LAST JUNE, HOLYWOOD golf club stood poised for a remarkable double split by the Atlantic ocean.
In Ohio, Rory McIlroy was in a tie for the lead at the Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour, while in Germany, Tom McKibbin was in a share for the lead at the Porsche European Open on the DP World Tour.
Ultimately, it wasn’t quite an, er, Holywood ending, but it was McIlroy who faded from contention.
McKibbin saw off all comers to take his first title on the European tour, at only 20 years of age. He did so with a final flourish, nervelessly drawing a five-iron around a tree from the semi-rough to within seven feet. Playing partner Jordan Smith was spotted applauding from the fairway.
That’s one way to help secure your first DP World Tour win... 🤯
— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) June 4, 2023
Sensational from Tom McKibbin. 👏 pic.twitter.com/87eN6Q68OJ
“I haven’t personally gone back to watch it loads”, McKibbin tells The 42 of the signature shot, ”but it always seems to come up, it’s always posted here and there.”
Victory was the crowning achievement of McKibbin’s first full season on the DP World Tour. It earned him a winner’s cheque of €315,000, and as important as what it foretold of his ceiling was the fact it gave him a solid floor: the tournament win guarantees him a place on the DP World Tour through to 2025.
His ambitions are higher than merely sticking around, of course, but we’ll get to those in a moment. McIlroy couldn’t seal the deal in Ohio but said afterwards he was proud of McKibbin’s achievement.
“I saw it that night”, says McKibbin of the McIlroy interview. “He has been great with me. I’ve spent a lot of time with him over the last seven or eight years, and I’ve played a lot of golf with him.”
That the pair share both a golf club and precocity means the parallels would always be drawn.
“If I was getting that comparison, then I was obviously doing something right”, says McKibbin when I ask if the comparisons ever brought any pressure. “I tried to take it in my stride and go from there.
“It probably did [bother me] when I was younger, but not anymore. To be totally honest, I couldn’t really care less what other people say and compare, it doesn’t faze me anymore. I’ve heard it since I was 13 years old, so I’ve got so used to it that it doesn’t bother me. And when you’re out on the course, it’s you, the clubs, the caddie, so you’re not really thinking about what people are writing or saying.”
The comparisons will continue to be made if McKibbin maintains this trajectory, however. He is, for instance, only the second Irish golfer to break the world’s top 300 as a teenager. You’ll be able to guess who did it first.
McKibbin played rugby, football and did some cross-country running growing up, and started playing golf when he was eight, which he says is slightly late by the standards of today’s professional game. By 12 he knew he wanted to chase a career in golf, and played a couple of events on the second-tier Challenge Tour and one on the DP World Tour in his mid-teens. “I knew the standard from a young age”, he says. “I knew what hitting the ball the way they hit it felt like and looked like, so having those experiences made me know, ‘This is what you have to do.’”
McKibbin’s original plan was to go to college in the US, where the NCAA system is now churning out PGA Tour-ready players. He was all set to move to the University of Florida before Covid intervened, and when he was then bafflingly omitted from the 2021 Walker Cup team, he made the decision to go professional.
“It’s a decision I made that I am very happy with”, he says. “Playing with pros has elevated my game and made me better quickly, so I don’t have any ‘what ifs.’ This way made me a better player.”
It has been a rapid ascent, taking only a year to rise from the Challenge Tour to the main tour. Managing the increased travel load was the main learning of his rookie DP World Tour season, and resisting the draining temptation of endless work.
“It can be tricky with jet lag and tiredness, and you’re trying to get the practice rounds in to get ready for Thursday”, he says. “It can be quite tiring, especially when you’re struggling with one or two things, and you’re trying to work on a part of your game. Not overdoing it is a hard thing” you can easily stand there all day trying to get better, and you can burn yourself out before you even tee it up on Thursday.
“I’ve had many practice days at tournaments when I’m not hitting it great and not feeling great, and then I go out and play well. So, really, it doesn’t matter until Thursday, it’s such a strange game. It can turn around like that. There’s no point in stressing out. You have to go out and give it your all, and if it’s not enough, you can have a great week the week after.”
McKibbin said he would have been satisfied with his debut season even without the win in Germany, with seven top-20s in 31 starts and top-40 finishes among deeper fields at the Irish and Scottish Opens. His aim is to play his way onto the PGA Tour, for which there are now 10 tickets handed out on the DP World Tour every year. McKibbin is building from a very strong base, finishing 44th last year.
He is very much focused on the pathway to the PGA Tour, and says he he has not been offered anything by LIV, and nor has he sought it.
“Nothing is affecting me at the minute, I am just playing the same golf I’ve played the last couple of years. It doesn’t bother me, I know where I am playing for the year or so, and hopefully then onto the States at some point.”
He and his family spent Christmas in Florida, and McKibbin took what he says was his first-ever break from golf, not touching a club for 17 days. It was a necessary refresh and has led to a very solid start to 2024, with three-straight top-25 finishes across the Middle East.
Holywood is running out of time to bag it’s pan-Atlantic successes, as soon McKibbin and McIlroy will be competing for the same titles.
