowledge no more could have been done to bring golf’s most prestigious team tournament to this country for the first time.

The bid document, as compelling as it is comprehensive, represents the culmination of one man’s ambition spanning over a decade - Terry Matthews, the Welsh businessman who built Celtic Manor in order to bring the Ryder Cup to Wales.

But the bid is not solely from one man - it comes from the people of Wales.

It details not only how Wales intends to stage one of the biggest and most dramatic sporting events in the world but also how golf is going to develop throughout the nation over the next generation. At this stage, the Ryder Cup will be allotted to a country rather than a golf course.

Laden with history and spoiled for choice as it is, Scotland applies with five potential hosts in mind.

The only reason Wales’s bid has fallen under one venue’s banner so quickly is that Celtic Manor is the only centre capable of staging the event.

That should not be seen as a weakness. Indeed it may well prove a telling strength as the country stands united and assured in how it intends to hold the Ryder Cup in nine years time.

Confidence in the Celtic Manor venue - its Wentwood Hills course, its attendant golf facilities, its 400-bedroom luxury hotel and its location - is complete. But the bid has to embrace far more than just the suitability of one centre.

Nine years may seem a long way into the future but the decision on 2009 will appear positively short-term compared to the benefits for Welsh golf the application projects.

Its compilers believe the bid document will open the eyes of the panel, drawn from the European Tour and the Professional Golfers Association, that meets to assess it.

They are unwilling to reveal too many closely-guarded secrets for fear of alerting rivals England, Scotland and Sweden to the strength of their hand but there is a growing confidence about the Welsh bid.

“I’m proud of the case we’re putting forward for Wales,” said bid chairman Tony Lewis, the former Glamorgan and England cricket captain who has used his vast sporting and administrative experience to coordinate the project over the last few months.

“We know we’re up against stiff opposition from the other nations but, if we don’t get it, I think we’ll be entitled to ask ‘Why not Wales?’

“I believe this to be a very strong bid and we submit it in the knowledge we could not have done more to bring the Ryder Cup to Wales.”

Lewis brings more than a famous sporting and broadcasting face to the front of Wales’s Ryder Cup ambition.

As a former chairman of the Wales Tourist Board, he also knows all about marketing his home country.

“I’m just conducting the orchestra because I know ‘Quangoland’ and because I know the sporting side,” he modestly claims.

“As chairman of the tourist board working on the Rugby World Cup, I spent a few years lobbying very hard around the world. We had that tournament here and now it looks like the FA Cup will be coming to the Millennium Stadium. For Wales to be big event-led is very exciting.”

Sporting events do not come much bigger - in terms of suspense - than the Ryder Cup. Over the last 15 years, the competition has gripped the imagination.

With rarely more than a point separating the two well-matched sides, not even Coronation Street can compare for Sunday evening drama. As the last singles are played to bring three days of intense competition to a climax, emotions are often barely kept in check.

Indeed they were allowed to spill over, infamously, at the last Ryder Cup in Boston where the Americans breached golfing etiquette to begin a premature victory celebration on the penultimate green before Jose Maria Olazabal had been given the chance to keep the match alive.

Inexcusable though that behaviour may have been, the jubilation of Ben Crenshaw’s men did show just how important winning the Ryder Cup has become to the Americans. The fact that recriminations still continue, a year on, demonstrate just how bitter defeat tasted to the Europeans.

After three decades when the Great Britain and Ireland team could not get near the Americans, the competition is now making up for lost time in terms of excitement.

Since Europe ended the 28-year wait to bring the trophy over to this side of Atlantic with a 16-12 triumph at The Belfry in 1985, two points is the most either side has won by in the last seven meetings. Only disgraced South Africa cricket captain Hanse Cronje can claim a better record for engineering tight finishes.

The more competitive era has brought with it a parallel level of competition to host the prestigious event. Like bidding for an Olympics or a World Cup, Wales finds itself locked in battle with three other nations to land the prize in 2009.

One potential advantage they share with Sweden is never having staged the tournament before. England - who apply through the Slaley Hall venue in Northumbria - have been indulged with the cup going to The Belfry for a fourth time in 16 years next September.

Scotland, in spite of its claim to be the home of golf, will not have held the event for nearly three decades by the time 2009 comes around.

But, as Tony Lewis argues, the Scots probably have the least need for a Ryder Cup.

“Scotland already has the tradition for accessible golf we are hoping to create in Wales as part of our bid,” he said.

“They already have the abundance of pay-and-play courses we need to establish here. Hosting the Ryder Cup and the package we have had to put together would help us achieve that.

“They (the Ryder Cup officials) have drawn up new rules about developing the game. And that is one of the strengths of our bid so I think they will find our plans difficult to turn down.

“All we are asking for is the chance that has already been given to Scotland, England and Ireland (who host the cup in 2005) to develop the game here. We’ve got to leave them with one great question: ‘Why did we not elevate Wales?’”

There may be ground to make up but Wales has a golfing history which deserves the sort of recognition a Ryder Cup could bestow.

Of the great golfers produced by this country, only four have gone on to play Ryder Cup golf since the war but two of them - Dai Rees and Brian Huggett - have captained the Great Britain and Ireland side. Another - Ian Woosnam - will be vice-captain to its European successor next year.

Golf already attracts more players over the age of 15 than rugby in Wales but to increase the chances of unearthing the next Tiger Woods it has to be a sport which every child gets the opportunity to sample.

As home to the Welsh golf academy, Celtic Manor is already opening doors for young people to play and perfect their golf.

But it is a multitude of less ambitious playing facilities that are needed to bring on the game nationwide.

“I’m a great believer in allowing people to develop in their own natural environment,” said Lewis.

“Gareth Edwards will tell you he learned his sidesteps on the streets and that’s where I learned my cricket.”

Golf obviously requires a more established playing arena but the theme running through the development aspect of the bid will be opening up more and more basic facilities to get people started.

Lewis added, “We really need to have an infrastructure of pay-and-play public courses which breaks down elitism so there are no barriers - not of class or of sex.

“The Welsh Golfing Union and the Welsh Ladies’ Golf Union have worked very closely on the bid and may even consider becoming one entity in the future.

“This is very much a team bid, overall, and - more than that - it is very much a bid from the whole of Wales.

“The First Secretary launched the bid in June and we’ve had support from a number of national agencies.

“We’ve written to all the golf clubs of Wales and the enthusiastic response we have had has been overwhelming.”