Celtic Manor (Roman Road) - South Wales - Wales

Celtic Manor do some great deals which are perfect for mates wanting a trip away with some beers and buggy etc. Both the Montgomerie and Roman Road are hilly, with some good holes. But for the most part they are very forgetful and average. If you're after a fun cheap deal with your friends, I think CM is perfect. If you're looking for good golf courses however, I'd go south to the coast and play Southerndown, Pennard or Porthcawl.

An attempt at an American resort course in Wales. The land in places is too undulating to accommodate a great golf course, but there are some fun holes out there.

On the plus side, the course is well maintained and the set up is very friendly.

This is a much better course than I had expected, and pretty decent value. It is resort golf, a bit soulless, but perhaps due to the grim weather, we were virtually alone on the course. Considering the recent terrible storms in South Wales, the course was in really good condition.

I think that the order of play has been changed since some of the earlier reviews.

In general, the course is set up to be pretty forgiving from the tee. You can be quite wayward without any punishment worse than some gentle rough.

In my view the star hole is the 13th, a dog leg par 4 which requires a pretty daunting mid-iron second, from a downhill lie, across a water hazard lined with dense scrubby bushes, to a very elevated green.

The 5 par 3s are quite tough, two at about 175 yards and three at about 210 yards. In a way they sum up the course - a decent design, a good test, but lacking in character.

The Roman Road was pretty much what I was expecting. There were several enormous bunkers on both the fairways and around the greens. The putting surfaces were huge with some bold contouring and apart from a couple of tighter tree-lined holes you were pretty much free to wield your driver with semi-rough your likely punishment for a wayward shot. That said, many of the holes did favour one side of the fairway to make your approach from and the placement of the bunkers added an undercurrent of strategy.

The course was manicured perfectly with excellent tees, closely mown fairways and true greens. The ball seemed to sit up on top of the grass if you missed a green making chipping and pitching a lot easier than at some courses where the ball can nestle down.

At just under 6,500 yards the Roman Road course isn't a monster but it does require long hitting at times.

Ed is the founder of Golf Empire – click the link to read his full review.

For our group this was the weakest of the 3 courses at the hotel, felt crammed into the available land with some back and forth around the hotel. Some nice holes requiring shots over trees, but the Montgomerie is definitely better.

We played this course in May 2010 and whilst it was certainly in fantastic condition I can best describe it as souless. There are a couple of decent holes, the par 3 8th being the best, however there are too many holes that seemed to have been squeezed in. The par 3 11th being the worst example of this. On the plus side it was only £18 which is cheap considering the excellent facilities. A decent option if you are in the area and you can get a good rate, otherwise i would search for somewhere that feels more like a golf club and less like a resort.

This is a super course in its own right, but will be overshadowed by the 2010. My society played all three courses and we all agreed this was in the best condition, super greens and fairways and not as difficult for the average golfer as the other two courses here. Look out for the 10th hole here, its a fantastic hole, i've never played a hole like this before hitting your 2nd shot over mature trees that are in the valley below you, awesome. Really enjoyed this course, highly recommended.

Having played the Montgomerie course the day before, i knew we were in for a challenge. I have never at a golf course met such friendly staff, we travelled nearly 250 miles to play at celtic, we were not dissapointed. I caught the fairway bunker at the first but from there i settled down and started to par a few holes. the course was immaculate and the greens sublime. As we were playing the tricky par 3 8th, the course marshall asked us for a par three challenge to land on the green on the par 3 11th for a free round of golf. myself and friend duly obliged and won the challenge, myself finishing 6 foot from pin. So a free round of golf: we shall be going back for a free round of golf at roman road plus saving up to play the 2010, as we went for a drink at 2010 clubhouse: out of this world.Celtic Manor - Very Modern, Very swanky, but with down to earth staff, with the love of golf.

After seeing the Roman course on TV (Wales Open and the All Star cup), I really was not expecting to really enjoy the course – well I was actually very impressed after playing in Feb 2008. The first three holes are a tough par-4, a tough par-3 and then a par 5 with a difficult drive and a blind second shot – the early standard is high and to be honest is evident for the whole round. Not many flat holes at all, all are either up, down, dog-legging or some over valleys which are all very exciting. The Roman Road cannot be called traditional in any way but this is a modern course that is interesting all the way (the 16th is a bit of a giveaway par-5 though) and of a high standard. There are only a handful of places in GB&I that have three courses and not many can match the quality of Celtic Manor – the facilities and service in and around the resort are very high. I left with expectations met and surpassed...There are now at least half a dozen South-Wales courses worth playing and being based at the Celtic Manor would be my choice.

Lets be honest about this, not one of RTJJs best works. Uninspiring land obviously didn't help the cause. Asthetics mean a lot in design. The Roman Road is a poor attemt at a US style course. 10 to the dozen if this was a municipal stateside. Above average course when measured against the average courses (for that I give it a par), but measured againt the best it falls horribly short.