Tom McKibbin is pleased with his opening two rounds at the DP World Tour Championship and is hoping for a solid weekend as he looks to secure a PGA Tour card for next season.
Despite carding a two-under 70 to climb to three-under and into a share of 17th place he trails Antoine Rozner by six strokes with the Frenchman projected to soar into one of the ten PGA Tour card places meaning McKibbin is projected to fall two places outside heading into the weekend.
The 21-year-old, in just his second appearance at the Race to Dubai finale, has been pleased with his performance so far and started well on Friday with two birdies in four holes before cancelling out birdies on 7 and 8 with dropped shots on 6, 9 and 12 as the penal rough claimed yet another victim before he picked up a birdie on the short par-4 15th.
“A nice satisfying round a couple under in what was tricky wind. Found the rough a few more times which made it a little bit trickier,” McKibbin told Meridian Media’s Denis Kirwan.
“It’s nice to get a couple of birdies early on you have to expect to drop a few shots with how tough the rough is. You go two yards in the rough and it’s very hard to get to the green. Nice to take advantage of a couple of birdies early on and try hold on and make more birdies but it’s really just fairways and greens out there.”
It’s not quite at the point where McKibbin has to chase birdies to realise his American dream but the course is not lending itself to carefree aggressive play and the Holywood man knows he must find the balance between birdies and not shooting himself out of it.
“Some of the pins are very similar to last year but the rough is much different to last year. I remember last year being able to hit it in the rough and get it up near the green. This year you have no hope, just take a wedge and advance it as far as you can.
“It’s definitely a little trickier this year and today as well the wind got up so definitely harder.
“Hopefully I can play similarly to the last couple of days, just tidy up a few things but happy to shoot two under par rounds so far.”
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