“I’ve got the opportunity to do the greatest thing I’ve ever done.”
Those were the words uttered by Offaly man Shane Lowry to his caddie as he approached his Ryder Cup-winning putt at Bethpage in New York on Sunday. And in Limerick, after the ceremonial silver putter was handed over and the countdown to Adare 2027 officially got underway, the feeling is very much the same.
All roads now lead to Limerick, with one of the world’s largest sporting events, the Ryder Cup, set to take place on our doorstep in two years’ time. Not only that, 2027 will also mark the 100th anniversary of the event, which first took place at the Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts in 1927.
The fact that an Irish man sunk the winning put ensuring that Europe would be going into the competition as home-side title holders in 2027 made the win all the sweeter.
Eyes are now firmly on JP McManus’ world-class Adare Manor, which will play host to the 2027 competition.
Mr McManus, his daughter Sue Ann Foley, and Sport Minister and Limerick TD Patrick O’Donovan accepted the ceremonial silver putter at Bethpage on Sunday, officially kicking off the countdown to 2027.
From the race to finish the Adare Bypass in time for the competition to a planning application filed just last week for 10 new lodges at the luxury resort, major preparations are now underway to ensure Limerick proves to the world its reputation as the “sporting capital of Ireland”.
And there were celebrations aplenty in Adare over the weekend, as a number of events were held in the County Limerick town, from screenings of the final day of the competition in Bethpage to live music, face painting, and community gatherings. Even the Limerick hurlers got in on the fun, sinking a few putts with local children at Adare Pitch and Putt.
Speaking from Bethpage on Sunday following the historic handover, Sporting Minister Patrick O’Donovan said that Adare 2027 will be “an absolutely amazing tournament”.
He expressed his thanks to the McManus family “for making this happen, because without the Adare Manor golf resort, we wouldn’t be in a position to host one of the world’s major sporting events in our small, little community in the west of Ireland”.
Calling on the entire county to get behind the effort, Mayor John Moran said that “it’s a two-year countdown now, and it’s got to be Team Limerick”.
“If we can get communities behind us, that will make all the difference,” Mayor Moran said. “If I think about the differences between where we are in Bethpage and Limerick, I think it’s going to be that all of Limerick are going to be participating in this.”
“A lot of people at home have been at World Cups and stuff like that, and so they know it literally is that scale of people descending on Limerick. We’ve got to pull together and get all that stuff in place and the earlier the better, because we’ll keep coming up with ideas and having new things to add.”
The Mayor added that there was huge interest in Bethpage for what Limerick has in store for 2027, “we just have to build on that”.
Cathaoirleach of the Adare-Rathkeale district, Cllr Ger Ward, encouraged all of Limerick to “put on the green jersey and come out and back it”. He also expressed his thanks to the McManus family, saying that “without their investment in Adare Manor, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation”.
Dr Pat Daly, director general of Limerick City and County Council, added that “we’re going to make it the best we can make it as the centenary, which I think is dawning on people that it’s even going to be bigger, and we just can’t wait for that.”
“I don’t think we have too much of a worry, Limerick is a sporting capital of Ireland and I think people are going to embrace it,” he said.
“What we want to make sure is that people are thinking about how they can participate, how they can help, how they can support the event, and put Limerick on the world stage and show off what we are, which is a fantastic, brilliant, sporting capital of the world.”
2027 will mark only the second time the Ryder Cup has been hosted in Ireland, following County Kildare’s K Club in 2006. Proceedings will kick off in Adare between September 17 and 19, 2027.
With the attention of the world now on the Treaty County, we’ve got the opportunity to do the greatest thing we’ve ever done.
