Celtic Manor Resort — The Twenty Ten

The Twenty Ten is unique in the game: the first course in history built specifically to host the Ryder Cup. It grew out of Sir Terry Matthews's vast Celtic Manor Resort in the Usk valley outside Newport — and the story is pure Wales, for Matthews, the telecoms billionaire who built the resort, was born in the manor house itself, back when it served as a maternity hospital. Holes six to thirteen and the 15th began life as Robert Trent Jones Jr's Wentwood Hills course; then, in 2006–07, Ross McMurray of European Golf Design added nine new holes along the valley floor to forge a purpose-built match-play arena — wide amphitheatre holes for the crowds, water in play on half the course, and a run of risk-and-reward par 4s and 5s built to swing a match.

It did exactly that. The 38th Ryder Cup, staged here in October 2010, was the first ever held in Wales. Torrential rain turned the week into a marathon — the US team's waterproofs famously leaked, and for the first time the match spilled into a Monday finish. Under captain Colin Montgomerie, Europe regained the Cup by the narrowest margin, 14½–13½, when Graeme McDowell held his nerve to see off Hunter Mahan in the decisive singles. From the tips the course stretches to 7,493 yards, par 71.

The Twenty Ten anchors a resort built on a grand scale — two further championship courses in the Montgomerie and the Roman Road, a convention hotel high on the hillside and a spa, all just off the M4. For anyone who watched that soaking, unforgettable Welsh Ryder Cup, walking the ground where it was decided is a genuine bucket-list day.