ISPS Handa Wales Open 2013 live on Sky Sports

The European Tour travels more than 400 miles south from last week’s Johnnie Walker Championship to Newport in south Wales where the TwentyTen layout at Celtic Manor hosts the Wales Open for a sixth time.

This will be the first time since the event moved to the TwentyTen course that the tournament is being staged at the end of August and Sky Sports will be the place to watch all four days of the penultimate UK stop on the European Tour calendar.

With the FedEx Cup play-offs on the PGA Tour again attracting the cream of golf’s elite-level performers this week, the tournament only boasts two of the world’s top-50 players but does feature a number of high profile names as the race for European Ryder Cup points begins.

Former Open Champion Darren Clarke is among the late entries for the Celtic Manor event which features a top international line-up.

Clarke, who won his first Major championship at Royal St George’s in 2011, tees up alongside a host of other Ryder Cup stars including Miguel Angel Jimenez, Francesco Molinari, Ross Fisher and Jose Maria Olazabal.

The popular Irishman was a vice-captain to Colin Montgomerie in Europe’s thrilling Ryder Cup victory at Celtic Manor in 2010 after making five appearances in the match as a player.Thom

The first man after Tiger Woods to win two World Golf Championship events, Clarke has claimed 14 European Tour titles in all. 

Other European Tour champions entered for the tournament from include Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn and Thorbjorn Olesen, Spanish quartet Alvaro Quiros, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Pablo Larrazábal, Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher and England’s Chris Wood, David Howell and Simon Dyson.

Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee defends the ISPS Handa Wales Open title he won in testing conditions last year to claim his first victory on European soil.

Jaidee is also part of a truly international field are Finland’s Mikko Ilonen, Australian Brett Rumford, Austrian Bernd Weisberger, Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin, Holland’s Joost Luiten, American Peter Uihlein and South Africa’s Darren Fichardt. 

The tournament marks the start of the points race for qualification for the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland and European Captain Paul McGinley, himself a former champion at Celtic Manor, will be keeping a close on all the hopefuls teeing off their campaigns.

With a prize fund of £1.8m, the ISPS Handa Wales Open is now in its 14th consecutive year at Celtic Manor.

Celtic Manor Resort Chief Executive Dylan Matthews said: “It’s always a real pleasure to welcome back so many star players of The European Tour.

“The ISPS Handa Wales Open has grown into one of the premier events on The European Tour International Schedule and is also a highlight of the Welsh sporting summer.

“This tournament is a fantastic opportunity for golf fans to see some of the world’s best players up close and enjoy a great value family day out.”

First contested in 2000, the Wales Open was held over the Wentwood Hills layout for five years before moving to Celtic Manor’s Roman Road course, then the Ryder Cup TwentyTen course in 2008.

The TwentyTen features nine completely new holes combined with nine from the original Wentwood Hills design.

Water hazards come into play on 10 holes, and wind is often a factor on this relatively flat course that sits in the Usk Valley.

Sky Sports will screen live coverage of all four days from the 2013 ISPS Handa Wales Open.

Rob Lee presents the action from a studio overlooking the 18th green. Commentators will include Ewen Murray, Bruce Critchley, Steve Beddow, Mark Roe, Richard Boxall, Tim Barter and Wayne Riley.

Unlike previous years, there are no terrestrial highlights scheduled to broadcast on BBC Wales.

In addition to the Wales Open, Sky Sports will also screen live coverage of the Deutsche Bank Championship – the first event of the FedEx Cup play-off series – over the same weekend, concluding on Monday, September 2.

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