Tom McKibbin has completed his long anticipated move to LIV Golf.
McKibbin has joined Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team on the breakaway tour and will also team up with Tyrrell Hatton and Caleb Surratt.
It has been reported that the Holywood club man has penned a three year deal worth $5million.
The 22-year-old joins LIV Golf after two full seasons on the DP World Tour while he will also now forego his dual membership of the PGA Tour which he had earned as recently as November.
McKibbin moves having not made a PGA Tour appearance since winning his card and he will make his debut when the LIV Golf League begins its fourth season with the LIV Riyadh event at Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia next week.
There is certainly no suggestion that the youngster is jetting off to make a quick buck having sought the advice of his sometime mentor Rory McIlroy who did try and talk him out of the lucrative move given what he could be sacrificing at this stage of his career and in a Ryder Cup year.
“I have known Tom since he was 10 years old, 11 years old, and as soon as he got the offer, he rang me,” McIlroy said in Dubai earlier this month.
“I just landed in New Zealand. We had a really good conversation. And I talked to him multiple times over the course of December to sort of get a feel for, you know, what he was thinking, and obviously what – you know, yeah, basically what he was going to do. And all I could do is give my perspective.
“I really like Tom as a person, as a player. I think he’s got a ton of potential. Look, I said to him, if I were in your shoes, I would make a different choice than the one you’re thinking of making.”
He added: “makes move to I think, you know, working so hard to get your Tour card in the States, something that he did, to achieve that goal last year was a big achievement.
“I think what he potentially is sacrificing and giving up with access to majors, potential Ryder Cup spot.”
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