Exclusive interview with rising star Tom Mckibbin
Holywood teenage ace hungry to compete with the best in Irish Open bow
CURTIS Strange will never need reminded of two words he snorted at an up-and-coming young golf star back in 1996. Ahead of this 20-year-old’s professional debut, the two-time US Open winner accused him of being ‘brash’ and ‘cocky’ as he stated his aims.
“I want to win, it’s just my nature.”
“You’ll learn,” laughed Strange in the face of Tiger Woods. Instead, he taught.
There will, of course, never be another TW; any commentators that had unfairly hailed Rory Mcilroy as the successor to his crown will surely have learnt their lesson by now.
Truth be told, we’ll even be incredibly fortunate to see another golfer of Mcilroy’s class hailing from our own over-performing little corner of the globe.
But there is at least a shimmer of that same youthful confidence in 17-year-old Tom Mckibbin.
The Holywood amateur makes his Irish Open debut at 12.30pm today when he tees off at Galgorm Castle alongside last year’s European Masters champ Sebastien Soderberg and three-time winner on the European Tour Scott Hend.
The Belfast Royal Academy pupil, entering his Upper Sixth year, has already made his Tour debut, two years ago at the Shot Clock Masters.
In all, he has played five professional events so far, the rest on the Challenge Tour.
With that experience under his belt, much like Tiger Woods in 1996, he knows what he wants and he not going to be overawed — or even awed — when he tees it up this week.
“I expect to go to any event trying to win it,” he muses in a typically laid-back manner that portrays a settled confidence as opposed to anything even Strange could label ‘brash’.
“I’m always just trying to do my best and finish as high up as possible.”
He comes into the event in decent form, with an eighth place finish at the English Amateur Open and a top 20 in the Amateur Championship last month.
But then the Irish Open’s a different kettle of fish. Isn’t it?
“Na,” he sighs, having received his invite as late as Saturday afternoon, “I wouldn’t say I feel any different heading into this week.
“I guess this is where I want to be in the future, playing with all these guys. I’ve played in enough pro events now and with enough great players that it feels normal.
“Everyone I play with now is a very good golfer. I wouldn’t really see much difference in going to a very high level amateur event and this week. Everyone’s very good so it’s just another tournament, I suppose. It doesn’t feel any different.”
Hailing from Rory Mcilroy’s Holywood Golf Club, where he plays off a +3 handicap, has done little to quieten the growing anticipation that surrounds his rise through the ranks.
It all seems a little unfair on a teenager not yet old enough to be served a pint. But, as comes as little surprise, it doesn’t faze him in the slightest.
“I don’t mind,” he says, while you’d be forgiven for wondering if his proverbial feathers are capable of being ruffled.
“If people are talking about me, I’m obviously doing something right. It makes no difference to me. I don’t really care what anyone thinks or says. If I am compared to Rory then that’s cool, but it’s not going to make me play golf any better, is it?”
The useful thoughts, then, are already separated from the distractions.
‘I’ve played in enough pro events now that it feels normal’
What falls in the former category this week will be his knowledge of how to compete round Galgorm.
Just a couple of weeks ago, he missed the cut at the Challenge Tour’s Northern Ireland Open by just a single shot, having bogeyed two of his final three holes and putted ‘like a tube’, in his straight-talking words.
“I wouldn’t say it’s given me confidence but it was good to see that when I wasn’t ‘on’, I was still very close,” he says. “So when I do play well, hopefully I’ll be close to the other end of the leaderboard.
“It was annoying because I knew I could compete at the tournament and do well. It was just frustrating how I missed the cut. If I had played poorly and missed by four or five shots, it would have been OK.
“It wasn’t even because it was by a shot, it was because I expected to make the cut and then I finished like I did.”
Helping to avoid a repeat this week, and even perhaps tee up the tournament’s second amateur winner after a certain Shane Lowry in 2009, will be the new man on the bag.
Dad Robin is taking a step back from his usual duties in favour of established Tour caddy Ryan Mcguigan, who has previously worked with the likes of Michael Hoey and Matteo Manassero.
“The days of playing it for experience are over, I’m playing it to do well,” he concludes.
Just don’t tell Curtis Strange.