McKibbin’s rise leads to NI Open host role at 21
- The fact that Tom McKibbin has been selected as the as the tournament host for this year’s NI Open European Challenge Tour event further highlights his ascent to prominence in the golfing world.
The event will take place in late July at Galgorm Castle, where McKibbin, 21, is a travelling professional.
After an absence of four years, the tournament is making a comeback to the second-tier Challenge Tour schedule. It will be known as ‘The NI Open, presented by Tom McKibbin’.
“It’s quite amazing to be involved with a professional tournament this early,” McKibbin remarked of his name’s direct connection.
“When Gary Henry [the managing director of Galgorm Castle] came to me at the end of the year and suggested the idea, it was something I was very keen about straight away.”
McKibbin will play in the pro-am on July 23 but will not participate in the actual event, which is scheduled for July 25–28, due to prior commitments during tournament week.
“I’m going to be playing in the pro-am, and I’m sure I’ll come back up on Sunday to see some of the action,” continued McKibbin, who secured his maiden victory on the DP World Tour in Hamburg last year.
“I shed five kg of weight.”
McKibbin’s steady 2024 season has seen three top-10 performances in his 11 events, highlighted by a fourth place finish at the Qatar Masters in February, and only one missed cut, building on his breakthrough 2023 campaign.
That occurred in the Singapore Classic in late March, which was the middle of a three-tournament run that included top-10 finishes at the ISPS Handa Championship in Japan and the Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa.
After finishing 2023 in 165th place, his maiden DP World Tour victory in June of last year propelled him up 173 spots to 162nd in the world rankings. He has since dropped to 140th place, having reached as high as 125th in March.
McKibbin, who now holds the 21st position in the Race to Dubai rankings, disclosed that he missed the cut in Singapore by a week due to tonsillitis.
“I wasn’t really in the mood to play because I lost five kilogrammes of weight.” I knew I wasn’t feeling good because I had no energy,” he remarked.
I think I’ve played the greatest golf I’ve ever played this season overall. Simply put, it is incredibly reliable. Every week, I’ve been up there. I’ve been having fun playing.”
Early on, McKibbin’s apparent talents drew comparisons to Rory McIlroy, another player who had been affiliated with the Holywood Club a few miles from Belfast.
Although McKibbin is still extremely appreciative to McIlroy for taking the teenager under his wing, he maintains that the relationship has never had a negative impact on him.
“I’ve heard it for so long, I guess since I’ve been young, that I’ve just gotten used to it,” he continued.
“It just doesn’t bother me anymore because I’m so accustomed to it. I couldn’t really care less because I don’t actually read anything that is written about me.
“When I was younger I probably thought it was quite a cool thing to be compared to Rory so it didn’t really put too much pressure on me.”
With the reintroduction of the NI Open, Galgorm Castle will continue to hold golf tournaments for 14 years. During that time, it has hosted the Irish Open on the DP World Tour in 2020 and the men’s and women’s World Invitational, which was also approved by the LPGA Tour.
For more information, visit https://sportzbiz.co.uk/