Celtic Manor

A few weeks ago one of my friends Stuart (Galli) had been in touch to see if I was interested in a golfing weekend at Celtic Manor near Newport, South Wales. Celtic Manor is the venue for the Ryder Cup in 2010, so quite how they'd cope with the divot holes I'd be leaving behind would be anyone's guess. Anyway it's been several years since I'd last played regularly so even if the golf didn't amount to much there was always the hotel bar afterwards.

Celtic Manor, home of the Ryder Cup in 2010

In total there were six of us in the group - I picked up Paul (Wibs) on the way and we met the others at the hotel. We'd two rounds of golf lined up on Sunday and bank holiday Monday on the Montgomerie course - designed by Colin Montgomerie himself.

Although I'd been to the driving range a couple of times over the past week or so, my game was far too inconsistent to win, and even when my longer shots went where I wanted them to, my putting let me down instead. Anyway, it's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts, although try telling that to Gall, who'd even bought a trophy for the winner (he ended up winning it himself - probably a good thing really).

All in all a great weekend, which we'll have to repeat again next summer. Here's some other photos from the weekend:

An action shot of Wibs, playing his approach to the picturesque third green

Galli with a long putt on the fourth (he actually holed this, the lucky b*****)

Dan drives off on the treacherous fifth

Wibs winds up for a big one on the seventh

Wibs again, this time on the sixteenth tee, preparing to launch one