Arise Adare and take your place among the greats...

Next week's Ryder Cup in Paris will be the last but one biennial event in Europe before 2026. With an extravagant investment by its owner, Adare Manor resort in Limerick makes a compelling case to join the elite list of hosts.

Tue, 11 Sep, 2018 - 05:20

Tony Leen

Next week’s Ryder Cup in Paris will be the last but one biennial event in Europe before 2026. With an extravagant investment by its owner, Adare Manor resort in Limerick makes a compelling case to join the elite list of hosts.

Tom Fazio is driving along the interstate in North Carolina but walking every inch of Adare Manor’s crafted 90 hectares with you.

“Let me ask you first,” the world’s foremost golf course designer queries. “Have you played the course lately?”

In the last six weeks, he is told.

And in a word, how did you find it?

Opulent and playable — if I can have two.

“Well playability is my style of golf,” Fazio, now 73, agrees. And then off he meanders through varying tiers of wonderment at what JP McManus’ largesse and Fazio’s creative nous has delivered in Limerick. It is a thing of beauty.

For any golfer whose experience of Adare Manor golf pre-dates its regal revamp, there’s a modicum of solace in the fact the footprint and routing are essentially the same.

There are significant elevation changes to some holes (the 5th, for example) but if anything, one is less likely to take time searching for wayward shots for the reason that a lot of trees have been removed. There’s air and light and it’s all very breathable. One would have to try hard to lose a ball now but here’s the rub — accumulating a score might be harder still.

The reason? Run-offs. Shaved-to-the-bone environs around the greens, 12,500 sq metres of them in all. Employing 50 greenkeepers is next to unheard of in the industry but these run-offs and the lovingly tended teeing areas, triplicate the mowing work every day.

Walking down to the first tee, glance right to the back of the ninth green. You’ll get savvy in a hurry about how standard approaches get complicated fast.

“Adare is purposefully set up that it looks really easy to play,” Fazio laughs.

Certainly, it’s fun to play. All the detail of the positions you can play shots to give you so much variety but the next thing, you’re counting afterwards and thinking ‘gee, I didn’t really score that good, did I?’

Andy McMahon, the director of golf operations at Adare Manor, agrees. “It’s one of those courses where it’s easy to have a decent score but it’s a very hard golf course to get a good score. No one’s getting 42 points — but you are not coming in with 21 points either.”

JP might have proffered the excuse of euphoric light-headedness had Limerick an All-Ireland hurling title delivered by the time he set about discussing with Fazio the refurbishment of all refurbishments. Instead, he could only confide wistfully when it was nearing its glorious completion: ‘If I had to count the cheques, I’d have stopped.’ Maybe he would. Somehow, though, I doubt it.

Andy McMahon couldn’t possibly deign to dignify such gossip as the eye-watering cost of the new Adare Manor resort, but smiles at his own misinterpretation of what a ‘refurb’ at Adare would mean.

I had been at The Grove in Hertfordshire for 12 years, but until I came over here to chat, I had no idea of the scale of the changes.

"That word (refurb) doesn’t come near to describing what’s taken place. It’s gone from being the best parkland in Ireland to, well, just take ‘parkland’ out of it. It’s one of the very best golf courses in Ireland. So, we can un-categorise ourselves.”

Fazio has 17 grandchildren, gets his cheques made out with seven zeros, and is wordly enough at this stage not to be manacled by concerns about cheque books and chunks of spend.

“We had a good discussion, JP and I, to get a feel of what he wanted to do. It’s not about what I want to do, it’s always about what the owner wants — and what they can afford to do. I had no clue what JP and his family would do with Adare. I don’t think anybody did. I am not even sure they knew to start with they were going to go as far as they did.

“When you get to a golf course and a manor house, you never know how big the job is going to be until you start working. What the McManus family has created at Adare Manor, if you want an experience of world class — not just Ireland or western

Europe — there is no better experience you can find than going to Adare Manor. It’s one of the best places in the world. It’s hard to explain it.

People would like to say these things can be done somehow without deep pockets. Unfortunately, financial capability affects everything in terms of how things get done,” Fazio says.

“The amount of jobs, the amount of people that worked on Adare for two and a half years. The number of tradespeople, carpenters, electricians, construction, landscape, it created so many jobs.

“How do you get that done? If a Government was going to do that it would involve so many rules and regulations, it would take twice as long. JP’s love for Ireland, for Limerick and for golf, made that commitment and that’s how it gets done. People say ‘ah only rich people can do that’. Well JP didn’t create that system, it’s a god thing. How do you pay for all the people who work there?

“It doesn’t make much economic sense to do what he did? As a business man, he probably wouldn’t do this as an investment or something he wants to start making a profit on.

“People may think it’s expensive. It’s not about that because you can’t justify what he did from a return standpoint.

