The box office drama will be evident from the very first tee shots of next year’s centenary Ryder Cup at Adare Manor, with the decision by the European Tour – in consultation with Europe captain Luke Donald – to make the first hole a drivable Par 4 of 294 yards.
Although the Tom Fazio redesigned course has a back tee of 433 yards on the first hole, the move to play it as a short Par 4 has been influenced by the need to accommodate a giant horseshoe grandstand around and along the first tee box which will seat 6,500 spectators at the sold-out match between Europe and the United States.
The sheer scale of the proposed horseshoe grandstand for Adare Manor has led to the decision to use the most forward tee at 294 yards rather than the back tee or the other tees at 376 yards and 341 yards. However, it won’t be simply a case of players standing up to grip-it-and-rip-it as accuracy will also be required, with the green guarded by a stream in front of it.
Traditionally, a drivable Par 4 would have been considered an advantage for the Americans, who through the years statistically have longer average driving distances on the PGA Tour. However, the gap has closed in more recent years, to the extent that Europe’s players can often outdrive their US counterparts.
RM Block
The grandstand on the first tee at Adare Manor will be one of the largest constructed for the opening hole experience at any Ryder Cup, comparable to the one used at Le Golf National in Paris in 2018, while a smaller grandstand by the first green will accommodate another 900 fans for what should be a drama-filled opening hole.
The first hole experience has become an integral part of the Ryder Cup down the years, including the 2023 match at Marco Simone in Rome – where the grandstand, based on a gladiatorial theme around the Colosseum, had 5,000 seats – which also started with a drivable Par 4.
When the 2025 Ryder Cup was held at Bethpage, the grandstand at the first tee combined with the 18th for a dual seated structure which catered for 5,000 spectators.
The first use of an opening tee grandstand was at The K Club in 2006 when it was a rather more modest and compact affair with seats for a couple of hundred people.
Over the years, that first tee experience has seen grandstands grow bigger, There was seating of 2,148 for the one at Gleneagles for the 2014 match and 1,668 at Hazeltine in 2016. The 2018 match in Paris was the game-changer with a multi-tier stand accommodating 6,5000 – which will be matched at Adare Manor next year.
In all, the grandstand capacity at Adare Manor for next year’s event will be able to accommodate 20,000 seats with a daily attendance for the match on September 13th-19th, 2027, of 50,000 spectators.
