JP McManus accepted the traditional handover of the silver putter from the PGA of America at Bethpage Black to recognise that the 46th edition of the Ryder Cup – in the competition’s centenary year – will take place at Adare Manor in Co Limerick in 2027.
“We’re excited to host it. But I think it’s the people, the people of Limerick, the people of Adare and the people of Ireland, they’ve taken ownership of this,” acknowledged the owner of the five-star resort on the Ryder Cup winging its way to Ireland for only a second time, having previously been played at The K Club in 2006.
McManus added: “We had a great result in the K Club. The weather wasn’t great! But in spite of that I think everyone had a good time. We’d like a nice week of weather and I’m sure it will be a great week. The fact that we now get to host it, especially in the centenary year, makes it all the more exciting.
“We get a lot of Americans, tourists, year-in and year-out who do so much for our country. When they’re back in two years’ time we’re going to try to make it as memorable an experience as possible for them.”
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McManus and his daughter Sue Ann did the honours in accepting the silver putter on behalf of Adare Manor, while Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan, another Limerick man, represented the Irish Government in the handover from PGA of America president Don Rea Jnr.
Commenting on the crowd’s behaviour at Bethpage on Saturday, McManus said: “It’s very hard to lay the blame on the Americans. You know you get a very few, small minority of them that are causing problems. It’s not fair to tarnish them all the same.”
He added that Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry handled themselves with grace: “They’re great ambassadors for the game. We’re all very, very proud of them. They were very good. They behaved great.”
The dreaded envelope
A pain in the neck, quite literally, ruled Viktor Hovland out of the final day’s singles matches which meant the rare “envelope rule” came into play. It meant his match against Harris English – the American in said envelope – was declared a half.
Dr Andrew Murray, Ryder Cup Europe’s chief medical officer, said: “An MRI was arranged following liaison between Team Europe and PGA of America on-site medical team, which confirmed a flare up of a previous injury, a disc bulge in his neck by a medical imaging specialist. This morning, Viktor received ongoing treatment but unfortunately he is not able to rotate or flex his neck to one side making playing the singles impossible.”
Hovland joined a rare, if unwanted, club as only the fourth player unable to play due to illness or injury. In 1979, Mark James could not play due to a chest injury (with Gil Morgan in the US envelope), in 1991, American Steve Pate withdrew from the singles due to an injury following a car collision leading up to the match at Kiawah Island (with David Gilford named in the envelope), and in 1993, Sam Torrance was forced out of the singles due to injuring his toe (the USA’s Lanny Wadkins volunteered his own name).
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“Man, I gave it everything I had today for the team. Like my dad always said, you’ve just got to keep swimming. You can’t give up. That’s what I did today” – Bryson DeChambeau after winning his singles match against Matt Fitzpatrick.
