Many Cork people will be familiar with Adare.  A large proportion of Cork golfers will have played the course, and many more will have visited when it hosted the Irish Open or the JP McManus ProAm.  On the redesigned course, every tee box and green remain are effectively the same place.  While the order of the holes and general layout remains the same, everything else has been transformed.  Each green and tee has been rebuilt and redesigned from scratch, with significant underground installations for drainage, new irrigation and watery delivery systems. Every bunker has been replaced with the latest capillary concrete liner drainage technology.  All of the fairways have been sand-capped for the driest playing conditions.  All of the numbers in Adare are astounding.  Over 180,000 tonnes of sand were brought in to improve playability and redefine the course.  On top of that 77 new tee boxes were constructed stretching the course from 5,120 metres on the red tees, to a massive 7,509 metres off the Gold championship tees.  While there are four measured course lengths on the card, greenkeepers have plenty of choices in setting up the course for any particular day.  Adare is now one of just a handful of courses worldwide to have the patented Sub Air technology beneath every putting surface, providing constant air movement for aeration and to moderate the temperature in the root zone.  Fazio has brought water into play on 14 of the 18 holes.  The River Maigue frames the 15^th and 18^th, to the two lakes, and on to the winding lazy streams which run through several more holes.

One major change is the removal of the gorse that bordered some holes.  There is no long rough, which means that there is now twice as much cut grass as before between the fairways and first cut.  Every green has the advantage of Pure Distinction bent grass, the newest type of golf course grass providing the purest putting surfaces available.  The result is a magnificent golf course which remains eminently playable in all conditions, whatever the Irish weather may have in store.

The man hours needed to maintain the new course will be bigger than any other course in Ireland, and Adare have a team of over 50 greenkeepers charged with ensuring that Fazio’s vision is realised every day that the course is open.  The Ryder Cup in 2026 is definitely a target for McManus.  With major golf events in mind, Fazio has overseen a robust infrastructure of roadways, hospitality arenas and access areas, also ensuring services for tournament power, media and telecommunications. Thanks to his efforts, The Golf Course at Adare Manor is looking forward to a long and illustrious future.