McKibbin having ‘great time’ after moving to LIV Golf

HONG KONG – First, there was night golf in Riyadh. Then 100,000-plus fans in Adelaide.

Tom McKibbin’s introduction to LIV Golf this season has been quite the eye-opening experience.

“A lot of fun, something that’s been a little bit different to me,” said the newest member of Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team. “I’ve had a great time.”

The 22-year-old McKibbin may have opened others’ eyes with his early impressive results since joining LIV Golf, although no one should really be surprised given his credentials as the 2023 European Open champion.

He came flying out of the gate with a 7-under 65 in his first LIV Golf round in Riyadh last month, eventually finishing tied for 15th while enjoying his first team victory with Legion XIII. The next week in Adelaide, he shot three solid rounds under par on a challenging golf course at The Grange, tying for seventh.

He enters this week’s LIV Golf Hong Kong ranked 13th in the season-long individual points race; only Rahm is placed higher (2nd) among Legion XIII players. Tyrrell Hatton is 17th, and Caleb Surratt is 20th, as Legion is the only team with all four players inside the top 20.

“I feel like I’ve played some very nice golf the first two weeks, so just trying to keep that going hopefully for the rest of the year,” said the Northern Irishman.

Meanwhile, he and the 20-year-old Surratt get to play practice rounds with two of LIV Golf’s top players. Rahm is the reigning Individual Champion, having captured the crown in his first season with his expansion team, while Hatton finished fourth in points and has been one of the sport’s hottest players the last few months.

The opportunity to work alongside those two European stars – and compete against the other big names in the league, which includes 14 major champions in the field each week – has been beneficial to the league’s youngest set of golfers. Rahm, the two-time major winner, sought out NextGen players while embracing his role as mentor.

“I couldn’t name many better guys to learn from,” Surratt said of Rahm. “He doesn’t really owe anything to Tom and I [but] he really takes a lot of time to help us become better players and better people off the golf course. To have that in the back pocket and be able to learn from him, you truly are getting to learn from the best. That’s something not to take for granted.”

“Me and Caleb are very similar people,” added McKibbin. “We love golf, and it’s sometimes easy to take it very seriously. It feels like life and death sometimes and seeing how relaxed some of these guys take it and enjoy their time … no wonder these guys are so good.

“We’re younger, want to try and do well and maybe prove ourselves, but I think sometimes just sort of taking your time and realizing that we’re good players and don’t need to be out there stressing too much early in the week and just getting our work done and just sort of having a good time after that I think is very important.”

McKibbin definitely had a good time in Australia. LIV Golf Adelaide has become the league’s benchmark with its massive, enthusiastic crowds, especially at the par-3 12th, otherwise known as The Watering Hole.

“I had obviously heard so much about it going into it,” he said, “and then getting there and getting started and playing and getting to The Watering Hole for the first time and not being able to hear myself think – after that I just couldn't believe how different and how cool that experience was walking up that hole and playing that every day.

“That was probably for me the first real, wow, this is really cool, and something that I had never experienced and just was excited to go back to that hole every day and try and hit a better shot. Yeah, that was awesome.”

An experience like that was exactly what McKibbin was hoping to get upon joining LIV Golf. Prior to officially signing with Legion XIII, he had partnered with Hatton during the offseason at the Team Cup and was able to discuss what life was like in the league. That also gave him ease of mind to make his own choice to join Legion XIII instead of letting others control his fate.

“I just had a really good gut feeling about this, and it was something that excited me a lot,” McKibbin said. “It was something different for me. I sort of felt it was a good decision for me and something that I had to go with my feeling, and only I can sort of make my own decisions.

“It's something that I'm very happy I made. I've really enjoyed the last couple of weeks, and I think it's going to be a great thing for me and the whole thing going forward for the future.”