Jon Rahm hails 'immaculate' Adare Manor a year out from Ryder Cup

Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose believe there could be two or three new faces on the European Ryder Cup team for the 2027 tournament at Adare Manor

Jon Rahm on Adare Manor: 'It's one of the best hotel golf course experiences there is in the world.' Pic: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Jon Rahm described Adare Manor as "immaculate" after joining 15 other prospective European Ryder Cup players at the course on Monday. Thursday marks one year out from when the tournament begins at the Limerick venue. 

Among those gathered by team captain Luke Donald for the recce were 2025 Ryder Cup winners Shane Lowry, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Aberg, Bob MacIntyre, Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick and Sepp Straka. Fitzpatrick's younger brother Alex, Norway's Kristoffer Reitan, and Spanish pair Eugenio Chacarra and Angel Ayora were the potential Ryder Cup debutants. Previous Ryder Cup players Alex Noren, a vice-captain at Bethpage Black, and 2023 winner Nicolai Hojgaard were also present. 

“Any time I'm asked to go to Adare Manor, I'm going to go happily and willingly," Rahm said ahead of this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

"It's one of the best hotel golf course experiences there is in the world. It was a lot of fun."

Rahm continued: "With the good weather they've had in Europe, in Ireland, it was in as good a shape as I've ever seen it. It was actually firm. I mean, they could have had it as fast as they wanted to. It was immaculate."

Noren said the visit strengthened his ambition to return as a player. 

"When I was there [on Monday], it hits you how like amazing Ryder Cup is, and I thought the venue was spectacular. I've never seen a place like it," said the 44-year-old Swede.

"To have a year to see if I can improve in all areas of the game and be part of that team would be amazing. Firstly, I thought it was smart of Luke to gather all the players there. Second, it made it kind of even more sort of like a goal for everybody."

Unlike for Europe's 2023 victory in Rome and the 2018 win at Le Golf National in France, no recent DP World Tour events have been held at Adare Manor. Noren said "the strategy around setting up the course is very different from when they have a lot of data from the Tour."

"It's a very difficult task to set that up to our advantage," said Noren.

"We'll see how they do. It's the course and the resources where you can set it up pretty much however you want, like you can grow in the rough, you can expand, and you can use tee boxes. It's like not particularly a blank sheet of paper, but you can do whatever you want preparation-wise.”

Rose believes the 2027 European team could feature as many as three new players.

“I think freshening it up a little bit would be a good thing," said Rose.

"You want your team to be experienced, but to have some fresh energy is always great, whether that be ideas, style of game, pairing options.

“I'd imagine that you'd look at three being sort of like the spread, I would say, maybe three new faces, maybe two and a half new faces.

“The transition from Whistling Straits into Rome was fantastic, and I think that only strengthened into solidifying some of those players that stepped into that role into Bethpage. There's so many good young players, like the Højgaards, Ludvig, even Bob. Those guys are now real stalwarts of the team going forward."

Rory McIlroy thinks the right time for Europe to blend in new players is when they have home advantage but he expects the core of the team to remain unchanged. 

"The thing that I preach around the European Ryder Cup team is there's this like continuity, and I think continuity between the captain, the players, the vice captains, like that's a big thing in a team environment," he said.

"Look, inevitably there might be some new faces on that team, but there's certainly not going to be wholesale changes. I think the nucleus of our team will remain the nucleus. You might have a couple maybe, but I'd say for the most part, as long as everyone plays well and stays injury-free, you're going to have a very similar looking team to what we've had the last couple times."