When Team Europe attempts to win a third-straight Ryder Cup in 2027, 200,000 rabid fans are expected to cheer them on at Adare Manor in Ireland. One big problem has arisen: there aren’t enough hotel rooms in the area to house all those fans.
To overcome this issue, Ryder Cup Europe organizers are considering a strange solution: having fans stay on cruise ships docked near the course. That’s according to a new report by U.K. newspaper The Times.
Here’s what we know.
Ryder Cup fans could stay on cruise ships in 2027
The 2023 Ryder Cup, the last to be held in Europe, was hosted by Marco Simone. While as many as 270,000 fans flooded the course that week, it’s location near Italy’s capital of Rome made spectator logistics relatively simple.
The same can be said for this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black near New York City.
But the 2027 Ryder Cup presents issues not seen in 2023 and 2025. Adare Manor is a luxury resort, with hotel rooms that will likely accommodate the Ryder Cup teams on site. But there are nowhere near enough rooms for fans.
The home village of the resort, Adare, has a population of just 1,129 (according to 2019 figures). The much larger city of Limerick, home to over 100,000 residents, is close by and will no doubt be part of the solution to housing hundreds of thousands of golf fans in two years.
But even Limerick’s hotels won’t be enough to satisfy the huge demand for beds that September.
A new report from The Times sheds light on the many plans in progress to prepare for the 2027 Ryder Cup.
The Times report is based off minutes from a meeting of a “steering group for Ireland’s hosting of the event.”
And in that meeting, it was revealed that an “option for large cruise ships to dock at Foynes remained under consideration” to alleviate the lack of spectator accommodation in the area.
Foynes is a port city located just under 30 km Northwest of Adare Manor. The report also notes that accommodation decisions are ultimately up to Ryder Cup Europe.
But that’s not the only transportation initiative in the works for the 2027 Ryder Cup. The Times reports that a “major rail transportation plan” is in consideration to shuttle fans to Adare Manor from Limerick and cruise ships at Foynes.
The Irish government has also approved “accelerated construction” on the Adare Bypass project, which would see a new road built bypassing the village of Adare to improve traffic conditions for the Ryder Cup.
You can read the entire report from The Times here.
Cruise ships at sport and golf events (see: Tiger Woods)
While housing Ryder Cup fans on cruise ships is a novel idea, athletes using ships as accommodation at major sporting events isn’t completely without precedent.
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. men’s and women’s basketball teams stayed on a cruise ship for the Games.
