Colin Sheridan: Ryder Cup prices, and Adare Manor, feel surreal

The 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor should be a celebration of Irish golf but with €499 tickets, and a course which doesn't feel like it belongs in this landscape, you wonder who this event is really for

Adare Manor is a spectacular golf course. Immaculate in a way that almost doesn’t seem real. And yet, walking it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t I that didn't quite belong, but the course itself. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

I thought my kids would be a little bit older before I had to explain late-stage capitalism to them, but last Friday’s sale of Ryder Cup tickets brought things to an unexpected head. They are too young to understand about extreme wealth inequality, and the encroachment of market logic into all aspects of their lives, but when they’re sitting at home next September while Brooks Koepka’s wife is taking selfies with Jon Rahm’s wife just an hour down the road, I guess I want them to understand why they’re not photobombing the occasion.

Friday was the day tickets for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor went on sale - initially to Irish residents, a gesture that felt both generous and faintly condescending. First refusal, if you like, provided you had €499 to spare for a single day’s attendance. The website crashed under the demand. Which tells you everything and nothing at once.