Inside Adare Manor as J.P. McManus rolls out red carpet for 2027 Ryder Cup

As you take a left turn off a roundabout on the N21 and head towards the village of Adare, you instantly wonder how many people have made the same mistake, including this correspondent, no doubt, if it hadn’t been for satellite navigation in my Kia Picanto hired at Dublin Airport around three hours earlier.

One of the first entrances you come to, after all, is for Adare Manor Golf Club, which might sound as though it is the place you are heading to, but, in connection with the 2027 Ryder Cup, it certainly isn’t and I say that with all due respect.

You need to stay on the road a little longer, crossing the River Maigue before you arrive at Adare Manor Hotel & Golf Resort, where a gatehouse instantly reminds you that you’ve arrived at a venue that operates on an appointment-only basis.

The Scotsman’s Golf Correspondent Martin Dempster pictured during his first visit to Adare Manor, next year’s Ryder Cup venue | Iconic Media Group

Thankfully, my name was on the list of permitted visitors for this particular day, which was a Ryder Cup Year to Go Press Conference involving the European captain, Luke Donald, and Jim Furyk, his US counterpart for the event’s centenary edition in County Limerick next September.

An extremely cheery chap afforded me the warmest of welcomes, doing so, naturally, in the traditional manner by saying “Céad Míle Fáilte”, which translates to a “hundred thousand welcomes” and is something that is going to be heard an awful lot when golf fans arrive in the Emerald Isle for Ireland’s second staging - the first was at The K Club in 2006 - of golf’s biggest event.

I’d heard lots over the years about Adare Manor, which sits in an 840-acre estate and is owned by J.P. McManus, better known for his love of horseracing but, at the same time, a keen golfer. Within a couple of minutes of getting out of my car, I bumped into Denis Kirwan, an Irish sports broadcaster, and he immediately said to me that, in his opinion, “this place is the closest you’ll see to Augusta National in terms of how the golf course is manicured”. Really? Because the home of The Masters, of course, is mind-blowing in that respect.

It was the following morning, as part of a small media group taking part in a course walk along with Ryder Cup officials, before I got a proper chance to see if Denis and two or three others who said exactly the same thing to me on Tuesday were maybe exaggerating a bit, but, no, they were absolutely spot on. It’s the ‘Augusta of Europe’ or ‘Augusta of Ireland’, whatever way you want to call it.

In preparation for next year’s event, it was ripped up last year, re-seeded and re-grown. It had absolutely chucked it down for most of Tuesday, especially in the afternoon, but a sub-air system ensured that it was looking spick and span less than 24 hours later.

Visually, the course looks extremely US in style, with huge drop-offs around the greens and lots of water hazards around it. The aforementioned River Maigue, for instance, comes into play in particular at the par-4 15th, which sits directly across from the hotel, and par-5 18th, where Englishman Richard Finch famously fell into the water playing a shot en route to winning the 2008 Irish Open.

The front nine is fairly flat, though the par-4 fifth - an official Ryder Cup Campsite sits across the other side of the river from the tee - climbs to a highest point and, according to David Garland, the Special Adviser to Tournament Operations at the DP World Tour and the man running the three-day event inside the ropes, is the “best green on the course for viewing”.

Due to the fact that the majority of greens - some of the tees, too - are raised, it’s going to be challenging for fans to see golf balls in motion on the putting surfaces by being at the side of the green. If you’re lucky enough to be among the 50,000 fans per day in attendance, a good tip would be to stay a bit short of the green as you can see from that position on most holes.

A total of 20,000 grandstand seats - almost double the 2023 match in Rome - will be in place around the course, with a 6,500-capacity horse-shoe structure around the first tee set to guarantee the electric atmosphere we’ve come to know and love with this event.

Despite a back tee not being used, the par-5 12th will still play at 574 yards while there is a real ‘Augusta feel’ at the 13th, the hardest hole on the course and, in the words of Kevin Feeney, the DP World Tour’s Director of Tournament Operations, marking the start of a “really good finishing stretch”. The tee at the 15th, incidentally, backs on to the third tee at Adare Manor Golf Club, though a fence will be erected to prevent any distractions from the opposite side of a small hedge.

Including something similar to that, Adare Manor and Gleneagles, venue for the 2014 edition, have lots in common. A five-star hotel factor, too, of course, and, unlike Rome and New York for the two most recent clashes, both teams will be staying on site for this match. A walk down the main street in the village of Adare - I’d recommend a visit to the Dunraven Arms Hotel and, for coffee lovers, The Poppy Cup - also feels a bit like being in Auchterarder.

View from the back of the 16th green at Adare Manor with the five-star hotel in the background | Iconic Media Group

Back on the golf course, watch out for the short 16th, where a wide but very shallow green with steep drop-offs at the rear has water right across the front of it, delivering lots of drama. A tight tee shot awaits at the 17th, another Augusta-type hole, while, as the aforementioned Finch would testify, strange things can happen at the last.

Yes, I now know that there is something very special about Adare Manor, making it a very fitting venue indeed for this milestone edition. Roll on next September!