JP pro-am raises €40m

IN any financial climate, it would be staggering. But in Ireland, 2010, raising over €40m around a pro-am charity golf event borders on the outer realms of believability.

But that’s what the organising committee of the JP McManus Pro-Am accumulated before and around the two-day golfing extravaganza at Adare Manor last July. The final total of €40,298,615.23 eclipsed the 2005 total — Celtic Tiger and all — by the guts of €10m, with over €31m raised five years ago.

That brings the total amount of money raised by the JP McManus Pro-Am for mid west charities since the event was first played in 1990 to over €135m.

Fourteen major champions competed in the event, with a total of 35 major titles between them.

They were joined by Hollywood’s finest, including Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Grant and Michael Douglas.