After lunch at the Vale had settled, we jumped into cars again for the short half an hour drive down the M4 over to Newport. Driving through the opening gates and going up the winding uphill road to the Celtic Manor Resort had me buzzing with anticipation. The 400 room resort looms over Christchurch Hill, offering long distance views of Newport and its surrounding areas. Driving around the hotel over to the main entrance, you are rewarded with views of The Montgomerie, formerly the Coldra Woods course, and it’s impressive “Lodge”, which serves as a clubhouse for The Montgomerie and Roman Road courses.

The car was left with a very friendly valet, our golf clubs were checked in to a golf storage area, and we went to check in to our rooms. While I was waiting to check in, I realised that this was possibly the nicest hotel I’d stayed in, and I was only in the lobby at this point! It’s not every day someone parks the car for you, and looks after your golf clubs the second you step in to the hotel. 10 minutes later and I was up on the 6th floor walking down to my room, which turned out to be a very plush Executive King with Balcony. To say I freaked out a little when I got in was an understatement – waiting for me was a personalised itinerary for the weekend, fresh donuts and dipping sauce and ice cold bottled water. The room came with all the usual things you’d expect from a hotel room, plus quite a few impressive additions such as a floor to ceiling marble bathroom, full HD TV with a number of satellite channels, a whole work area with Internet connectivity, an annex for the minibar/tea and coffee making facilities and a ridiculously large and comfortable bed. My balcony was South facing over the cliff, and I had a great view of the entire of Newport and Mouth of the Severn.

Whilst waiting for the time we were all to meet for dinner, I put some football on and relaxed. Cue a knock on the door and being given an ice cold beer. This was pure luxury. Dinner was held in the Manor House, which is an adjoining part of the resort that was built in 1860, accessible by a long series of winding corridors and escalators that are plastered with large print photographs of our Ryder Cup success from last year. The food was exactly what I was hoping for, and like the Vale, gave a good compromise of quantity against quality. The staff who were dining with us were seated amongst the Golfbreaks group so most of got a chance to speak to them and what working at such a place was like. After dinner we went down to one of the resort’s many bars – in this case Cellar Bar. The bar was pretty classy, looking like a converted wine cellar, as to its namesake. The walls were adorned with pictures of memorable sporting moments and champions, and this is the bar to go to if you want to watch some live sport on one of the many wall mounted big screens. The resort hosted a pub quiz for us, and I was fortunate enough to be able to flex my general knowledge skills and end up on the winning team (we won a bottle of Moet champagne…each.).

The night was rounded off by some more drinks in the bar and upstairs in the Manor House, before we all got back to bed in the late (early) hours of the morning. Getting back to my room I found that all the coffee I had drank was already replaced, a towel and slippers had been placed next to my bed, and a freshly made pair of welshcakes were waiting on my bed. This resort just wanted to surprise me hour after hour.

Waking up freshly faced (ish!) in the morning, everyone met in the lobby for shuttle carriage to the golf course. We were VERY lucky and given the opportunity to play on the 2010 course, famous of course for it hosting the 2010 European Ryder Cup. Being on the shuttle bus from the main resort to the 2010 Clubhouse, I got to see how large the grounds of the resort actually were – you could easily spend a whole day out running/cycling and working your way around the 1,400 acres of landscaped grounds. Breakfast was held in the 2010 Clubhouse, and was brilliant – a great full English buffet left me ready to get on to the golf course. As I was lead into the changing room, and put my stuff into Francesco Molinari’s brass name-plated locker, it did dawn on me that I was probably one of the worst golfers they’ve ever let play on this course…