Northern Ireland’s Open Championship debutant Tom McKibbin’s opening two-over-par 73 left him only four off the early clubhouse pace at Royal Troon but the 21-year-old confessed to being “a little disappointed” with his performance.
After a dropped shot at the second, McKibbin birdied the third and eighth to turn in one under but then suffered bogeys on the 11th, 12th and most disappointingly of all, the par-five 16th.
“I didn’t play great,” said the Northern Irishman, who came into this week 10th in the DP World Tour rankings after a consistent campaign which included a play-off defeat at the KLM Open last month.
“I got off to a nice start, a steady start and then the back nine, obviously the harder nine, I struggled a little bit coming in but overall it was OK and I don’t think it’s too far away.”
After making his major championship debut at last month’s US Open, McKibbin said he didn’t experience any pre-round nerves but admitted having to change his planned strategy on the first tee amid breezy conditions had been a little disconcerting.
“I thought going to the first hole from the practice tee, ‘it’s only a four iron off the first tee’ and it turned out the wind was a different direction and I had to hit a two iron which isn’t really my favourite club to be hitting off the first.
“But I wasn’t too nervous. I’ve hit loads of first tee shots before so just trying to make another first tee shot.”
After “scrambling it well” on the front nine to reach the 10th under par, McKibbin said he knew the second half of his round was going to be tougher but was left furious by his bogey on 16.
“Very, very annoyed at that. I could use a few bad words for that one but just got to learn from that.
“With that wind down off the left, I thought it might have been a little bit easier than the practice rounds but I just didn’t play amazing coming in,” added McKibbin, whose growing stature in the sport will be emphasised by him being tournament host at next week’s NI Open European Challenge Tour event at Galgorm Castle in his native Northern Ireland.
