Limerick council to spend €60,000 on giant golf balls ahead of 2027 Ryder Cup

The hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to descend on Limerick for next year’s Ryder Cup in Adare will see giant golf balls placed at strategic sites across the county in connection with the event.Limerick City and County Council will spend an estimated €60,000 on 10 giant branded promotional golf balls at various locations ahead of the Ryder Cup being staged at JP McManus’s Adare Manor Hotel next September.The Ryder Cup is expected to deliver a significant economic dividend for the midwest and the country – the 2023 edition in Rome resulted in an estimated economic impact of €262 million for Italy, with 241,000 visitors from 200 different countries.A council tender for the design, manufacture and supply of the branded golf balls states that they “will act as landmark branding features and visitor attractions at locations throughout County Limerick”.READ MOREThe golf balls will have a diameter of 1.2m – 28 times the 42.66mm diameter of a standard golf ball.The contract will be worth €60,000 – which works out at €6,000 per golf ball and the golf balls “will incorporate approved Ryder Cup and associated event branding as directed by Limerick City and County Council”.Each ball is to include four branded logos and the 10 golf balls will be located across Limerick city and county, with four in the city, three in Adare and Rathkeale, two in Newcastle West and one in Cappamore/Kilmallock.The tender states that the fibreglass balls should be suitable for long-term outdoor use for a minimum 12-month period within the Irish climate. The specification for the works says they should be resistant to vandalism, accidental impact, wind-loading, moisture ingress, corrosion and UV degradation, and delivered within six months of the award of the contract.The closing date for the submission of tenders is October 2nd.The Limerick scheme is not the first time outsized golf balls have been suggested as Irish Ryder Cup landmarks. When the contest was held at the K Club in Straffan in 2006, it was unsuccessfully proposed that the nearby Perpetual Motion sculpture – known to N7 motorists as the Naas Ball – might be repainted to look like a giant golf ball.[ ‘Being the centenary makes it extra special’: Luke Donald wants Ryder Cup hat-trick at Adare ManorOpens in new window ]