Fresh from making the cut at his first Open Championship, Tom McKibbin was back on home fairways on Tuesday as he played in the pro-am in his tournament host role at this week’s NI Open Challenge Tour event.
McKibbin, 21, is touring professional at host venue Galgorm Castle and while he isn’t competing in the tournament proper which starts on Thursday, his rise up the golfing world made him the obvious choice for the event host role.
“The NI Open is an event I’ve played in since I was 14 and to be able to host it at such a young age is pretty cool,” said the Northern Irishman.
McKibbin’s consistent campaign on the DP World Tour has him 14th in the Race to Dubai standings after a season in which six top-10 finishes include a runner-up finish at the Italian Open last month where he lost a play-off to Germany’s Marcel Siem.
His Open Championship performance – where he eventually finished in a share of 66th after struggling over the closing 36 holes in the wind and rain at Royal Troon – came after he also made the weekend on his major debut at the US Open.
“To have played two majors this year and made both cuts, it’s been pretty special for me to get eight rounds under my belt on those type of courses,” said the 21-year-old.
And McKibbin in on course for a lot more regular outings in the US next year as he is in line to earn one of the PGA Tour cards which at season’s end will go to the top 10 DP World Tour performers who do not have existing playing privileges across the Atlantic.
‘Troon weather wasn’t great’
While the Troon “weather wasn’t great”, McKibbin said playing in The Open possibly even exceeded his expectations fired by years of watching the golf’s oldest championship on television.
“This is an event I’ve watched forever. To be there and play and see the grandstands was pretty special.”
After playing a practice round with previous Open winners Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke last Tuesday, McKibbin teed up alongside the 55-year-old 2011 champion on Sunday.
“Darren had been giving me a bit of abuse for five months for not being in the Open so to get in the Open, give him a little bit of that back and then play with him on Sunday was pretty cool.
“We had a great day out there. We were so far down the leaderboard we were out there having fun.”
In contrast to last weekend on the west coast of Scotland, McKibbin and his fellow pro-am players sampled glorious sunny weather at the Ballymena venue on Tuesday.
The sporting celebrities joining McKibbin and the other professionals on the course included Northern Ireland football greats Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas and Aaron Hughes while the GAA world was represented by Oisin McConville, Terence McNaughton and BBC Sport NI GAA commentator and podcaster Thomas Niblock.
While the tournament is part of Europe’s second-tier circuit, the field will include numerous players familiar to golf fans.
Names that stand out include former 2011 DP World Tour Championship winner Alvaro Quiros, whose six other European Tour wins include triumphing at the Dubai Desert Classic 13 years ago.
Other DP World Tour winners in the field include Frenchman Gary Stal, Scotland’s Marc Warren, Spain’s Alejandro Canizares, Joakim Lagergren plus Northern Ireland’s Jonathan Caldwell.
Swede Lagergren is back at an event where he triumphed 10 years while another former champion in the field is Frenchman Robin Sciot-Siegrist who won in 2017.
The top 20 in the Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca rankings at the conclusion of the season will earn automatic promotion to the DP World Tour for 2025.
This week’s field has the top seven in the current rankings – led by Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen – while the Irish hopefuls include Conor Purcell and Gary Hurley, who occupy 24th and 28th positions in the Road to Mallorca.
Local man Dermot McElroy will hope that his return to Galgorm can kickstart what has been a disappointing season thus far with his best performance a 25th spot in the UAE Challenge in April as he sits 112th in the rankings.
