LIV Golf star ready to contend at Irish Open after ‘silly mistakes’ cost dearly in Portrush

This will be the 22-year-old’s fourth Irish Open and he is back home after collecting a cool €4m for the season on the Saudi-backed rebel tour

The calm before the storm at the K Club. Rory McIlroy got work done early on the Palmer North Course as the sun shone down with an unseasonable heat in it. What was perhaps more surprising was that there was barely a spectator watching on from behind the ropes as McIlroy looked very calm and relaxed on his return to the venue where he won the Irish Open in 2016.

His Ryder Cup team-mates, meanwhile, had decamped to Portmarnock for the day as DP World Tour pros played in a corporate Pro-Am on the tournament course. Tom McKibbin, another graduate of Holywood GC, was also at work on the famous Straffan track, fresh from his maiden season as a LIV golfer.

He played nine holes in the morning before stopping at the putting green to discuss his year and his hopes of getting back into the world’s top 100 – and into some of the majors next year. It was a case of making hay while the sun shines; bad weather is set to roll in on Wednesday and hang around on Thursday, when the tournament kicks off.

This will be the 22-year-old’s fourth Irish Open – his second at the K Club – and he is back home after collecting a cool €4m for the season on the Saudi-backed rebel tour.

It has been nine months since he caused a sensation by turning down a PGA Tour card to join Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team. “I want to come back here and take from what I’ve learned and how I played, really try and make a good dent in the next four or five events over here, just try and get another win.

“It’s been two years since the last one so I’d love to put myself in a position each week to hopefully contend. I’ve been playing nicely so hopefully I can bring a little bit of that form into this week. The course is looking good. The way my game’s shaping up, and I like the course, hopefully I can have a good week.”

McKibbin was properly home in July to play The Open Championship in Portrush. However, he didn’t make the weekend. In this game it’s about taking your medicine and moving on. If you don’t, you get quickly left behind and he was pleased he was back on LIV the following week. Back to business.

“Obviously you’re going to be very disappointed at the time, and I certainly was, but it probably helped that I was playing straight away,” he said. “Maybe if I had another week off after, I might have sat and dwelled on it a little bit.

“But I knew that I’d played quite nicely and just a few silly mistakes cost me. But no, I’m not one to dwell too much on things.

“Once Monday started, I was forgetting about it. Obviously it was a little annoying at the time, and obviously the weekend was not the most fun. But I had another tournament to play, so I wasn’t thinking about it since.”

Of course two of his team-mates, Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, are in Europe’s team for the Ryder Cup at the end of the month McKibbin started the year as a GB&I pick at the Team Cup but it was during that week in Abu Dhabi that news of his LIV move was broken.

“I didn’t know Jon at all, actually,” he explained. “I’d played with Tyrrell a couple of times in Dubai, and then at the Team Cup this year, and I think just obviously how good they are, especially sort of under pressure, they’re very, very good. Jon is an incredible player, and he’s up there literally every single week. They’re just both great competitors.

“They want to do well and I think once the gun goes off, they’re very focused in that way and obviously able to provide the results when they need to.”

The Northern Irishman out-performed Hatton and was second to Rahm in the team standings this season, and 22nd overall in the LIV rankings. “It just showed how consistent the year had been,” he said.

Yet it was Hatton who performed when it counted in the majors and small number of DP World Tour events he played to earn automatic Ryder Cup selection.

“Yeah, obviously incredible,” said McKibbin of his English colleague’s achievement. “I think he only did it in like six or seven events, so it just shows how well he played in those majors and the other big events outside of those.

“It’s a great achievement to get on the Ryder Cup team. To be a part of that, or to be around that (environment), would be very cool. I’ll definitely be watching.”

Two years ago in Rome, Rasmus Hojgaard got an invite to be around the team – his brother, Nicolai, was playing for Europe. McKibbin said he would take up an invite if Luke Donald extended one to him this time for Bethpage Black.

Perhaps he will be in Adare Manor in two year’s time as a driving force for the team. A powerful finish to the season would get the ball rolling, momentum-wise.

After the Irish Open, he will play Wentworth, the Dunhill and the Spanish Open, his plan to make the impact he needs to get into the final Race to Dubai tournaments.

First things first means getting it done this week. “It’s just another week,” McKibbin said. “Maybe there will be a few more people coming down to watch.

“I’m getting very used to it and playing some big tournaments so it doesn’t really feel too different. Maybe a little bit of wanting to just do well as it’s a home. But no, overall, not too different. I know the course a little bit more this time, so hopefully it all sort of falls into place.”