There is still a year to go until the Ryder Cup in 2027, but Europe has already started working on defending the title at Adare Manor. Jon Rahm recently took part in a gathering at the venue for the next edition alongside players who were part of previous teams and others hoping to make their debuts, a first get-together that the Spaniard considers especially important for beginning to build the team spirit
Rahm does not need many invitations to go to Adare. “Whenever I’m asked to go to Adare Manor, I’ll go happily and gladly. It’s one of the best hotel and golf-course experiences in the world,” he said this Tuesday at Wentworth, where he is competing in the BMW PGA Championship
The meeting brought together regular team members with possible new faces for 2027. “It was a lot of fun. There were some members of the Ryder Cup and some potential candidates for the Ryder Cup. It was very pleasant,” explained Rahm. Beyond the purely sporting work, the player from Barrika gives a lot of importance to these kinds of meetings to start generating a team atmosphere
“I think those days are fantastic for all of us, to see each other and, in some way, remember why we do what we do,” he said. An experience he considers even more valuable for those who have never played a Ryder: “For people who have never been involved in anything related to the Ryder Cup I think it’s fantastic to have a small example of how things can be and how they can feel”
The aim is also to familiarise potential debutants with a competition whose scale is hard to understand until you experience it from the inside. “For those players who have never been there, I think taking away those first nerves about what things can be like and how they might feel is very, very important,” he added
Rahm was also impressed by the condition of Adare Manor. The course has undergone changes and the players had the opportunity to see them with captain Luke Donald and his vice-captains. “As far as we knew, they had reseeded the course. They went from European ryegrass to American ryegrass, if I’m correct. With the good weather they’ve had in Ireland, it was in as good a condition as I’ve ever seen it”
The Spaniard even found firmness conditions that allow many preparation alternatives for the Ryder. “It was firm. They could have made it as quick as they wanted. It wasn’t overly quick because, obviously, I think they want people to still be able to enjoy the week. It was in perfect condition. Immaculate,” he said
Europe will face a different circumstance in 2027 compared to the Ryders at Le Golf National and Marco Simone, venues that hosted tour events before the competition and where European players were able to gain competitive experience. Rahm, however, does not consider that will be a problem
“Luckily JP is willing to host us and welcome us there whenever we want. If we want to get a lot of experience and play it, I think we can take advantage of that,” he said about the facilities of JP McManus, owner of Adare Manor
But building a European Ryder goes far beyond knowledge of the course. It is also about an identity that Rahm understands perfectly and in which Seve Ballesteros continues to occupy a central place. Although Jon could not witness Seve’s great Ryders live, he believes his influence still shapes the team decades later
“In some way, he became the essence of the team. His charisma and the way he competed essentially became the style of the European team in the years that followed,” he said
And here appears another fundamental Spanish figure, José María Olazábal, whose presence around the team helps connect new generations with the history. “Having José in the locker room is huge because no one can bring that to life better than him. And at every Ryder Cup he’s been part of we ask him for stories to relive those moments, to understand what happened before us and try to play as they played before us”
Rahm recalled that that legacy was especially present in the victory in Roma. “It is very, very important. It was undoubtedly very alive in Rome. The captain did an incredible job with that and I think he is accustoming us to an excellent level of captaincy”
For a Spaniard, moreover, the history carries added weight. When asked whether, after having formed an extraordinary partnership with Sergio García, he feels he now carries the baton of Spanish golf in the Ryder, Rahm acknowledged that he had never considered it that way. “I hadn’t thought about it. If that’s the case, it’s a true honour to be able to take on that responsibility”
“I try to play the way I’d like to play. I try to be myself out there. If that in some way matches the Spanish players of the past, it’s incredible,” he explained. But he immediately recognised that there is a bar that inevitably weighs when a Spaniard enters the European locker room for the first time
“As a Spaniard, the first time you go to a Ryder Cup there is a level of… I wouldn’t call it pressure, but intensity, simply from knowing what those before me have done, from knowing what Sergio, Olazábal and Seve were capable of,” he said. “There is a certain standard to reach. I hope I can live up to it”
And in preparing that whole process appears Luke Donald, towards whom Rahm showed absolute admiration. “He’s the kind of personality that does a very good job in a leadership role like this. He’s someone who thinks things through in advance, someone who has a plan and adjustments for those plans if things go wrong. He’s very calm and very balanced”
So much so that Rahm himself admits he is still a long way from seeing himself performing that function. “I can’t believe you’re doing this as well as you are,” he said he recently told Donald. “When we play and see it, what he conveys is pure calm. At every moment of every day he seems calm, serene and with everything under control”
The comparison with himself led him to a confession: “I know that I in that situation would be very far from that. So I know I’m not at all ready to be captain of a Ryder Cup. I hope to be in the future, but right now I’m not. It’s truly inspiring”
Europe still has twelve months ahead before arriving at Adare Manor, but the work has already begun. With visits to the course, potential debutants gradually joining the team dynamic, Luke Donald building his project anew and a story that continues to travel from generation to generation. From Seve y Olazábal to Sergio and Rahm. Because as Jon recalls, in a European Ryder Cup you are not only playing for the twelve who are there. You’re also playing trying to live up to those who were before you
