Celtic Manor (Roman Road) - South Wales - Wales

Reasonable but forgettable. the greens are fantastic, but the lack of either a pin position sheet or coloured flags to indicate front middle or back really let's them down. Some greens are close to 40 yards deep and with the contours you really need to be in the correct part of the green to have a reasonable 2 put opportunity. Also seems to be a tendency for the green staff to put the pins on the slopes between the tiers rather than on the tiers themselves meaning there were a few holes where it was physically impossible to stop the ball next to the hole. Fantastic bunkering but the mixes nature of them let's it down again, some had obscene amounts of sand, others had very little. A far superior course to the montgomerie, but personally I'd sooner head down the road to St pierre. The distance from the paths to fairways for buggies and the state of the buggies themselves really let's the resort down, one of the staff members described them as vintage and that is being incredibly kind

I have ranked this the same as The Montgomery’ both are part of the fantastic Celtic Manor complex and both play 2nd fiddle to the overpriced 2010. Both the Roman Road and Montgomery are good conditioned tracks that can normally be played for a reasonable price...My tip would be to also stay the night at the Hotel and take in the top class service of the Hotel also.

As a member of roman rd im fortunate to play this course every week, and between the two championship courses at Celtic Manor, the majority will agree this is the better of the two! Similar to monty each hole is completely different to the rest, the course is always in good shape! winter and summer! it plays long! but theres some incredible holes including the par 5 5th, par 4 10th, and an amazing par 3 over water on 16.

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.