"When the time comes, McKenzie will have the fairways like slender ribbons around the 320 to 340-yard mark with a view to throwing the longer-hitting Americans."

Lewine Mair reports on the re-perfection of Celtic Manor, 2010 Ryder Cup site and where they already seem to know the makeup of the U.S. team.

Ross McMurray, the architect, yesterday admitted that he had already had conversations with the European Tour and Jim McKenzie, the course manager, about how it will be set up to the Europeans players' advantage.

When the time comes, McKenzie will have the fairways like slender ribbons around the 320 to 340-yard mark with a view to throwing the longer-hitting Americans.

Isn't that impressive? What soul, what integrity, what vision!

Again, he will be leaving the area around the greens so shorn that they will not be able to play any of their usual flop shots if they fail to find the target. Instead, they will have to do as the Europeans do in improvising with long putts and chip-and-runs from the swales which will swallow up anything even marginally off line.