“The commitment he made is so fabulous, so wonderful. This is a bigger thing, this is a big, big deal for Ireland. This is a world class must-see. It’s that big a deal.”

McManus and Fazio enlisted the golfing eye of Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley during the recreate.

The designer got Harrington to approach the 18th green — shallow and treacherous — from all sorts of eyes and angles to see how it might be played. “I gave him 20 balls,” Fazio recalls, “and he took his putter, his wedge, he bounced it with a seven iron, he lobbed it. The thing that makes it difficult, Pádraig said, is that I was putting a question in his mind but giving the player options at the same time. I like that. It’s a special kind of a course.”

Of course, it’s a special kind of price too, around €340 in high season, inclusive of caddie, and if you are like the hotel guest stuffing all the free toiletries into your bag to stay ahead of the high-cost room rate, you might be better off sparing yourself the frustration and leave Adare Manor to those willing to dig deep for the experience.

Like the Titleist Pro V1 range balls, the black, monikered bag towels, the rich-piled (and of course monikered) changing room towels, the elegant Carriage House clubhouse, the deluxe-seated club cars, with charger for your iPhone. Naturally.

And we haven’t poked a drive down the first fairway yet.

When you are looking around now for easy improvements, they are very hard to find,” McMahon contests, “because everything that could be done has been done.

There’s 180,000 tons of sand to make Adare Manor firm and fast, regardless of schizophrenic weather.

It will be open this winter, the course’s first real test, and it’s ready. The course is one of a handful in the world utilising ‘Sub-Air’ technology beneath the greens — Augusta National was the first — essentially sucking the moisture and keeping greens running fast and true.

Pure distinction bent grass has been used on those greens, which feed off into those aforementioned surrounds and run-off areas, as penal and severe as you can imagine. Anything a tad astray can and will finish 30 yards left, right or long. Are you putting or bumping it back towards the flag?

You’ll notice the aesthetic early too. The emerald colouring of the rye grass chosen for its look as well as its playability.

“The maintenance team for the course is 50-people strong, led up by Alan McDonnell our superintendent,” the golf operations chief explains.

Every green is hand-mown, every approach to every green is hand mown, and tee boxes the same.

He’s not lying. On Twitter last week, an English PGA pro posted a picture of himself pacing the putting surfaces. Except it was actually the 6th tee box.

It takes six green-keepers to do the 18th green alone every day. Hand-crafted takes on a whole new meaning at Adare Manor.

And if 2026 is the announcement that dare not announce itself, there’s nothing to stop speculation on the likelihood of a Ryder Cup in Limerick that year.

Fazio has no doubts.

If for whatever reason there was an event, no matter what it could be, Adare Manor is ready for it. Tomorrow. The infrastructure, the parking, facilities, practice areas, every piece of it, the place is ready. This is a world deal. This is a total package and the commitment made to it makes it one of a kind.

It’s not hard to lure the director of golf operations into that space either. The invitational fourball between McIlroy, Lowry, Harrington, and McGinley this summer gave everyone — from staff at the resort to the European Tour — a little window into a global future.

“You can see exactly where all the stands would go,” Andy McMahon says. “When we had that invitation fourball there were two and a half thousand people there and we had a huge atmosphere there, it was picture perfect. It was good to see where people are travelling on the course, a nice little test in traffic terms. They were following just one match, so the 2020 (JP McManus) Pro-Am will take that to another level. It will be great to hear the noise because acoustically it’s a super golf course. You’ll hear the roar of the birdies.”

Fazio’s passion for design must have been outside itself when McManus provided the basis for the work.

While his son Logan drives the family business now, and Fazio Snr may not be hungry for new work, Adare consumed him.

“People say have you retired and I’m thinking ‘why would you retire from my business? It takes you to great places to meet great people, and have fun doing it. Oh, and by the way, people pay me very well to do it so why would you stop doing that?”

The language he details the work at Adare in is rich. The ‘gorgeously’ shaped par 4 second hole, the elevation changes on the 12th, a par five. “The setting for that has a great feeling about it.”

There’s a scent of Augusta itself about the approach down to the 13th green, which runs away from all the places you want to the ball to feed down to. “It’s the finesse of that golf hole I like,” says its designer, “only the brave goes at that sucker (left-side) pin unless you’re a tour level golfer.”

“No. 13 is pretty special,” Andy McMahon agrees, “a tee set back in the trees, big bunker on the right-hand side of the fairway. That bunker is such a focal point, and the trees left and right frame the hole beautifully.”

Explains Tom Fazio: “My goal was to create an experience where you really want to come and play this parkland course. Visiting golfers don’t necessarily want to play parkland in Ireland, so how do we get it to play like a links course? That was the challenge. Irish golf is playing through the elements of wind and moisture, bouncing and rolling. How do you achieve that with no rough, dry as can be, sandy soil? At Adare Manor, you can chip or putt 60-70 yards from the green.

