Home hope Tom McKibbin says he’s expecting “extremely difficult” conditions in this week’s Irish Open at Royal County Down with wind forecast to get up on the famed Newcastle links.
McKibbin, 21, is also going into this week’s event with a change of caddie having split with veteran bagman David McNeilly and now employing the services of relative rookie Ricky McCormick, a contemporary of his from Holywood Golf Club.
“Royal County Down is a very hard golf course when you just play it casually never mind when you are in a tournament,” McKibbin told BBC Sport NI.
“The weather is meant to be quite breezy so it’s going to be a very difficult test of golf. The person who wins it will certainly have played the best golf over the four days.”
As for his caddie change, McKibbin insists he is going with his “gut feeling” that he needed something “slightly different” after a slight dip in form which has seen him miss the cut in three of his last five events.
McNeilly, whose clients in the past have included Sir Nick Faldo, Nick Price and Padraig Harrington, was on the bag for McKibbin’s first DP World Tour triumph at the European Open last year and his largely consistent form this season.
“I love Dave to bits and Dave has been great for me and I still love Dave. It’s just that I needed to change something up a little bit.”
McKibbin chasing PGA Tour card
McKibbin has been friends with McCormick for 12 years and says the new partnership is “going well”.
“He’s someone who is very familiar with my game. He’s caddied for me before so I’m looking forward to it.”
After missing only one cut in his opening 16 events this season, McKibbin’s recent form has dropped him to 17th in the DP World Tour’s rankings and just outside the positions that will guarantee a PGA Tour card for next year.
The leading 10 players in the Race to Dubai rankings at season end who don’t already have a PGA Tour card will earn playing privileges in the US next year and McKibbin currently 12th place in that list.
“It will be a big push towards the end of the year until November with a lot of big events and a lot of points up for grabs,” he added.
As regards challenging for a Ryder Cup spot next year, McKibbin is not putting any pressure on himself but his form this season suggests Europe skipper Luke Donald will be monitoring his progress.
“I try and play the best I can. Good golf sort of takes care of it but it’s pretty cool to sort of be in the mix for that and trying to push on over the next couple of years.”
McKibbin will be partnered in the few two rounds at Royal County Down by Rory McIlroy, who hailing from the same Holywood club has taken on something of a mentor role in the 21-year-old’s career, plus defending champion Sweden’s Vincent Norrman.
