It may rain on Celtic Manor's parade

GOLF RYDER CUP 2010:THE EUROPEAN and American teams awoke yesterday to cascading rain that beat a tattoo on the windows of the Celtic Manor hotel, a shrill soundtrack as the Ryder Cup combatants prepared for a second day of practice on the Twenty Ten course.

American captain Corey Pavin shooed his players onto the sodden parkland course at their appointed time of 8.45am, but European counterpart Colin Montgomerie allowed his charges a two-hour hiatus to ascertain if the weather would improve. It did, but not until team Europe were well ensconced on the course.

Just over 15mm of rain fell between 6pm on Tuesday and 10am yesterday, leaving casual water prevalent on some greens.

Whatever about the inclement weather for practice, tomorrow’s forecast, the first day of the event, suggests a dousing of biblical proportions for the Welsh course. It could be time to build the ark, though in recent times the Ryder Cup is no stranger to defying the raging elements.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike paid an unsolicited visit to Valhalla Golf Club, Kentucky, on the Sunday prior to the last Ryder Cup, uprooting trees and bringing down electrical cables that left hundreds of thousands of Louisville residents without power for over a week. A television tower toppled over onto the 12th green, as the 90mph winds whipped over the venue.

It marked the second Ryder Cup in succession assailed by a hurricane, as Ike’s forbearer, Gordon, rampaged through The K Club forcing the organisers to delay admitting 45,000 patrons on the Thursday morning to clear away fallen trees and shattered boughs. Spectators were ushered back to the park-and-ride facilities and endured a one-hour delay before being admitted to the venue.

Chairs were tossed great distances from their original resting places. Conditions were so precarious that the organisers made contingency plans to enable a Monday finish. They didn’t have to be implemented. At one point there were also concerns with regard to the opening ceremony with preparations made to move it indoors.

The authorities at Celtic Manor will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the torrential rain that paid havoc with the schedule at Valderrama in 1997. Thunderstorms hit the Spanish course at 5.30am on the Friday, and the rain fell for three hours flooding greens and bunkers. The start of play was delayed by one hour and 40 minutes.

Due to the delay, the afternoon foursomes didn’t start until 4pm, before play was eventually suspended at 8pm due to bad light. The following day rain again soaked the course, but of greater import was the lightning that prevented play commencing until just before 11am.

The knock-on effect was that only one of the afternoon fourballs was completed, and so for the second day play could not be completed.

Three matches had to be completed on the Sunday morning before the players eventually turned their attention to the singles. So much for sunny Spain.

The expectation at Celtic Manor this week, certainly based on the positive vocabulary from both captains, is that they expect the match to go ahead as scheduled with a 7.45am start tomorrow.

Pavin pointed out that with only four matches on the course it would be possible to send out a small army brandishing squeegees with every game.

There’s no doubt that the organisers are keeping a weather eye on the forecast on a course occasionally enveloped by fog.

Apparently that’s forecast for Saturday morning.