“It has links playability in a parkland setting, which is very distinct and one of a kind.”

The designer is delighted with the Index One No 5 (a par four) which necessitated major earth work elevations on difficult terrain. It was dropped by 15 feet, so players now see the bottom of the flag. It’s turned one of Adare’s weaker holes into one of the strongest and begins a run of holes to the turn that are really strong.

The oft-pictured par three 16th green is now 85 yards long from front left to back right and could easily require a four-club change from one day to the next, depending on elements and pin placement.

Fazio has cleared a lot of the left-side across the signature finishing par 5, encouraging players to go across the river left of the 18th green. The director of golf operations (a pro by trade, of course), reckons going that route makes the hole half a shot easier, but that presupposes said player has the touch to take advantage of going down the length of the green rather than the shallow front-to-back route. It’s

probably the lesser of two evils.

“Also, when we talk about playability, players will quickly see there’s no penal rough on the golf course — which means you won’t lose a ball unless in a hazard,” says McMahon. “We can make it 7,500 yards off the back tees, but it can also be a 6,000-yard test which is a completely different golf course. It can be set up for the elite player or for the recreational golfer.”

What Adare Manor potentially adds to Munster as the premium golf experience will only be determined by time and packaging.

Notwithstanding the lure of the country’s north-west, there cannot be a golfing platter as varied and delightful as that now offered by Lahinch, Doonbeg, down to Ballybunion, Tralee, Dooks, and Waterville, across to the Old Head and up to Adare Manor.

“I think we bring that completely different feel to the area in terms of the style of golf course. A pristine, inland golf course to complement the fabulous links. And maybe you don’t get beaten up as much here.”

‘Fees are set according to what we feel it’s worth’

Q&A with Andy McMahon, Director of Golf Operations

Are members’ playing rights limited?

“Members have no restriction on the amount of golf they play, seven days a week. They can bring their guests too to enjoy the facility for a discounted rate. In fact, they can bring seven guests at a time — the three to play with them and another fourball to follow them.

"Plus the Carriage House is a clubhouse of sorts, and it’s pretty special, so the membership is very active.”

Are you worried about affordability for green fees?

“We encourage pay and play golf and we encourage to book in advance. Caddies are compulsory for our visitors — one to enhance the experience of the guest and second, golf course maintenance. It’s a high maintenance golf course, our fees are set according to what we feel it’s worth as an experience. It does price out like a world class golf experience, but we’re judging our pricing on our product. I think we’d enhance any list of must-play courses in Ireland.”

Will it be open all year around?

"We were unfortunate with a fire at the Carriage House, so instead of opening the golf course in August 2017, the upside was we were afforded an exceptional grow-in period until April this year. The circumstances were unfortunate, but you’d seldom have that facility again and with the weather this summer, the place has been literally blooming.

From November, the course will remain open for play from Wednesday to Sunday. The Irish weather will dictate a lot to us.

"We are not a golf course that is going to have 3,000 rounds on it — we couldn’t maintain a course in the condition that we demand with that amount of footfall. With our 15-minute intervals in playing times we are ensuring, through the caddies, that the experience of a championship golf course doesn’t have to be one of those five-hour rounds. Again, it’s about enhancing the experience.”

The Tony awards

Best hole:

Easy pick is the 18th, but the 2nd and 13th are two beatifully framed holes, with both having a lick of Augusta about them.

Hidden gem:

The drive off the back sticks on the 17th make it at one, a beast and a beauty.

Weakest hole:

Maybe the least strongest hole is the 8th, which is seen as the “toughest driving hole on the front nine” and indexed No 1. Don’t think so.

Biggest change:

From the old design, the fifth, a par four, has been dropped 15ft, so the bowl-shaped green is now visible from the fairway.

Most dangerous:

The par three 6th has been lengthened, and is guarded right and off the back by water. Not only that, the slick run-offs will feed it into the wet stuff

Risk/reward:

The par 5 seventh is begging to be hit in two, but it’s trouble all the way up the right, and the bailout left has been mowed down to a run off now too.

Picture perfect:

Tough to beat the approach to the 9th, another par 5, with the stunning Manor House, as a backdrop.

Toughest par:

Perhaps the 10th, because the approach is a mid-iron to a green of measly depth. Getting back up to the green and down for par is a result.

The glass staircase:

The greens will run at 11 even in winter, but the swails and hollows on 18 make it a tough two putt.

Toughest drive:

Maybe not the toughest, but the 15th running alongside the River Maigue makes it too easy to bail out left, where trees and traps lurk.

Sweetest approach:

The second to No 13 — where the green runs away from the player — is heavenly.