In three weeks’ time, at the end of Ryder Cup 2025 in New York, a ceremonial putter will be handed over.
It will be given to the billionaire businessman JP McManus and the Minister for Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, marking the transfer of Ryder Cup hosting duties to Adare Manor for 2027.
It has taken a taxpayer investment of €58 million to bring one of world sport’s most prestigious events to Limerick. The Government is predicting returns of up to €160 million.
However, The Irish Times has learned the operational costs have already exceeded the budget allocation and more taxpayers’ money – understood to be an extra €30 million – is being sought.
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It is seven years since officials from Ryder Cup Europe made their first call to the Irish government to open discussions about hosting Ryder Cup 2027.
Ryder Cup Europe told Irish government officials they did not intend to have a bidding process; the event would be staged in Adare Manor. JP McManus had already committed to spend €30 million securing the event for his five-star resort.
McManus naturally had the support of Ireland’s leading golfers, Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington, but he also had the backing of his close friend Tiger Woods, then the biggest commercial draw in world golf.
Hosting the Ryder Cup would allow Ireland to market itself as a tourism and golf destination to 375 million homes worldwide. The only question was how much money the Irish government was prepared to pay to support McManus’s ambition.
Two months after the phone call, then taoiseach Leo Varadkar and then minister for sport Shane Ross met Ryder Cup Europe executives in Dublin. That meeting unlocked €58 million in Irish taxpayer support for hosting Ryder Cup 2027 in Limerick.
The sum comprised a licence fee of €22.5 million; €8.5 million to support the annual Irish Open golf tournament and other golf tour events; €8 million for marketing of the Ryder Cup in Ireland; €5 million in VAT paid by the Irish exchequer and €14.7 million for operational costs.
This final allocation is now considered significantly below what is required.
A spokesperson for O’Donovan said global supply chain issues post-Covid, and inflation since 2019, had led to increased costs. The spokesperson could not quantify how much more taxpayer support would be required.
“A full review of the operational budget (transport, security, local authority costs etc) is taking place in parallel with the strategic planning to host the event which is governed by the Government steering group,” he said.
The chairman of the Government steering group is Martin Fraser, a former secretary general at the Department of the Taoiseach, and the current Irish Ambassador to the UK. Fraser, who is due to submit a progress report and seek extra funding from the Government before December, did not respond to an interview request.
Hosting the Ryder Cup in his home city of Limerick has been McManus’s dream since he purchased Adare Manor in January 2015 for €30 million from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the State’s “bad bank” set up by the government post-crash to purge bad loans from the propped-up banks.
Detractors question the optics of taxpayers subsidising a billionaire tax exile to host one of world sport’s most elitist events in his own manor, purchased at a discount from Nama.
But, if the past is a fair judge of the future, then the taxpayer will be repaid handsomely. The last two Ryder Cups held in Europe were in France (2018) and Italy (2023) and generated €235.7 million and €262 million respectively.
The Irish Government expects a potential return on its Adare 2027 investment of up to €160 million. This seems a conservative estimate.
The last time the event was held in Ireland, at the K Club in Kildare in 2006, a Deloitte & Touche report concluded it generated €143 million in direct revenue for the Irish economy.
Apart from hotels, bars, retail outlets, restaurants and cafes benefiting, there are private homeowners who stand to make large sums renting out their homes for the week of the tournament, from September 13th to 19th, 2027.
Adare Manor runs its own site in conjunction with the European Tour through which private householders can register to rent their properties during Ryder Cup 2027.
The rents commanded are not as yet publicly listed.
A source familiar with the commercial letting terms said: “You are looking at €25,000 to €30,000 per week for a four-bedroom home around an hour’s drive from Adare. Homeowners from Limerick, Ennis, Thurles, Tralee, Killarney and Cork could expect that level of rent.
“But they should be aware that Revenue will take 50 per cent of that, and there are also the increased home insurance costs to consider.”
The rental prices being sought are even higher on some alternative listing sites for Ryder Cup 2027. These include a two-bedroom cottage in Birr, 94km from Adare, charging €15,000 per week, and a property more than 90 minutes’ drive from Adare charging €50,000 for the week.
