Manor owner will consider a four-day Ryder event for 2010

Jun 1 2008 By Euan Mclean

CELTIC MANOR owner Sir Terry Matthews has revealed that talks are underway to extend the 2010 Ryder Cup into a four-day event over fears about bad weather.

On Thursday, Colin Montgomerie called for organisers to ease the hectic schedule of squeezing 24 matches into three days - and told how a day's play in the last Ryder Cup at Ireland's K Club was almost abandoned because of torrential rain.

This week's Wales Open - the competitive debut for Celtic Manor's Twenty Ten Course - underlined fears about weather disruption as thick fog delayed play yesterday and on Thursday in Newport.

The Pro-Am on the eve of the tournament was also washed out prompting many to fear for conditions when the big one gets underway on October 1, 2010.

Now Celtic Manor chairman Matthews, in an exclusive MailSport interview, has confirmed talks over extending the Ryder Cup are taking place.

He said: "A few people would like to see it become a four-day event and it has already been discussed.

"The hours of daylight at that time of year are so restricted. Once you get to September you are losing 20 minutes every week. So the idea of making it a four-day event is not a stupid suggestion.

"You only need a bit of inclement weather to close in for part of the day and you're screwed.

"We have invested a great deal in making the drainage superb but short of doing something on a dramatic scale you can't control the fog."

European Tour bosses won't make a decision on the proposed extension until after this September's clash with the USA at Valhalla, Kentucky. But the commercial benefits of having an extra day's play will undoubtedly be appealing.

In the meantime Matthews and his staff at CelticManor will continue with their preparations for 2010 and, it seems, 2014 in Scotland.

He revealed that Gleneagles staff are seeking advice from the Welsh on how to turn their own Ryder Cup into a success.

Sir Terry said: "Our staff have a good relationship-with Gleneagles. We would be happy to help in any way because I certainly learned a lot from the K Club.

"I've been to pretty much all of the Ryder Cups since 1999 and went around eyeballing the set-ups.

"I had all that in mind when we created this new course and we were lucky that we could create an infrastructure from scratch.

"That's a luxury most venues don't have as few courses are built to accommodate 50,000 people.

"The K Club put on a good show at the opening ceremony but the course simply wasn't designed for that many people.

"But because this area was designed for a Ryder Cup we can accommodate these numbers. And I think Gleneagles will have the space to do the same.

"The 2010 event will set a new standard for the Ryder Cup and that gives an advantage to Gleneagles.

"They can say: 'OK, what was learned?' because they will have another four years to get things honed."