McIlroy and Clarke practice helps McKibbin’s Open focus

Tom McKibbin is looking forward to another big week in his fledgling career as the Co Down golfer prepares for his Open Championship debut.

The young golfer from the same Holywood club that produced Rory McIlroy has enjoyed a steady rise over the last couple of years, winning on the DP World Tour for the first time last year with victory at the Porsche European Open.

More recently he narrowly missed out on another win following a play-off at the Italian Open, just two weeks after making his major debut at the US Open and ultimately making the cut.

But now another challenge is on the horizon with his first appearance at The Open which is taking place at Royal Troon and it’s something he is relishing.

“It’s a big week, first Open and a little bit different – a bit of links golf that we don’t get to play much so yeah, should be a good week,” he told RTÉ Sport’s Greg Allen.

McKibbin is still 21 but is just looking to take milestones in his stride, adding that he has no blueprint determining at what age he will debut at particular majors and, like at the US Open, is not putting himself under pressure with specific targets.

“I wouldn’t really say I had a plan to play by certain ages,” he said.

“I guess once I got on the DP World Tour I aspired to be in these big events and try to play in some of the best fields in golf.

“But maybe it has come a little bit earlier than expected but at the same time sort of I think the way my game has been trending, I feel like I should have had a chance to play in one or two of them this year.

“So I think it’s come at a nice time.”

However, he has to grapple with playing links golf which he hasn’t done since last year’s Scottish Open.

“It’s obviously very different trying to hit different shots and get so used to the firm ground, so it’s definitely different than a normal week,” said McKibbin, who sees the front nine and back nine almost like two different golf courses with the front the one likely to get the scores in.

Helpfully, he has had a practice round with McIlroy and 2011 Open winner Darren Clarke and he’s looked to take on any advice he can from his more experienced fellow Northern Irishmen.

“It was a pretty special morning. It was good, obviously two guys that I’ve watched growing up,” he said.

“The first couple of majors I ever watched on TV was the ones that they won so to go out and have a practice round this morning nice and early was cool.

“I haven’t played much golf with Darren but to get and play with him was pretty cool. I’ve been lucky to play with Rory a good few times but to have both of them there was pretty awesome.”

“We were just hitting a few pitch shots and chip shots, just the greens are very firm and (I’m) trying to get a little bit more spin on the firm greens and tighter flags which is something we don’t normally get,” said McKibbin.

“Normally the greens are quite soft out there on the European Tour and you’re always trying to take spins off chip shots.”

That has been particularly helfpful as he will be among the early starters when the first round tees off on Thursday.

He is grouped with Calum Scott and Alexander Noren and they will be the second group out at 6:46am.

“We played at about 6.45 this morning. Then I thought, ‘Oh, this is a bit early to be playing golf’, but I was like, ‘I could get a tee time around this’, and I have.

“So this morning was perfect weather, perfect conditions as you say and hopefully that’s the case on Thursday.

“I think it’s nice to get out there early and try and get a score in.”