Nicklaus to remodel Gleneagles Centenary Course

Gleneagles’ PGA Centenary Course is to undergo a revamp to its existing layout ahead of the 2014 Ryder Cup match and golf legend Jack Nicklaus - the course’s designer - will oversee the changes.

The ‘Golden Bear’ has built up a solid reputation as a course designer since retiring from competitive golf and will oversee some refinements to the Gleneagles course he created, as the venue gears up to hosting the event, with the 7th, 10th and 18th holes initially earmarked to receive the Nicklaus touch.

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Exclusive Tournament Packages Available At Gleneagles

When the top European Tour professionals converge on Gleneagles for the Johnnie Walker Championship, Your Golf Travel.com clients will have an exclusive opportunity to take in the final day’s action and play the course the following day.

The August event is already entrenched among the most prestigious on the tour’s calendar, but as it represents the final chance to earn invaluable Ryder Cup points, the tournament takes on a unique Read more

Tartan Tour look to build strong Scottish Professional Championship

Personal invitations will be made to every top Scottish professional golfer, including Colin Montgomerie and Martin Laird, to compete in the Scottish Professional Championship at Gleneagles in October.

The relaunched national championship will take place over the Gleneagles resort’s historic King’s Course, and is scheduled for the week following the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. A maximum of sixty-six players will take park in the event – down from 156 which contested the title over the PGA Centenary Course in 2009 when David Orr won the title as the Tartan Tour aims for quality rather than quantity as it bids to re-establish the event as and re-energise the Tour in Scotland.

Moving the event to Gleneagles will also help launch the Perthshire resort’s tenure as the host venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup match.

The championship will be screened on television, with a TV package of highlights having been arranged and will be screened worldwide. The championship will be up against the big-budget Oceanio Portugal Masters on the European Tour, but organisers are hopeful that the event will attract a strong line-up including Sam Torrance, Montgomerie and Laird and emulating the Irish national championship which is strongly supported by Padraig Harrington.

Monty ups ante for Ryder Cup hopefuls

Colin Montgomerie has upped the ante for Ryder Cup hopefuls looking to make the team for the 2010 Ryder Cup match against the United States.

Montgomerie revealed players will be asked to compete in three specific events – the PGA Championship at Wentworth, the Wales Open at Celtic Manor and the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

The Johnnie Walker Championship is the final points-counting event before the Ryder Cup team is decided and Monty believes his team may not be decided until the final few putts are struck at the Perthshire venue.

“Places eight, nine, ten, eleven, they could come down to the last few putts here next year.” Montgomerie told reporters ahead of this year’s tournament, which gets underway on Thursday.

“It shows current form and that’s what we are after, leading into the Ryder Cup… I’ll be watching very closely how people react to certain pressures coming down the last few holes at the Wales Open especially,” Montgomerie said.

The qualification process for the Ryder Cup team begins at next week’s European Masters tournament in Switzerland and also the Deutsche Bank tournament in Boston.

The European team will comprise of four players from a world points list and five from a European points list. Montgomerie, as captain, will select the remaining three players.

Six countries bid to host 2018 Ryder Cup

A total of six countries have announced their intention to bid to host the 2018 Ryder Cup. The deadline for the submission of bids is the end of April 2010 with an announcement expected the following year.

The countries – France, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden – have thrown their hats into the ring to host the team event. The 2010 renewal of the event will take place at The Celtic Manor resort, Wales before moving to the United States’ Medinah Country club in 2012. Gleneagles in Perthshire, Scotland will host the 2014 match with the 2016 match due to be played at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota.

Following the announcement of Gleneages’ staging of the 2014 match, it was decided that the European home match would return to the continent if suitable venues were found. Currently, Valderrama in Spain is the only venue to have hosted the Ryder Cup away from Great Britain and Ireland, in 1997.

The 2018 match between Europe and the United States will be the 42nd meeting of the two in the biennial encounter, although players from continental Europe only became eligible to play in the Ryder Cup in 1979.

Each of the six bidding nations have been staunch supporters of the European tour since it officially began in 1972; showing support for the development and continued growth of the game through the nurturing of players and hosting of tournaments.

The match will return to the United States in 2020, with the venue to be Whistling Straits, Wisconsin which has already hosted several top tournaments on the US PGA, including the 2004 PGA Championship. The same tournament will return to the venue in 2010 and 2015.

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