Mark McGowan at Royal Portrush
They may have been early on the teesheet and had nine holes in the books before the clock struck that number, but by the time Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke and Tom McKibbin were covering the closing stretch of their Tuesday practice round at Royal Portrush, the steady trickle of supporters following had grown to by far the largest gallery for a practise session.
That’s hardly surprising; McIlroy is one of the hottest draws in the game wherever he goes, but in Northern Ireland, Clarke is still more than capable of gathering a crowd and McKibbin’s star is steadily rising.
“Yeah, it was great,” McKibbin said after a friendly practise session where no wagers were placed. “We did it last year in Troon, and to be able to do it again this year here at Portrush was pretty special.
“And to get out there nice and early, get 18 holes in, sort of pick their brains a little bit. I came up couple weeks ago and played with Darren a few times, so getting to play with him a little bit more has been nice. It was great, the crowds were amazing. They come out and supported us the whole way around.”
The weight of expectation is something that McIlroy openly admits to having struggled with when the Open Championship was last played at Portrush in 2019, and McKibbin, despite arriving in good form after contending at LIV Golf Andalucia last week, is downplaying his own expectations.
“It’s something that’s so hard to say. I mean, with links golf, and the weather and conditions links golf can bring, it’s very hard to set expectations. You sort of have to just go with the flow, really, [take] what you’re given, and go out there and try and handle that the best you can. Just sort of battle for it. As I said before, I just want to have my best result in the major, and sort of go from there.”
McIlroy’s struggles began with the opening tee shot in round one in 2019 – a tee shot that sailed out of bounds after arguably the most rapturous he’s ever received. It’s hard to adequately prepare for such an experience, and grouped with Pádraig Harrington for the first two days, large galleries are to be expected even though they’ll be the first group to tee off on Thursday morning.
“I guess I don’t know what it’ll feel like till I till I get there on Thursday,” he said. “But yeah, obviously, seeing how he felt the last time, and I’m sure the other guys felt that. I’m sure I’ll feel it too. But until that happens, I won’t be able to tell you.
“You know, I experienced it a little bit at the Irish open, as I said earlier. But I think this will be even bigger. It’s just super cool to see people cheering you on and shouting your name. It takes you aback a little bit, sort of from where I wasn’t even a pro and when I was last here. So to be here and playing and having the crowd supporting is awesome.”
With fifth and fourth-place finishes in his last two LIV Golf starts, McKibbin is hitting form at the right time after a sluggish period in the middle of his maiden LIV campaign.
“Game feels good,” he said. “It was very nice at the start of the year, and then sort of towards the middle, things just weren’t going my way. I sort of felt like I was playing quite nicely, but I couldn’t really get the score together. And then the last couple of weeks have been nice. I finished fifth in Dallas, and then fourth last week on two very challenging golf courses, so it’s nice to see my game, how it felt like it was playing, translate into some nice scores and post a couple of nice finishes.”
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