2010 rehearsal

Mark Roe says the Wales Open will give potential Ryder Cup players the opportunity to strut their stuff.

Ryder Cup revisited

The Wales Open is the perfect opportunity for US captain Corey Pavin to have a good look at the new golf course that they will be playing on next September. He will also have the chance to look at some of the young talent on the European tour that will be in the team facing him. It is a good exercise for him to come over and no doubt Pavin and Colin Montgomery will have a very good chat around the course. It is going to be very good to see the golf course once again as they have made some great changes to the course for the Ryder Cup in 2010 - hence it being called the 2010 course. It is an amalgamation of what was the old Wentworth Hills course and obviously redesigned and then moved down to the valley floor. I think they have done a really good job of it and obviously over the years it will evolve and settle. They will continue to make changes and improve it as much as they can. No golf course ever comes up perfect the first time, so this is a good opportunity to have a strong field who will play on the course and make constructive and positive comments. If tat feedback is taken on board and then acted upon then the golf course will get better and better over the years. It is a large field and you have to be looking at the guys who are in form at the moment. Ross Fisher is one of those in-form players to keep an eye out for. He is coming off a brilliant performance at the PGA Championship. He had a fantastic last round that all but caught Paul Casey. He is keen to get another victory to add to the Dutch Open and European Open. Nick Dougherty finished fourth in Ireland so it will be good to see if he can come up with some more positive performances and build on that. Another player to look out for is Welshman Stephen Dodd. Here is a guy who won three times on the European tour and especially in 2005 and 2006 he was pretty high up on the Order of Merit. But after a couple of years he disappeared into the wilderness, in fact he was 286th on last years Order of Merit. This year we have seen a return to form from Dodd; he has had several good finishes this year and is definitely moving in the right direction. He will be inspired playing back home in Wales and it will be interesting to see how he plays too. It is a great opportunity for potential Ryder Cup players to play the course and obviously the more competitive players you can get on a course is a good thing as well. It will be interesting to see how many potential Ryder Cup stars fair on this golf course.