Two years ago, Patrick Adler became the first Lahinch member to win the South of Ireland amateur title in 56 years.
Last week, he made his first PGA Tour start at the John Deere Classic, having progressed through the quagmire of Monday qualifying.
Monday qualifying for the PGA Tour is a dogfight, with only four places available in a field against the best aspiring Tour players and former winners. Perform at your maximum on the day, or you have no chance. Adler’s seven-under was good enough to make it this time after a six-under round in pre-qualifying. Another time he shot eight-under-par and the cut-off mark was 10-under.
“You got to play well, that’s for sure,” he says.
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The 23-year-old American is an Irish citizen, with an Irish mother and plenty family from Dún Laoghaire, Co Clare and Co Donegal.
The Irish influence is strong enough that he follows the Clare hurlers and supports Europe in the Ryder Cup. Adler is an overseas member of Lahinch Golf Club, where his father has been a member since 1995.
Adler missed the cut at the John Deere Classic, held at TPC Deere Run in his home state of Illinois, but performed well, finishing on one-under with the cut at three-under-par. He started with a bogey after being the “most nervous over a golf ball” he had been in his life, but recovered with an eagle on the next hole.
“With the way the golf course is set up, you have got to find a good balance of playing aggressively, but also conservatively. I felt like I did that well, but I just wasn’t able to get the putts to drop,” he says.
Adler had to pinch himself being on the putting green beside Chris Gotterup, or warming up beside Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler, but he made sure not to get caught up in hero worship.
“It’s kind of surreal in the moment, but then you realise, I’ve earned my way here. My performance was definitely a confidence booster, when you realise how thin the margin is out there.”
Adler’s golf career took a different trajectory when he won the South of Ireland at Lahinch in 2024, following in the footsteps of winners like Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke. After the victory, he had a strong final year in college, winning Big East Player of the Year on the US collegiate circuit when at Marquette.
“The South is where it all started,” he recalls. “I didn’t know if I wanted to even play professional golf, I didn’t know if I had the game to.”
That week in Lahinch was a wild one, with cousin Ryan Taylor having lined out for Clare in the All-Ireland hurling final against Cork the week prior.
“The whole week was just surreal, the party on Sunday night even more so. It was an unbelievable experience, having all my family there to see it too.
“Any time I’ve been struggling in professional golf, I have so many videos from the South, and I find myself looking back on those for confidence.
“My ma brings it up all the time. There will be a random Tuesday afternoon and a picture will pop on her computer at home and she’ll be like ‘I really can’t believe you’ve done that’.”
When Adler is not swinging, he is also a musician, singing and playing base in a band fittingly called The Adler Brothers, with his older brothers Connor and Aiden. With a busy schedule these days, finding the time to gig is difficult.
“When I was in high school and college, we tried to play as much as we could, but sometimes we were forcing it a bit too much. We’ll play one gig a year, and then the occasional time when we’re over in Ireland. I had an appearance at Kenny’s [bar in Lahinch] when I was in my second year of college, that was a funny time.”
With a trip back to Ireland in the diary for later this year, when he’ll catch a Waterboys concert and watch the Walker Cup in Lahinch, perhaps they’ll manage to squeeze in another performance at Kenny’s.
Adler’s dream is to get his card on the PGA Tour, to be there “for a long time” and to play alongside Rory McIlroy, who he credits with inspiring his interest in golf.
“Rory was my idol growing up, I would talk about him so much, almost to the point where some of the guys at my home course in Chicago still call me Rory to this day.”
