In our last blog we all looked back at our personal highlights of 2009. But for the first blog of the New Year, and as the snow piles up outside, I thought I’d sit back with a warming ‘Chocolat chaud’ and look forward to what 2010 has in store.

And for myself it looks like another busy year with three new courses up and running by the autumn. The first, Rowallan Castle Golf Course in Scotland, had a soft opening last year but should be fully operational this summer. It’s a Colin Montgomerie signature course which winds its way through a historic landscape and past two castles. There are some great views to, across the Clyde estuary to Arran.

Moving to Southern Europe, The Dunes Course at Navarino Dunes Resort in Greece will open for play this spring. Designed in association with Bernhard Langer the golf course is part of a major new, beachside luxury hotel resort in Messinia in the southwest Peloponnese. It is a particularly exciting project as it represents the first of a number of high-end developments in the region which will open under the Costa Navarino umbrella.

The third course I’ll be looking forward to seeing being played this year is the Colin Montgomerie Course at The Dutch, in Holland. 11 holes were completed last year and were growing in strongly by the end of the season. In the spring we’ll be putting the finishing touches to the remaining holes with a view to playing some golf in the late autumn.

And talking of the autumn. October 1st will see the first shots struck in anger at the 2010 Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor Resort, the biennial match between the top golfers in Europe and the US. This will be the 38th time the matches have been played but, excitingly for us, the 1st time on a golf course created by European Golf Design. The event marks 10 years of work for us and we’ll be looking forward to it with a mixture of excitement and trepidation! You never know we might even get a European victory. Now there’s something to warm the cockles of your heart on a cold day in January!