London -26 September 2026 — EBM WEEKEDN READ — By Brad Adams
In twelve months’ time, the most commercially powerful week in golf arrives in a small village in County Limerick. The Ryder Cup comes to Adare Manor from 13 to 19 September 2027, and it lands in a sport transformed since the last edition. Rory McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters and successfully defended his title in 2026. The Saudi-funded LIV Golf league that tried to buy the sport is falling apart. And Ireland’s taxpayers have committed more than €200 million to stage an event whose ground tickets cost €499 a day. Like the sovereign money now reshaping football, golf’s story is ultimately about who pays, who profits and what cannot be bought.
The Money War Is Over
For four years, professional golf fought a civil war over money. It ended this spring, not with a negotiated peace but with a withdrawal. On 30 April, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it would stop funding LIV Golf after this season, having reportedly spent more than $5 billion on the league since 2022. The fund said LIV was no longer consistent with its investment strategy.
Geopolitics played its part. McIlroy himself linked the decision to events in the Middle East, observing that funding tied so closely to geopolitics is “a tricky road to navigate”. The Saudi fund is pulling back from international sport to focus on projects at home, partly because of the regional conflicts that are also driving Europe’s energy bill.
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SubscribeWhat remains of LIV is in poor shape. The league has faced multiple lawsuits and has cancelled two tournaments, including its season-ending team championship. Its management wants to take the business to outside investors, but those investors now demand far more rigorous due diligence than a sovereign fund writing blank cheques ever did. McIlroy, who once urged the PGA Tour to strike a deal with the Saudis, now says he is glad he was wrong.
What the Stars Are Worth Now
The collapse of LIV changes the economics of elite golf in a way few have yet priced in. For four years, the top players had two bidders competing for their services, and the auction drove up everyone’s value, including those who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour. With one bidder gone, that leverage disappears. Several LIV players’ representatives have already approached the PGA Tour about coming back, and they are not negotiating from strength.
The biggest stars, however, have already moved beyond prize money. McIlroy earned an estimated $50 million off the course in the twelve months to May 2026, and is one of only three players, alongside Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler, to have won more than $100 million in career prize money. More telling is what he owns. He and Woods founded TMRW Sports, which launched the TGL league in 2025. Like the athletes building global sports empires in tennis and football, the top golfers increasingly want equity rather than appearance fees. They are also well placed to benefit from the broadcasting battles reshaping sports media.
In short, the money war has sorted golf’s workforce into two classes. A handful of global brands like McIlroy will keep getting richer. The journeymen who cashed in on the bidding war will find the market far less generous.
The Players Who Play for Free
The Ryder Cup stands apart from all of this, and that is precisely its commercial value. For the 2025 edition at Bethpage, the PGA of America paid each US player $500,000 for the first time, with $300,000 earmarked for charity. The European players were paid nothing. McIlroy said he would pay for the privilege to play in the event. Europe went on to win, and Luke Donald returns as captain at Adare chasing a third straight victory.
This is the paradox at the heart of the Ryder Cup economy. The players who generate the value receive little or nothing, and that is part of what makes the event so marketable. The money flows instead to the organisers, the hosts and the venue. It also flows from the fans. Adare’s daily admission of €499 is almost twice the price charged in Rome in 2023, and compares with €130 at the K Club in 2006, or about €200 in today’s money.
Ireland’s €200m Bet
The Irish State is paying heavily for its seat at the table. Committed government spending runs to more than €200 million: €58 million in direct costs plus €150 million for a bypass around Adare. The direct costs include a €22.5 million licence fee, €8.5 million to support the Irish Open and other events, and €8 million for marketing. An extra €30 million was sought last year after operating costs overran the budget.
The projected returns vary. The government originally forecast up to €160 million, and officials now expect economic benefits in excess of €300 million. For comparison, the 2006 Ryder Cup at the K Club generated €143 million in direct spending. The demand is real. Around 240,000 people are expected in Adare, and Europe’s largest-ever Ryder Cup grandstands will seat more than 20,000. Many of those visitors will be flying in from North America at a time when fuel costs are squeezing airlines and fares.
Not everyone is convinced. One Irish Times analysis argued that even if the tourism agency’s projections are met, the taxpayer could still be about €40 million down. Economists who study mega-events have long warned that they rarely deliver the returns promised, and with government borrowing costs rising, every euro of public subsidy now carries a higher price.
Who Really Wins
The clearest winner is the venue’s owner. JP McManus bought Adare Manor for around €30 million and spent years pursuing the Ryder Cup, and he had committed €30 million to securing it. The event will put his course firmly on the bucket list of wealthy international golfers for decades. Local homeowners renting out property will enjoy windfalls, and the village gets a bypass. Ireland gains a marketing platform broadcast into an estimated 375 million homes worldwide.
The Ryder Cup matters commercially because it is one of the few prizes in sport that money cannot buy. LIV spent more than $5 billion and failed to buy golf’s heart. The Ryder Cup, where Europeans still play for nothing, has kept it. That is exactly why brands, broadcasters and governments will pay so much to be near it.
Ireland’s €200 million should therefore be judged as a marketing investment, not a profit centre. The real test is not the takings in Adare during one week next September. It is whether international golf tourism to Ireland rises in 2028, 2029 and 2030. If it does, the State will have bought something LIV never could. If it doesn’t, Irish taxpayers will have subsidised the most expensive golf tickets in European history, on a billionaire’s course, for a week.
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