Stars Flock to the Jp Mcmanus Pro-am

As kryptonite is to Superman, and Superman is to the bad guys of the comic world, so the pro-am tournament is to professional golfers - six exhausting hours trapped on the course with three amateurs who, if the pro is lucky, will just about be able to get the ball airborne. There can be no greater agony in the game, except a four-putt on the final green to lose a major championship, although it is a close-run thing.

All of which makes events taking place at the Adare Manor club near Limerick later today very unusual. There, along with 162 amateurs, many of the world's best players will tee it up for a two-day event which threatens to ruin the pro-am's reputation as the professional's version of Hades, the JP McManus Pro-Am.

The event's name comes from its host, the Irish businessman JP McManus. And so does its pull. Whisper it in the presence of those organising the Scottish Open, this week's "official" European Tour event, but the field at Adare Manor is arguably better than that assembled at Loch Lomond. Padraig Harrington, Michael Campbell, Ernie Els, Davis Love, Luke Donald, Fred Couples, Mark O'Meara, Darren Clarke and Laura Davies form an impressive list of names for any tournament. Add that of Tiger Woods, who stepped on to his private plane after he finished playing in the Western Open in Chicago last night and headed to Ireland's west coast, and a tournament becomes a significant event on the calendar.

But, if Woods, Campbell, Harrington and company make the pilgrimage to Limerick for something other than the pleasure of playing 36 holes with high-handicap golfers, then the question is what?

It is certainly not to prepare for the links challenge of the Open at St Andrews, starting on Thursday week. It cannot be for the money either. No appearance fees are offered and the prize fund, while more than respectable at €1m, is loose change for the golfing millionaires taking part. "I'm very friendly with JP. He's a good friend of golf and has helped a lot of professionals down the years," says Harrington, when asked about his participation. "He doesn't ask for much in return."

Campbell, the new US Open champion, is enthused enough at the mention of McManus's name to launch into a lengthy anecdote about their first meeting. It was 1993, in the clubhouse at a tournament in France, and the New Zealander offered to buy the Irishman a glass of milk (his favourite drink, apparently) before discovering he had left his wallet back at the hotel. "JP said, 'Don't worry, it's taken care of,'" he recalls. "He was so friendly and I had no idea who he was. Then I found out who he was and for me to have such humble beginnings with JP, I respect that. I treated him like a normal person and he did the same. All the players respect him. He's a great man. Any time he needs me, or my services, I am there for him."

Tiger Woods is no less effusive, or accommodating when it comes to helping a man whom he first met in 1998 while visiting Ireland to prepare for the Open. They have since become close friends and frequent golfing partners.

It was no coincidence that, when Woods married last year, the service was staged at the Sandy Lane hotel in Barbados, which is co-owned by the Irishman. "We come together for JP and for him only," the world's No1 player said recently to an Irish journalist during a one-to-one interview, granted with the specific purpose of publicising his friend's tournament.

In which case, Woods can be counted as an integral part of an enormously successful enterprise. The last time the event was staged, in 2000, an estimated €20m was raised. Almost one-tenth of that total money was the winning bid for a round of golf with Tiger and his friend Mark O'Meara. (Joe Lewis, a billionaire financier, paid €1.78m for the privilege.)

That sum will be exceeded this year, not least because guests at the post-event dinner on Tuesday will have the chance to bid for luxury cars, luxury holidays and a stallion "nomination" to Giant's Causeway, which sired Footstepsinthesand, winner of this year's 2,000 Guineas.

It is assumed this latter prize has been donated by John Magnier, McManus's business partner and fellow member of the group of enormously wealthy Irish businessmen nicknamed the "Coolmore Mafia". Legendary in horse-racing circles, McManus and Magnier are better known to the wider public as the former part-owners of Manchester United who fell out with Sir Alex Ferguson over the ownership of Rock Of Gibraltar.

That dispute explains why Ferguson, who played in the 2000 event, will be absent today, although the tournament will not be short of "celebrity" players. As well as many of McManus's friends from the world of racing the football world will be represented by Michael Owen and Gary Lineker.

But, if the focus of the day's attention is Woods and the other big names, organisers have been anxious to stress the tournament is open to the ordinary golfer. For the last few months local charities across Ireland have staged qualifying events as part of the fund-raising effort. Nine thousand people entered.

"It is an open, so it is quite possible that any golfer who paid €20 to enter one of the qualifiers could be tee-ing it up with Tiger Woods on Monday morning," McManus said last week.

Woods must be hugely excited at such a prospect. Then again, the chances are he might not be.

Stellar line-up

Europe's Ryder Cup players

Peter Baker, Thomas Bjorn, Paul Broadhurst, Paul Casey, Darren Clarke, Andrew Coltart, Eamonn Darcy, Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Christy O'Connor jnr, José María Olazábal, Jesper Parnevik, Ian Poulter, Jarmo Sandelin, Sam Torrance, Jean van de Velde, Philip Walton, Lee Westwood, Ian Woosnam

US Ryder Cup players

John Cook, Fred Couples, Fred Funk, Lee Janzen, Tom Lehman Davis Love lll, Mark O'Meara, Tiger Woods

Other major winners

Rich Beem, Michael Campbell, Ben Curtis, Ernie Els

Celebrities

Michael Owen, Gary Lineker, Jodie Kidd, Alan Hansen, Martin O'Neill, Tony McCoy, Mick Fitzgerald, John Magnier, John Francome, Eddie Jordan, Keith Wood