Tom McKibbin digs deep to keep his European Open title defence alive in Hamburg

Lee Westwood retained his crown at The K Club in 2000 and McKibbin reckons he can give it a run after carding a two-under 71 at Green Eagle Golf Courses in Hamburg. He goes into the weekend six shots behind Laurie Canter, who fired a seven-under 66 to lead by three shots in the clubhouse from Niklas Norgaard and Jannick De Bruyn.

McKibbin (21) opened with a double-bogey six at the 10th, where he had to take a penalty drop in the trees. But he birdied the 14th, 15th, second and first to move up to tied fifth on six-under.

“It was obviously not the start that I wanted, but I battled back nicely and played very sensible golf around this course and got rewarded,” McKibbin said. “So yeah, pretty good day.”

He shot four-under at the weekend to win by two strokes last year and while he feels the course is more difficult now, he feels he can draw inspiration from his maiden DP World Tour win.

“It’s playing a lot longer and a lot softer, “ he said. “There are a lot of long irons into the greens compared to last year. On some of the greens, the ball is spinning a lot, and on others, it just stops.

“So it’s very hard to predict what the shot’s going to do. It’s just very tricky overall, especially with some of those showers that came in. But it’s a place I know and somewhere I’ve played well around at the weekend. I think I’m playing quite nicely, so I’m looking forward to it.”

It was also a good day for Shane Lowry in the RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ontario, where he made five birdies in a two-under 68 to sit on the projected cut line at level-par.

The 2019 Open champion rolled in a 20-footer and a six-footer for birdies at his 12th and 13th holes to get back to level for the tournament but he was ten strokes behind Robert MacIntyre.

The Scottish left-hander, who has enjoyed having his father on his bag this week, followed a 64 with a 66 to lead by three strokes on 10-under from Andrew Novak, Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes and England’s David Skinns.

In the US Women’s Open at Lancaster CC in Pennsylvania, Lexi Thompson was destined to miss the cut in what could be her final appearance following her decision to retire at the end of the year.

“Minus the golf, it was amazing,” Thompson (29) said after a 75 left her 13-over in her 18th appearance.

“It wasn’t the golf that I wanted to play, obviously, but it was a special week, of course, with announcing what I did.

“To see all the fans out there and just to hear their chants and ‘go Lexi’ made me smile every single shot even if I kept on bogeying.”

Australia’s Minjee Lee, the 2022 winner, shot a one-under 69 and Japan’s Yuka Saso, the 2021 champion, a 71 to claim the early clubhouse lead on one-under, two shots clear of the field.

European Open, 12.0 noon US Women’s Open, 6.0pm RBC Canadian Open, 4.30pm (All live on Sky Sports)