Lewis all out to club rivals for six

Mike Aitken, The Scotsman, 7 February 2001

It's his mellifluous voice which charms you into thinking what a wonderful idea it would be to award the 2009 Ryder Cup to Wales. The only Welshman ever to captain England at cricket , Tony Lewis still talks the good game which made him part of the furniture on Test Match Special.

In common with other sports commentators who were heard but not seen, Lewis is a more or less anonymous figure until he opens his mouth. When he sits in the back of a taxi, the driver will often say: "I know your voice".

A former president of the MCC and Glamorgan CCC as well as chairman of the Welsh Tourist Board - in his playing days he led England on a tour of India - Lewis is as up to speed on the politics of sport as he once was as a child throwing bouncers with a tennis ball on the streets of Neath.

When it comes to the Ryder Cup, this experience is an advantage.

Now cast in the role of chairing the Welsh effort for 2009 - Scotland and the north of England are the other candidates - Lewis takes issue with the suggestion Wales will be just as enthusiastic about 2013 if they should lose out this time round. "I don’t think there’s any doubt that Terry Matthews [the billionaire owner of Celtic Manor, the Welsh venue] will keep going," he says. "But the reason this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for both Wales and the PGA is the fact that for the next eight years Wales will have the same European Union funding which Ireland enjoyed.

"It’s called Objective One funding and, sadly, is guided by the poverty level of the country. It’s a vast amount of money. What our assembly have said is that if we get the Ryder Cup then we will devote some of that funding [worth £1.5 billion] to a golf strategy.

"If you look at what the Irish have done in marketing themselves as a golf destination, there’s an opportunity for us to do the same. The whole economy of the country could be run on the back of it [the Ryder Cup].

"This is a massive opportunity for the PGA to make Wales the last part of the rich jigsaw of British golf. Then you must ask - do we deserve it? Don’t forget Wales is the third oldest golf union. We have a decent history, some fine players and lovely courses. But, oddly enough, we’ve operated in the mists.

"If they give us the match, it will produce new money and new tournaments. Luckily you’ve not seen our bid document. So you don’t know just how much we’re putting forward!"

Although the bottom line may not be public knowledge, it’s an open secret that if hard cash can unlock the door to 2009 then Wales must be favourites. One estimate values their bid at around £45 million.

Already there are more new golf events coming out of the valleys than quicksilver stand-offs: both the recently announced £500,000 Welsh Seniors Open and £400,000 WPGA Championship on the Evian Ladies Tour are part of the Ryder Cup package.

Speaking with his feet up at home in Llantrisant, Lewis, 62, had just returned from hospital where he’d undergone a knee operation to sort out an old injury, picked up during the time he played as a rugby full-back at university.

"I didn’t have a very lengthy rugby career but I did get a Blue [for Cambridge] against Oxford in 1959," he remembers. "That was when the pain started in my right knee. The following winter I had a cartilage out. In those days the job was done with a hammer and chisel. So I was out of action for quite a while. It didn’t stop me playing cricket, but it dogged me all my days as a top-class player."

While Lewis has lived a richly diverse life - on the golf course he’s a member of both Royal Porthcawl and the Royal and Ancient - his part in the Welsh Ryder Cup campaign can be traced to an expertise in promoting tourism.

"The professional agency involved in the Welsh bid is the World Sport Group [WSG] and I was a consultant of theirs on cricket," he says. "I was involved in the bidding for the next two cricket World Cups which were won by WSG in South Africa and the West Indies.

"So I’d gone into that side of life. When it came to WSG running the Welsh Ryder Cup bid they asked me to take the chair, mainly I think because I was chairman of the Welsh Tourist board for eight years. It helped that I knew everybody and the workings of the Welsh Assembly backwards. Still, I felt I had to ask Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister, if he wanted me. He told me I was the lowest handicapper Wales had, so I’d better get on with it.

"That was how I took it on, knowing I had the goodwill of all the important players. I built up a team of nine, including Celtic Manor, the two golfing unions and Newport council. The council was vital because within five minutes we were planning underpasses and offsite parking.

"It’s all been a bit like landing a part in the film The League of Gentlemen. The planning is massive. I always seem to be walking around with charts and maps!"

If this former pupil of Neath Grammar School understands the role played by the media in winning the Ryder Cup, it’s because he was once a scribe as well as a commentator himself.

" When I left first class cricket in 1974, I joined the Sunday Telegraph and covered rugby and cricket for them. I gave up the cricket writing eight years back after I became chairman of the Welsh Tourist Board. The broadcasting was last to go, around three years ago.

"The reason for that was the MCC asked me to be president. I think they were keen during World Cup time to have a former player. It was a big honour for me and I felt I had to take it."

Although Lewis hopes to see Welsh ascendancy over the Scots as hosts of the Ryder Cup when the committee meet to assess the bids [on 13 and 14 February], this 12 handicapper insists he’ll be philosophical if Scotland should gain a measure of revenge for all those defeats in Cardiff.

This isn’t a view shared by everyone connected with the Welsh bid, mind you, who are concerned by the presence of two Scots on the Ryder Cup committee and the delayed announcement which is perceived as giving the Scots more time to match the Welsh.

"Behind every door in golf and at the end of every telephone is a Scotsman," smiles Lewis. "But I do believe there’s a level playing field in this process. If the PGA give the match to us then they will be able to reflect on how they brought a new dimension to European golf. If they don’t, I will never let Ken Schofield [the Perth cricket fan who runs the European Tour] into Lord’s again."

Lewis admits to a soft spot for Scotland, though. "I love playing golf in Scotland - Southerness is a favourite - and truthfully what we need from the Scots is a helping hand. I’m not saying this just for publicity, but we want to be like Scotland. We’re not trying to pitch Celtic Manor against Gleneagles. What we’re saying is we want to reach Scotland’s standard and need your help.

"If people can see what our achievement will be in the end, then we have a great chance."