A superb Scott Strange powered to a wire-to-wire victory to win the Wales Open title and give the tour rookie his maiden victory. Set at the venue for the 2010 Ryder Cups, Celtic Manor, the Australian fired a dominating 64 on the final day to hold off Swede Robert Karlsson by 4 shots.

Strange took control from the outset firing 6 birdies in his first 8 holes, continuing on for a sublime 63 and followed that up with a 66 and a 69 despite suffering a dizzy spell midway through the third round. In the end, only Strange and Karlsson were contesting this tournament with the next closest player, Frenchman Raphael Jaquelin, 4 shots back from the Swede and a gaggle of players a further one shot back

Birdies at the 2nd and 3rd stretched the overnight lead to 5 and the only worry for Strange came at the 12th when Karlsson had rattled off 6 straight birdies to cut his lead down to 2 but a bogey for Karlsson and a birdie for Strange at the 14th re-established a lead that was never seriously in trouble and allowed Strange to canter to the finish with a string of pars. This was the 4th week in a row that Karlsson has been near the top of the leaderboard, second place here following on from 3 successive third places. This level of consistency will surely see the Swede in the Ryder Cup at Valhalla.

Some have been a little critical of the course itself with the still young greens running a little soft and slow in comparison to those normally found on tour but reassurances have been given that the course will have matured significantly when the Ryder Cup comes to town.

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Congratulations to Scott Strange, shooting a bogey free 64 to win your first event is top quality golf, especially when you have an in form Ryder Cup player come at you like Karlsson did over the opeing holes. I went yesterday and thought the course would suit a Ryder Cup very well, the first 14 are kinda like The Belfry with elements of The Grove, the opening five being more like The Grove and The Roman Road course with undulatiing fairways and smatterings of big bunkers cut into slopes. The middle 9 are really where the lakes come into play, reminded me a lot of holes like the 3rd, 6th, 8th, and 9th at The Belfy, then the final four holes are cut into the hillside of the valley, using the big elevation changes really well. The good thing for matchplay is that you can see how it's possible to play quite agreassivley, however if you get too agressive or careless the course will bite you, as Nick Dougherty found when he played the back nine in 3 under without a single par. There are also a couple of drivable par 4s, the 15th is a dog leg right up at hill with a bunker, stream and steep slope guarding the front of the green, alternativley most of the players were going straight at the green between the mature trees on the right where a small apron has been put into to encourage this shot. The 5th is similar except there are less trees blocking the green, however I didn't see anyone attempt to direct route, I think they'd have to move the tee up. The greens did appear a little slower and more bobbley than a regular event but I'd expect they'll be fine by 2010, some of the players were struggling with distance control on the greens.

The were a few problems that I assume they would have thought of for the Ryder Cup; there didn't look like much space between the practice ground and the practice chipping and putting greens for them to put the big grandstands, although on the viewing front they have made sure that there are plenty of natural rises and slopes to stand on and the 18th has quite a big slope behind and left of the green, as well as all up the left side to watch from (assuming matches get that far), I didn't have any problems being able to see play at any point, especially compared to Wentworth last week, although arguably there were a lot less people and loads less than a Ryder Cup. They do have lots of land to sort out any problems like the space around the practice facilities. The other issue would be the park and ride system, annoying in itself, i'd much rather walk back to my car, which I took a bit of a risk and did at the end of play, although it was a good 20-30 minute walk up quite steep slopes and across parts of the Montgomerie course, and the track was pretty narrow too. I guess they only used the park and ride format that they did because they didn't have to cope with as many people as a Ryder Cup, however there was only one pick up point, unlike the 15 or 20 at the Belfry in 2002 ( and the system was still a shambles on the practice day), and at the end of the day people were queueing out of the tendted village for the bus, hence why I decided to walk it. The final problem would be where to put the large tented village, the only place I could think of would have been back on the Montgomerie course near the car park and pick up point, but it would be a real pain in the backside if you had to get the bus everytime you wanted to got to the tented village and this would probably reduce sales as well.

He shot like 22 under par? Wow. He also beat the tall lanky Swede Karlsson who is a very good golfer and who has been red hot lately.