Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale: Five things to know

The European Tour returns to The Celtic Manor Resort for this week's Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale. Here are your five things to know.

The return to Celtic Manor

The European Tour returns to The Celtic Manor Resort for the third time in 12 months this week to mark the 21st edition of the Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale.

The Twenty Ten course made its own return to the European Tour last year for the first time since Joost Luiten claimed the title in 2014 during two weeks of the UK Swing, and the 2010 Ryder Cup venue provided plenty of drama with victories from Sam Horsfield and Romain Langasque.

EDGA makes a return

In conjunction with the European Disabled Golf Association (EDGA) and as part of Golf For Good - the European Tour’s overarching Corporate Social Responsibility programme - 20 golfers taken from the World Rankings for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) as of May 16, 2021, will have the opportunity to tackle the same course set-up as the European Tour professionals. The new 36-hole tournaments will take place over the weekends of successive events in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and England.

The first of these events takes place this week, with eight players teeing it up at The Celtic Manor Resort in the morning of both July 24 and 25 – ahead of the professionals competing over the same venue for the Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale.

Risk and Reward at Celtic Manor

Players will once again have a chance to take on the risk and reward 15th hole at The Celtic Manor Resort this week, which proved to be one of the easier holes during both the Celtic Classic and ISPS HANDA Wales Open last year.

The hole itself is a 377-yard par four, but players do have the option to take a different, shorter route over the trees that makes the hole 262 yards to the front edge. It proved to be worth the risk for the majority of the field in both events last year – but with trees and thick rough to hit over, a steep bank for any miss right of the green and water left – it’s not surprising that sometimes that risk resulted in big numbers.

In total over the two weeks last year, there were 21 eagles, 291 birdies, 384 pars, 102 bogeys and 17 double bogeys or worse.

A new champion awaits

The Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale boasts an impressive list of former champions – from Major winners Paul Lawrie and Graeme McDowell to Ryder Cup stars Ian Poulter, Alex Noren, Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Robert Karlsson.

Last year, it was Romain Langasque who lifted his maiden European Tour title in this event, but with no former winners in the field, Sunday will guarantee a new champion will be crowned at The Celtic Manor Resort.

Supported by Gareth Bale

Global football superstar Gareth Bale is backing his country’s national golf open after the four-time Champions League winner committed to becoming supporting partner of the Cazoo Open.

The Wales international, who has made 96 appearances for his country and is his nation’s all-time top goal scorer, is an avid golf fan and, in partnership with his management group ICM Stellar Sports, wants to play a role in the development of professional and junior golf in Wales.

“The Cazoo Open had been away from the European Tour for a few years and, after watching the coverage last year, ICM Stellar Sports and I decided we wanted to play a part in the development of golf in Wales,” said Bale.

“We want to make golf in Wales bigger and we believe that this event can play a big role in that. Hopefully we can get more people watching and grow the game of golf in Wales.

“We want to make it a real spectacle. To have the Welsh public involved would be amazing. We’ve looked at doing other things with junior golf to try and build up golf in Wales - we want to get youngsters out there to watch the players play and do as much as we can to promote it.”