Though Gary Hurley has made a couple of recent appearances on the DP World Tour, Tom McKibbin has largely been the only Irishman paddling his canoe on the waters of the leading European circuit in 2024.
This week, however, he has company at The Belfry in the form of fellow County Down man Simon Thornton, whose last DP World Tour start came two years ago at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational at Galgorm Castle in 2022.
Thornton played his way into the Betfred British Masters by winning the PGA Playoffs in Cyprus earlier this year, and this is the first of three weeks where he tees it up among the big dogs of European golf, with starts at the Amgen Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to follow.
Host venue of the Brabazon Trophy – one of the leading amateur events across Britain and Ireland – most Irish pros have plenty of experience on the Brabazon Course by the time they call time on their amateur careers, but both McKibbin and Thornton turned pro early, the former heading on Tour by the age of 19 and the latter taking up a role as an assistant pro at Royal County Down before finding his way onto the European Tour in his late 20s.
But that’s not to say they don’t have some familiarity with the place. As a 17-year-old, McKibbin finished eighth at the 2020 Brabazon Trophy and played the course as a pro for the first time in 2023. Thornton will be making his first Tour appearance at the course, but as the home of the PGA in Great Britain, he’ll have visited ahead of the his PGA Cup appearance in 2022.
McKibbin arrives off the back of yet another top-10 finish on the circuit, recovering from a poor opening round to claw his way back up the leaderboard at last week’s Danish Golf Championship, a result which lifted him up one spot in the Race to Dubai rankings as he edges ever closer to one of 10 PGA Tour cards on offer at the end of the season.
Thornton, however, is something of an enigma. His form on the PGA circuit in Ireland has been extremely promising, collecting four wins from 19 starts and currently lies third in the Order of Merit. Quite how that translates to the DP World Tour remains to be seen, but if nothing else, this week will be a big help as he prepares for the Irish Open at his old workplace and in his home town.
An added incentive – if one were needed – for Thornton is that 12-year-old son Ryan is accompanying him for the week at the Belfry.
“He’s obsessed with golf and playing off scratch,” Thornton said. “And between this week and the Irish Open at home, he couldn’t be more excited.”
And it’s been hard for him to put these three weeks to the back of his mind in the six months since qualifying back in early March.
“Yeah, it was difficult. Obviously now I have my own shop at Spa Golf Club and everytime somebody comes in they mention it,” he laughed. “I’m getting on with daily life and playing in the region, working in the shop, giving a few lessons and whatnot and then somebody will say ‘oh, not long now. Three months….’ So it’s been very difficult to forget about it. It’s always in the back of my mind and scenarios of ‘what if’. But it’s been a great problem to have, a total positive. So they’ve all been good reminders, and the people have been very happy for and supportive to me.
“God forbid it was something like a court case coming up, then it would be a different story.”
But the weeks of waiting are over, and Thornton will head for the first tee at 9am on Thursday morning along with James Morrison and Norwegian Mats Ege for their 9:10 tee time.
McKibbin will make his way to the same tee three-and-a-half hours later alongside Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal and Englishman Joe Dean, and they get round one underway at 12:40.
Leave a comment