Tom McKibbin continued his push up the leaderboard at the HSBC LIV Golf Hong Kong event, overtaking fellow countryman Graeme McDowell who couldn’t reproduce Friday’s heroics.
McKibbin, who secured a wire-to-wire victory at this course in the Hong Kong Open in November, built on his Friday 65 with a Saturday 66, lifting him into sole possession of 11th place at 11-under.
Starting on the sixth, the Holywood man was as he started after 11 holes having birdied 10 and bogeyed 11, but further birdies on 16 and two, and a highlight eagle on the par-3 third saw him make a big move forwards and he’s just four shots from the trio tied for fourth and a further two behind the leading trio.
McDowell duly go the beers in after his hole-in-one on the fifth on Friday, but despite making two early birdies and getting to within a couple of the lead, he dropped two shots over the closing 13 holes and ended the day tied for 12th at -10.
For the third time in three starts this season, Jon Rahm will enter the final round in a strong position to earn his first individual LIV Golf victory since 2024. The Legion XIII captain carded a five-under 65 to climb into a three-way tie for the lead at -17.
“You have to keep putting yourself in contention and giving yourself chances,” said Rahm, who has started the 2026 season with consecutive runner-up finishes. “As long as I’m doing that, I’m playing good golf, take advantage of the opportunities I get, but it’ll come. As I’m playing solid golf, I’m hoping tomorrow I have a good Sunday and get it done.”
For Rahm to claim a win at Greater China’s oldest championship course, he’ll need to outduel the very man he helped make his way to Hong Kong Golf Club – 4Aces GC’s Thomas Detry. The Belgian, despite arriving late after being stranded in Dubai, has shown no signs of rust, shooting a four-under 66 to also join the final group of co-leaders.
“Well, if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I’d be here,” Detry said of Rahm. “It’s a little bit funny that way. But listen, we’re both competitors, and he’s done it for his teammates. He’s done it for the league. It’s amazing what he did, and he’s a good friend of mine, as well. We’ve played a lot of golf as juniors and on the PGA Tour and everywhere together and out here now. I think we’re just going to have a nice competitive fun round tomorrow, and we’ll see who prevails.”
Rahm helped to organize a private charter from the Middle East for seven LIV Golf players – including Detry, as well as Rahm’s Legion XIII teammates Caleb Surratt and McKibbin – who were stranded when the recent conflict closed the airport in Dubai. He was happy to do so, even if he now has to outduel Detry for the title.
“The way I see it is it’s simply my duty,” Rahm said. “I was raised with certain values, that if you have the ability and capability of helping somebody, especially in a scenario like that where my main focus essentially was getting them out of there, not necessarily playing a tournament. I remember telling Caleb earlier in the week, how about you forget about playing the tournament and we focus on getting you to safety and then we’ll see if you can get to Hong Kong.
“With the ever-changing environment, it looked kind of dark for a second. For a second, at one point, if they went through a different extraction plan, they were going to go to Europe. I was trying to help people in Spain to get them set up to practice in Spain. It looked like coming here was going to be hard. But yeah, here they are. Never thought they would be able to come. It’s amazing that so many of them are safe and that’s the most important thing.”
McDowell’s Smash GC clings to a narrow two-stroke team lead, powered by Varner III’s scorching round, but with six teams – including McKibbin’s Legion XIII – are lurking within six strokes – a gap could be eliminated in just a few holes.
Leave a comment