After shooting an course-record setting – and career-low – 10-under round of 60 on day one of the Hong Kong Open, Tom McKibbin backed it up with a bogey-free, five-under 65 to stretch his lead to two strokes at the halfway point in Fanling.
The 22-year-old got round two off to the ideal start with a regulation birdie on the par-4, and then followed it up with a neat up-and-down from just short of the green on the par-5 third to move to -12 overall.
He found each of the next eight greens in regulation, but couldn’t get the putts to drop until, having found nine in a row, a 25-footer found the bottom of the cup on the par-3 12th. This kickstated another birdie blitz, as he took care of the par-5 13th and immaculate spin control of a wedge into 14 delivered another to take him to -15.
He navigated the final four holes safely, remains bogey-free through 36 holes at Hong Kong Golf Club, and takes a two-stroke lead over the trio of Peter Uihlein, Kiradch Aphibarnat and Jazz Janewattananond into round three.
For a while, it looked as though Uihlein was on course to tie or better McKibbin’s course record from the previous round. Starting on the 11th, the American birdied nine of his first 16 holes, but a disastrous triple bogey seven on the par-4 ninth ended those hopes but he still managed to recover and birdie the last to take the clubhouse lead before McKibbin completed his round.
Along with a second professional victory, McKibbin is chasing the exemptions into the 2026 Masters and Open Championship that the winner receives, and he is understandably happy with the way he’s played over the two days.
“Very, very solid day,” McKibbin said after round two. “Game played very, very similar to yesterday. Just didn’t hole us as many putts. But yeah, very happy to keep the bogeys off the card.”
McKibbin admits that he’d come into the week with the intention of taking on flags and that, after a good start to his LIV career and with DP World Tour playoffs to follow, he’s in bonus territory.
“Hopefully, very similar stuff [over the weekend] would be nice,” he said. “Think I’ve sort of took the approach going into this week just to sort of play very aggressive and sort of just whatever the outcome is, come the end of the week, it is what it is. And I think maybe I’ll just keep doing that. And, you know, I’ve had a quite nice year. So why not just go for it?”
Graeme McDowell won’t be joining him at the weekend. After arriving in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning and finding out that his golf clubs hadn’t – he wouldn’t get them until shortly before the tournament started on Thursday – rounds of 69 and 67 saw him cover the 36 holes in four-under, missing the cut by one.
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