'The really interesting thing is how far the boys will hit it'

The JP McManus Pro-Am is a global event in its own right but this week's spectacular will also inform Adare Manor in terms of the 2027 Ryder Cup

Green keeper Gene Gullinane cutting the grass in area in front of the 18th green at Adare Manor for next week's JP McManus Pro-Am. Picture Dan Linehan

With so much star power on display over the next two days at Adare Manor, it may be easy to be fixated on the here and now at the 2022 JP McManus Pro-Am.

Yet eagerly anticipated as this week’s event is for Irish golf fans given the chance to watch the game’s elite compete on the Co. Limerick gem it also offers an equally exciting glimpse as to how the 2027 Ryder Cup could look when golf’s most riveting competition will be staged there.

For Adare Manor’s Andy McMahon and all the staff at the five-star manor hotel and golf resort, the Pro-Am also serves the additional purpose of a dry run for the biennial matches between Europe and the United States.

The director of golf operations and his team will be working around the clock this week to deliver the very best golfing event they can for both participants and spectators in their efforts to add to the €140 million already raised for local charities and projects thanks to previous editions of the Pro-Am. Yet there will also be opportunities over the next two days to gather valuable knowledge and experience to enhance the delivery of the centenary Ryder Cup five years from now.

“It’s a great trial run,” McMahon told the Irish Examiner. “I think the idea of 35,000 people walking through the gates is intimidating and exciting at the same time. So it should be very interesting how it comes along.

“The whole event is for charity, which is obviously great for all the local good causes, and the list is huge. But we’ve got the competition side, which will be a lot more in line with what’s going to happen in 2027.

“We’ve got the expertise of the DP World Tour, of the Ryder Cup, ourselves and the previous events here; we’ve got all that experience but we’re still looking towards the Ryder Cup and how many fans are going to be at it. We really want to make sure that we don’t leave any stone unturned.

“Crowd movements will be a huge learning for us this week. When you think about the River Maigue, we are on two sides of that so the bridges are quite important to us, to make sure we keep people flowing back and forth smoothly.

“We’ve got a merchandise village which is not going to be Ryder Cup size but we have retail space, a nice bar, and a nice seating area, the food trucks. How do they get into their locations, and are they influencing the television pictures because we don’t want anything spoiling the look of the golf course and the vistas. Even the TV towers, which have been going up. It certainly has the feel of a big-time golf event.” 

A big-time tournament on a large-scale canvas, Adare Manor sits on 842 acres, the same area as New York’s Central Park and London’s Hampstead Heath.

“The beauty of the golf course is that it’s so big,” McMahon said. There are no dunes like on the links courses to go and plonk yourself down on but there’s nowhere you can’t walk. We’ve done so much work on the drainage so that if the weather is wet it won’t become a mudbath.

“The range will be another great area this week. We’ve put in an autograph area down there as the players won’t be signing them on the golf course but they will sign there beforehand.

“It’s going to be fun, that’s the word I keep coming back to and 35,000 people a day, it’s a big event, a big crowd for any tournament. The Ryder Cup will have significantly more spectators but we have the space.

At the heart of it, of course, is the Tom Fazio-designed 7,500-yard championship course and the way the stars play it this will week will be every bit as informative as where the spectators stop to watch them.

“The small things that are going to be really interesting for us is when we see how far the boys hit it. We’ve got a golf course that’s 7,500 yards long. When we see how far these guys hit it and where the landing zones are because where we put the tees for this event, we’ll still have scope to go further back. We’re not going to have the Pro-Am playing the full length of the golf course. It will be a championship length but there is still room to go back should we need to.

“So that will be a real learning aspect for us. Are bunkers in play, will they cut the corner on 12, how close do they get on 18 if they’re playing safe or they’re going for it? All those things will be huge from that standpoint.

“Green speeds, pin positions, we’re not going to have the same pin positions at a Ryder Cup that we have for the Pro-Am but it will be great to see the feedback we get on the greens, the run-offs and the approaches.” 

The mantra this week is to offer the pros and amateurs alike an enjoyable experience, not turn their days into a five-hour slog. A modified Texas Scramble off two tees rather than a shotgun start will keep things moving and allow the winning putt to be landed in front of the manor house and while there will not be similar hole locations to 2027, they have been part of the conversation with the Ryder Cup, McMahon said.

“We work with Ryder Cup and DP World Tour along with Mr McManus, with Padraig Harrington, along with our agronomists and we have an insight from everyone.

“We did pin positions with Mr McManus and Padraig Harrington the other week and along with the Tour’s suggestions we came up with the pin positions for the event. It’s great to have someone like Padraig give their insight, to know what the players like. Obviously from a Ryder Cup standpoint as well, you’re not going to get any better insight than him and Paul McGinley is another who came out and helped us that day.

“We’re very lucky that we’ve got so many eyes and ears on how to create a spectacle but also what works and what doesn’t work. That’s why tee positions are so important as well because we’ve got a range of players from Bryson DeChambeau to some Senior Tour players, like Paul, Ian Woosnam, Mark O’Meara.

“So we don’t want to make it so its 7,500 yards long and it’s becoming a slog. We want it to be a tough experience but not a beat-you-up experience. We’ll set it up in a nice way so that the fans will get to see lots of birdies and lots of good shots.

“It’s definitely not going to be gruelling and we’ve got a lot left in the tank to make it tougher with a few touches that could turn a leading score from a 63 to a 67. That’s an important element of what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to make it a spectacle.

“We’ve got amateur golfers out there as well and we want to make it an enjoyable experience for all competitors. It will be great fun.”