Celtic Manor

For the past 3 year have had very enjoyable and good value gokf breaks at the Belfry, though the PGA and Brabazon are really beyond me scoring well (I mean well by my standards).
This year we are thinking of giving Celtic Manor a go, again seems good value, 3 rounds and 3 night b&b at the hotel. Anyone done this, played the course, what's the night life like?

I was a member for 3 years leading up to the RC Diggers but only the Monty & Roman Road, which I played quite a bit. All 3 are hilly in places, you’ll know you’ve walked it!! I never got to play the 2016 until a Couple of years ago. I do like all 3 although there are 2-3 odd holes on the Monty. Overall it it a top class setup and a really nice hotel, restaurants & rooms really nice. Not sure about the nightlife, if going out it’s probably worth going to Cardiff rather than Newport.

Thanks Jas, sounds good. These places do seem to do decent summer deals, I think it's because there is less corporate business around. Not really sure why I even mentioned the nightlife really, no doubt we will just end up having a few beers in the hotel bars!

I went a few years ago Diggers on a deal, played a local course before we got there (Chepstow, absolutely terrible course) and then had a night in the Celtic Manor hotel before playing the 2010 course. I'd recommend playing the 2010 course more than once if you can as the other 2 aren't great by all accounts.  There's a nice touch at the 2010 clubhouse,  they take your car and park it for you (and return it to you after your game), and take your clubs for you down to the range, you'll also get a locker from the 2010 Ryder Cup. I had Garcia's if I remember rightly.

As JAS said, great hotel (though pretty charmless) but Newport is a dump, as Goldie Lookin' Chain will attest, but you never feel you're in the place really, as you pretty much drive straight into the hotel complex from the road into Newport. Good spa in the hotel too, so take your swimmers if you like the pool, sauna, steam room type of relaxation.

Mac would absolutely hate the place, so that's probably as good a recommendation as you'll get.

Digs I would suggest you take a look at the Vale -nearer Cardiff for the night out as well.
Top hotel and the courses are very hard but still enjoyable and the price was very reasonable.
One of our visits was during the London Olympics and Trinidad and Tobago were based there we sat having a lovely fry up breakfast and they were all sitting around looking at a glass of water.

Cheers guys, will also check the Vale out. With my level of golf the course can be fairly irrelevant, nice chance to get away from the kids and chill though.

The 2010 course is the only one I like. Not really a fan of the Monty or Roman Road, they are both too hilly to be decent courses and have some holes that don't really work.

The 2010 is a class layout but has a lot of carries over water, some of them are pretty tough as well. We saw a lot of people struggling to find the 18th green. If you're not playing well you'll need to bring lots of balls!

When they built the 2010 course, the Monty was cobbled together from some spare holes from the old championship course that were no longer required, and the old 9 hole "executive" short course. The Monty actually has a few cracking holes, including my favourite hole on the resort, the 3rd which is a par 5 where you drive over a crest of a hill and then you have a downhill second to the green with a great view of the whole property. Then it has a load of rubbish holes as well.

Hotel is nice, never going to win any awards for aesthetics, but rooms, pool, spa, restaurants etc are all decent.

The Vale is a good shout as an alternative. Quite a lot cheaper than Celtic Manor, and closer to Cardiff for a night out.

Used by lots of sports teams too, rugby in particular. One time we were there Howard Wilkinson was running an FA coaching course. We had a really interesting evening in the bar chatting to the attendees: Ian Rush, Gary Speed, Simon Davey, about a dozen house hold names and all really friendly apart from Paul Jewell.

The Wales National course is an absolute beast, but is a great test. We once played there after it had hosted a Challenge Tour event, the rough was up, no roll on the fairways, and we had 200 yard carries to reach the fairways from the white tees. Probably should have played from the yellows! The Lakes course is average but is adequate as a second course on a weekend break.

You need to watch the weather though, the place can get very boggy. Although you could say the same about Celtic Manor I guess.

Ray I'm not sure beast does it justice its harder that that !
Very enjoyable all the same