Tom McKibbin ready for first major at U.S. Open

"I’m a much, much better player now than I was a year ago."

Tue, 11 Jun, 2024 - 07:04

Scott Michaux, Pinehurst, North Carolina

Tom McKibbin has long endured comparisons to fellow Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, having followed the world No. 3’s footsteps from his amateur days at Holywood Golf Club into life as a card-carrying touring professional as a teenager.

Now a 21-year-old DP World Tour champion, McKibbin finally follows McIlroy onto one of the biggest stages in golf – the U.S. Open. McKibbin makes his major championship debut this week at Pinehurst No. 2.

After arriving Sunday to play the front nine on a vacant course, he toured the back nine on Monday in front of throngs of fans.

“There’s more people here on a Monday than I’ve ever seen at a European tour event,” he said.

“It’s really cool,” McKibbin said during a quick break in an extensive short-game practice session with Canadian based golf coach Gareth Raflewski, who has an academy as PGA National Ireland-Slieve Russell.

“It’s obviously a tournament I’ve watched for the last 12 years, so to be here playing and see all the stands and all the stuff around the course, it's been pretty special.”

It was a year ago last week that McKibbin claimed his maiden victory on the DP World Tour at the Porsche European Open in Germany. The next week he moved up to first alternate for the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club based on his final qualifying finish at Walton Heath, but he declined to travel across the world on the off chance he’d get a late spot in the field.

This time, McKibbin sealed his place in the field via final qualifying at Walton Heath. The extra year of seasoning before making his first major championship start could prove beneficial.

“Probably, I’m a much, much better player now than I was a year ago,” he said. “So I think I’m much more ready for this type of golf course. It’s pretty brutal. But yeah, to answer your question. I’m much more ready this year that I would have been last year.”

Pinehurst No. 2 and its trademark Donald Ross crowned greens are like nothing the Belfast golfer has ever experienced. Even experiencing the defensive repelling greens at Royal County Down hasn’t prepared McKibbin for some of the extreme challenges Pinehurst’s greens present.

“It’s a bit different because I wouldn't say it’s linksy compared to back home; the ball still sort of sits down quite quick on this sort of type of fairway grass,” he said. “It’s much, much different. The greens are something I’ve never really seen before. I’ve played on slopey greens but I’ve never played on greens that you can hit a pretty decent shot and it can go 20, 30 yards off the side. So I think that’s something that I need to get my head around.

“Here even just some of the greens themselves, the area you have to hit into the green is really small. And it’s quite a long course to be running quite a lot of mid- and long irons in. It’s very hard generally even on a normal golf course to hit those close, so that's what makes it very tricky.”

To that end, McKibbin walked right past the driving range after his practice round and straight to the short-game practice area to concentrate on working with Raflewski on the delicate pitches and bumps that are required to successfully navigate the test No. 2 presents.

“Even if you go out and play really well, you’re gonna have a lot of chip shots and long bunker shots,” McKibbin said. “Sort of just really practicing, I was getting used to different lies and sort of different scenarios, just to handle what is put to you.”

Pinehurst isn’t a traditional U.S. Open-style setup where the course is shrouded in thick rough. With sandy waste areas covered with unpredictable wire grasses, Pinehurst invites you to take on its greens with recovery shots that will be hard to get close if the forecast remains sunny and dry all week.

So it’s not exactly what McKibbin is used to seeing when he tuned into U.S. Opens on television.

“I definitely can see, playing yesterday and today, I can see the right way you’re meant to play it and how it’s designed to be played very smartly,” he said. “But obviously once the gun goes off, it’s a lot different, a lot different feelings.”

McKibbin’s transition into becoming a serious junior golfer started in the window when Ulstermen Graeme McDowell and McIlroy won back-to-back U.S. Opens in 2010 (Pebble Beach) and ’11 (Congressional). He vaguely remembers seeing some of McDowell’s victory but vividly recalls watching McIlroy dominate to claim his maiden major victory when McKibbin was 8.

“I probably watched maybe a little bit of G-Macs, win but I wouldn't have been into watching golf as much then,” he said. “I started playing around then but didn't really watch much golf. Probably the one Rory won was probably the first one (I remember). Then the year after from 2012, I probably watched every one since then.”

Now that McKibbin is here himself, what are his expectations and takeaway hopes for his major debut?

“I guess sort of just to see where my game is at by the end of the week, compared to all these guys that are here that I've watched on TV, and I've watched on TV for a while,” he said. “So yeah, no real sort of expectations as to how I want to … obviously want to play quite good, but just to sort of assess where everything's by the end of the week.

“I think after this week’s over I will want to come back every year. So it probably gives a bit a of fire in the belly to work hard and make sure I’m playing more of these tournaments.”