Bookie ordered to remove sign

Golf:What goes up, must come down. Paddy Power was today ordered by a Welsh court to dismantle a sign it had erected overlooking the Celtic Manor course ahead of this week's Ryder Cup.

The bookmaker hired farmland adjacent to the Ryder Cup venue to build the 270-feet long billboard in an ambush marketing ploy identical to that used during this year’s Cheltenham festival.

Work started on the sign, the same one used across the English border on Cleeve Hill in March, in the early hours of yesterday morning with the first arrivals to the venue greeted with the word Paddy in 50-foot high letters.

The European Tour took a dim view of the stunt while the owner of Celtic Manor described it as “disgusting”, prompting the local council to seek an injunction to have it removed.

Paddy Power went to Cardiff County Court this afternoon to fight the injunction but was told to take it down within three days.

“We are clearly the victims of bureaucratic bullies and rich golf course owners but we will respect the verdict of the court,” Paddy Power, spokesman for the bookmaker, said today.

“Monmouthshire County Council’s tactic of parking a bulldozer beside the sign this morning was quite threatening but we’re happy that the court has let common sense prevail and allowed us three days to remove the sign safely.”