John Browne has listed his five-bedroom property in Killarney for €50,000.
“That’s what it’s listed for but the market will dictate what we get closer to the time. We haven’t had any queries yet, but in other years, these bookings are typically made closer to the event,” he said.
Local authority costs have increased the projected operational budget for Ryder Cup 2027. Limerick City and County Council has found it more expensive than projected to buy land for use as park-and-ride facilities in the Patrickswell and Adare areas.
The council is in the final stages of negotiations to buy one plot of land in Patrickswell for €4 million.
“The intention is to use it for park-and-ride facilities and to put modular homes there for Ryder Cup workers. Then, after the event, the land will be used to develop social housing,” a source familiar with the negotiations said.
In addition to providing €58 million in taxpayer support for the Ryder Cup, the Government has also invested €150 million to accelerate completion of a 7km Adare bypass, to remove unnecessary through traffic in Adare village. This investment is to ensure the bypass is completed by June 2027 in time for the Ryder Cup.
While the Government is busy funding and building a motorway to improve access to Adare Manor, McManus has spent heavily on improving the 18 holes, investing approximately €2 million per green under the guidance of world-renowned golf architect Tom Fazio. Each green has been relaid with super fine Pure Distinction bentgrass, the first course in Europe to incorporate such a feature. Each green has a SubAir aeration system, which removes moisture through vacuum pumps to guarantee firm greens regardless of the weather.
More than 6,000sq m of bunkers were created to frame the 170 acres of manicured fairways.
Last month, ground staff set fire to each fairway to reseed the approaches with A4 bentgrass, the type of grass more commonly used on greens in the world’s best courses.
Even the course’s signature 18th hole has been reconfigured so that players will tee off with Adare Manor in the background, perfectly framed for the television footage beamed into 375 million homes.
All this work has meant the course has been closed for lengthy periods, to the annoyance of some members paying €15,000 a year membership.
Though the course was only open for four months this year, and will likely only be open for five months in 2026, members expecting a corresponding rebate in their membership fees have been told to negotiate it on a case-by-case basis.
One member, who was given a 10-year membership when he purchased a property on the Adare Manor site in 2016, said local membership was not a priority for Adare Manor.
“What JP wants is green fees from rich Americans primarily. They have to stay in the hotel as well as paying €500 a head for a round of golf. The cheapest room in the manor is €1,100 a night. Some suites go for more than €7,000 a night,” he said.
“It’s been voted one of the best hotels in the world, and his aim is to make Adare a destination venue for the world’s rich, not to get green fees or membership fees from locals.”
In May, a wealthy American couple hired out Adare Manor and every pub and cafe in Adare village for their wedding celebrations. They even offered Limerick City and County Council €1 million to shut down the road through Adare for the day, so the wedding procession could march through the village, but the council refused.
While the council would not close roads and reroute traffic for this wedding couple, it is prepared to move heaven and earth for JP McManus and Ryder Cup 2027.
[ Dates for the 2027 Ryder Cup in Adare Manor confirmedOpens in new window ]
The event will draw 300,000 spectators, including 60,000 foreign tourists from 90 countries. Ryder Cup Europe says attendees spend at least €500 a day, rising to €1,000 a day for the average American visitor, and all visitors generally extend their stay beyond the three competitive days of the tournament.
In Italy for Ryder Cup 2023, for example, accommodation alone generated 318,000 bed nights worth €34 million.
The real economic benefit comes through the marketing potential for Ireland as a tourism and golf destination, something now driven by social media as well as the 2,000 mainstream journalists who cover each Ryder Cup.
In the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy, there were almost 27 million interactions with Ryder Cup social media – a metric now considered as important as the broadcast figures, which reveal the event is watched on 50 channels worldwide.
When the ceremonial putter is handed over to McManus at the end of the 2025 Ryder Cup later this month, it will mark a moment of achievement for the billionaire.
Whether playing high-stakes backgammon or betting big on fluctuations in currency markets, McManus is famed for his patience.
Though a high-handicap golfer, when it comes to the Ryder Cup, he has proved to be a master of the long game.
