After the best part of a month off from action, Tom McKibbin returns to the DP World Tour at this week’s D+D REAL Czech Masters at PGA National Oaks Prague and he starts as the pre-tournament favourite.
It’s testament to the 21-year-old’s consistently high levels of performance that a missed cut at the Genesis Scottish Open – just his second ‘MC’ of the year, and a T66 finish at the Open Championship in his last two starts aren’t enough to scare away the punters, and with just 12 tournaments remaining on the 2024 DP World Tour schedule, he remains on course to earn one of the 10 PGA Tour cards on offer.
But this is where the competition starts to heat up. Following the Czech Masters and next week’s Danish Golf Championship, each of which have $2.5 million purses, the remaining 10 events are all offering $3.25 million and upwards, and will have 5,000 Race to Dubai points on offer compared to the 3,000 this week and next.
In short, he’s put himself in an excellent position, but the job is far from done and he’ll need to continue to display the sort of consistency that’s has him currently seventh in line to receive promotion to the PGA Tour.
And each week he tees it up is another opportunity to propel himself into an even stronger position, and the switch from Albatross Golf Club to PGA National Oaks could well be one that favours the Holywood man, even though he didn’t tee it up at Albatross last year.
Oaks is, as the name suggests, meanders through woodland and is very much a course that will see supreme ball strikers to the fore. Above Tour average in driving distance and approach play, and well above average in driving distance, if McKibbin’s formula remains true to form this week, he’ll give himself plenty of birdie opportunities and should find himself near the top of a leaderboard that features few of the other leading contenders on the DP World Tour.
Having captured his maiden professional victory in style at last year’s Porsche European Open, expectations for win number two to swiftly follow were high, but though he’s yet to get over that hurdle, he’s done everything but and save for an unlikely 25-footer from Marcel Siem on the 72nd hole at Marco Simone Golf Club six weeks ago, he’d have taken two wins in the space of just over 13 months.
Still, he’s done everything but, so it’s no surprise to see him as the market leader this week.
It’s not just a big week for McKibbin, however, as Gary Hurley gets a rare 2024 DP World Tour start. Hurley’s rookie season in 2023 turned into the stuff of nightmares, and his return to Challenge Tour action has been littered with inconsistency, but when an opportunity like this presents itself, one good week can be career-defining.
McKibbin’s stature as one of the premier players on the Tour is reflected in his grouping as he joins 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett and Finland’s Sami Välimäki for the opening two rounds, and they’ll be the marquee grouping for Sky Sports’ coverage on day one as they begin at 12:00pm Irish time.
Hurley will be among the early starters on day one and will hope to make the best of prime early scoring conditions when he joins South African Ollie Bekker and home favourite Louis Klein at 08:20.
