Tom McKibbin hit a near 400-yard drive and a 54 degree wedge to 5 inches on the par-5 1st to set up a sensational eagle but it was an eight-foot bogey putt on the 18th that might have kept his Amgen Irish Open hopes alive.
Having hit his tee shot into the gorse bushes on the left of the 18th before his provisional struck a spectator, McKibbin found his first ball and hacked out backwards. His fourth from 123 yards went over the green and after a fluffed chip he saved an adventurous bogey to lie six shots off the pace on level-par after a 70.
“I mean, it’s a very hard hole, straight into the wind. I would have been really annoyed to finish with a double. Can’t really afford to hit a bad shot, and felt like I almost hit too good of a shot. Was aiming off the left and into that wind, the ball can curve a lot for me and I hit it slightly too straight, too well, and scrambled well for six at the end,” said McKibbin whose boyhood hero and club mate Rory McIlroy has joined the lead on six-under after an eagle on the first.
McKibbin is rather self deprecating when it comes to links golf, claiming he hits the ball too high to feel comfortable around Royal County Down but in gusts of over 40km/h he was very solid, picking up a birdie on 11 while limiting his mistakes to just the 5th and 18th.
“I hate it! It’s pretty terrible,” laughed McKibbin when asked about playing in the strong winds. “You just have to knuckle down and grind it out and shoot as low as you can, try and take the birdies when you can and scramble for pars, but I definitely don’t enjoy playing in it.”
There is plenty on the line for McKibbin over the next few weeks with two Rolex Series events to come on the DP World Tour before the playoffs.
The 21-year-old Holywood star is just outside the top-10 places on the Race to Dubai to earn a PGA Tour card for next season and at six shots off the lead here as the final groups tackle the winds he had to bare, he could be fighting on both fronts on Sunday.
“I think the golf course is so hard I will be pretty proud and happy with myself if I can shoot another under par round tomorrow, that would be three under par rounds in a row which is what I will try and target tomorrow. I don’t know what the winning score will be I don’t know what the wind will do tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Waterford’s Séamus Power bookended his third round of 71 with birdies to remain on one-over-par and like McKibbin his chances of contending tomorrow rely on how severe the wind is this afternoon and whether the leaders come back to the pack or pull away.
“Not bad, couple of mistakes on the back, didn’t birdie 12 which was disappointing. There was a lot of good stuff again. Birdied the first and you have to get that, any hole into the wind you are hanging in there but I was happy to get another one on the last.”
Power has putted well this week but he relied on his chipping for birdies today, holing out on the 8th and 10th to even out the mistakes that he made in his four bogeys.
“On 8 I didn’t fancy a four or five footer, that green is nasty so chipping in I could be there a week and it wouldn’t happen again. Ten was a makable chip but 8 was a shot and a half of a steal.”
The 37-year-old was on the wrong side of the draw over the first 36 holes and the strong gusts did not provide any advantage for the early starters today.
“It’s going to be a good test for the guys in the afternoon, hopefully the wind stays up and nobody gets too far away. The weather has been relentless for 54 holes, everyone has to play in it today so that’s a good thing, hopefully be out early tomorrow and it’s a little calmer and you never know what could happen.”
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