Tom McKibbin has vowed to work hard to secure his spot at next year’s Open Championship after a disappointing performance in his third consecutive appearance at golf’s oldest major.
The Holywood man, speaking at the LIV Golf United Kingdom press conference, reflected on his experience at Royal Birkdale. “Yeah, as you said, third year in a row playing The Open was pretty cool. Obviously was very disappointed with the two days that I played. But yeah, I think anytime you get to play in another one and gather that experience, it’s great,” McKibbin said.
“I always come away learning a lot and sort of knowing what I need to do to get better at them. I think sort of hopefully — when I leave them, you sort of don’t want to miss the next one. I’ll be looking to do a lot of hard work to make sure I play in next year’s one as well.”
McKibbin, part of Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team, also weighed in on changes to the JCB course, particularly the par-5 conversion of the sixth hole, which had been the hardest hole in previous years.
“I just feel like it makes the tee shot a little less stressful. You can miss the fairway and not be too stressed out,” he said. “I remember last year I think I started on the sixth hole one day, and I thought, probably just going to be 1-over after one. Yeah, happy it’s a par-5.”
When asked about the pressure of performing alongside captain Rahm and learning from experienced teammates, McKibbin downplayed individual expectations.
“I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it,” he explained. “I think for me anyway, like definitely in anything, any tournament, major, whatever, I think you have sort of your own built-up pressure or nerves or whatever.”
“But I think once you go out and start playing, sort of going through each shot and obviously just trying to hit the best shot you can, I think you start to forget about that. I’ve never stood on the middle of the fifth fairway and thought, geez, I need to — I’m nervous because I don’t want to embarrass myself or upset Jon.”
He acknowledged the team element adds motivation, particularly on Sundays when Legion XIII are in contention. “It’s definitely nice on Sundays if the team is in for a chance of winning and maybe you’re not playing the best individually, there’s always something to play for. Yeah, it’s great that way.”
McKibbin and teammate Caleb Surratt both emphasised the value of learning from Rahm, with the young duo crediting the environment for their development as they target more consistent performances in majors and LIV events.
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