Celtic Manor - Roman Road

[True Blue]

Large resort hotel with 3 courses. Hotel facilities are fantastic and it is a great base for a few mates to get together to play golf, have a few beers and relax. Okay to take partners as well as there is a large spa facility on site. Club house has great views of the course and serves very good food in a timber style lodge. Covered range on site with a large chipping area and seperate putting green.

Course is 6462 yards off the whites and 6030 yards off the yellows.

This is the closest I have played to an American style Parkland course outside America. As you would expect for a resort course the is plenty of room on the fairways to keep a good pace of play. The bunkers are very aesthetically pleasing but overall are not very punishing with the ability to take a wood out of them.
Best feature of the course for me has to be the greens which are all over the place and difficult to read!
Some of the rough can be very thick and if you go in you are more than likely to lose a ball (or two)! Highlight of the round has to be the par 5 5th hole, a slight dogleg over a large bunker downhill to a green protected by bunkers.

The whole package, hotel, course, facilities are great but on its own the course seems to be missing soemthing for me. I thought the best course was the academy Coldra Woods course which had some very demanding par 3's. However, this has been bulldozed to make way for the new Montgomerie course....BOOO!!!

Rating 7/10