Tom McKibbin played through the very worst of the conditions on day two of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and will return on Saturday morning with one hole of his second round to complete.
An opening round of seven-under on the Old Course at St Andrews had the Holywood man in a strong position going into round two in which he’d tackle Carnoustie and four birdies over the first six holes was as good a start as he could’ve hoped for.
The weather was getting steadily worse, however, and near-gale-force winds and driving rain were a constant for the rest of the day until play was suspended due to waterlogged greens. By this stage, McKibbin only had the 18th to play, and he’d managed to record 10 pars and one bogey to remain firmly in the hunt at -10, two shots off the lead and sharing fourth.
Conor Purcell began the day alongside McKibbin at -7 having made five birdies and an eagle at Kingsbarns, but he was forced to settle for a one-over 73 on the Old Course, with a double bogey on the 17th – the Road Hole – followed by a birdie on the last and he goes into round three tied for 36th and needing a high finish to keep his hopes of keeping a full card for 2026 alive.
Pádraig Harrington shot matching two-under rounds of 70 – the first at Carnoustie and the second on the more exposed Kingsbarns – and he climbed into a share of 58th place where another good round at St Andrews on Saturday will see him make his first cut on the DP World Tour since the Genesis Scottish Open back in July.
Robert MacIntyre continued to ride the high of last week’s Ryder Cup glory as he climbed into pole position alongside Richard Sterne before play was suspended.
MacIntyre played a crucial role in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory over the United States at Bethpage Black last week and he continued to impress back in his native Scotland, following up an opening six-under 66 at Carnoustie Golf Links with the same score at Kingsbarns in tough weather conditions to reach 12-under-par.
The two-time Ryder Cup winner carded four birdies and one bogey on his front nine at Kingsbarns before battling strong winds and heavy rain coming in to add three more gains and join the top of the leaderboard.
“It was almost a perfect round of golf, especially once the weather came in, just a lovely round,” MacIntyre said. “It’s the worst weather of late, probably October 2023 I think it was when it was worse than that. Just played the ball really well today and thought I controlled my flights really well.
“It’s difficult when it gets this windy. It hard to hit the ball good with the wind. I was having to try and fight the wind on certain holes and wasn’t comfortable. But I made some beautiful shots and putted solidly in the wind.”
South African Sterne took advantage of the calmer early morning conditions before battling the elements on his back nine to sign for a flawless five-under 67 on the Old Course at St. Andrews and keep his scorecard clean for the second consecutive day.
“It was a good day,” Sterne said. “I got the right draw I think for the day, so that helped, after all the years of playing here, sometimes you get good draws. Sometimes you get bad draws and today I got a good draw so I’m pretty happy with that. I’m playing well, and you can see that from the scoring.
“Fortunately, I’ve played here since 2001, so I know all the courses. I just try and play a few holes in preparation. I always enjoy playing any of these golf courses; it’s a privilege.”
11-time DP World Tour winner Louis Oosthuizen, who won the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews, sits in third place on 11-under after posting a four under par 68 at Kingsbarns.
“I love links golf,” Oosthuizen said. “I think it was one of the few times that I played Carnoustie when the weather was that good yesterday, and I played well yesterday. I think always in this tournament, starting off really good gives you good motivation going into the next round.
“At Kingsbarns I always struggle around here but today I felt like I played pretty good. I made a silly bogey on one hole, three-putting from 20-foot but the rest I played pretty solid.”
Nathan Kimsey reeled off nine successive birdies at The Old Course to write his name into the DP World Tour record books. No-one has ever recorded more birdies in succession during a single round in the history of the DP World Tour, with Matt Wallace and James Nitties the only other players to manage nine in a row.
Jack Senior and Dery Desmond, Alejandro Del Rey and Matthew Goode, Harrison Crowe and Cian Foley, and Wenyi Ding and David MacFarlane share the lead in the team competition on 24 under par after day two.
Round two will restart at 8:00am local time tomorrow on all three courses, while round three will be a shotgun start beginning at 12:30pm.
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