Holywood star Tom McKibbin believes Royal Troon is such a beast he won’t have time to worry about nerves as he makes his debut in The Open this week.
The Newtownabbey talent (21) is grateful he got his major debut out of the way in last month’s US Open at Pinehurst No 2, where he tied for 41st with world number one Scottie Scheffler and matched him shot for shot on the final day.
Open champions Darren Clarke, Pádraig Harrington, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy all made the cut on their first appearance in The Open, but McKibbin is content to repeat the same formula that brought him success at Pinehurst and simply see how his game stacks up against the game’s best.
“I’ve no low ambitions, but I definitely don’t want to go and put too much pressure on myself by saying I want to do certain things,” said McKibbin, who appears destined to win a PGA Tour card via the DP World Tour rankings.
“It’s the same as the US Open. It’s my first one, so I just want to go out there and see where my game stacks up come the end to the week.
“Obviously, I’d love to have a really good week and see what that is at the end of it. But again, hopefully, I play four rounds and see how my game stacks up against the best players.”
First tee nerves will be inevitable when McKibbin joins Swedish Ryder Cup star Alex Noren and Scottish amateur Calum Scott at 6:46 am in round one but having played with Clarke and McIlroy on Monday, he feels better equipped to deal the challenge.
Not only that, he reckons he will be so focussed on avoiding disaster — and those pot bunkers — at Royal Troon, he won’t have time to dwell too long on the inevitable butterflies.
“I’ll just try and take it as another event, I think,” he said. “For me, the nerves and the bigness of the event gets disguised by how hard the course is.
“I think those shots probably make you more nervous than the occasion or the event itself. Definitely what I found at Pinehurst is that I had no time to be nervous about the event or how big the event was.
“The course was so demanding and hard at the US Open, you were more thinking about your shot and thinking over what you had to do.
“I think it was quite good that I got to play there before here. But yeah, it’s definitely a different vibe but I will just try and give it my best.”
McKibbin is hoping the short-game tips he got from 2011 champion Clarke and 2014 champion McIlroy will stand to him.
“Yeah, it was pretty special,” he said. “Obviously there are the two guys I’ve watched growing up. The first couple of majors I ever watched on TV were the ones that they won. So to be able to go out and have a practice round with them was was pretty cool.
“I’ve been lucky to play with Rory a good bit but I haven’t played much golf with Darren, so to get out and play with him was cool. To play with both of them was pretty awesome.”
As for Royal Troon, he’s under no illusions about the difficultly of the course.
“It’s definitely different,” he sad. “It’s almost like two different golf courses. The front nine you play with the wind off the right so it’s a lot shorter than the back.
“There are a lot of irons and some wedges and on the back nine from 11 onwards you’re just holding on with the wind playing off the left pretty and a lot of trouble on both sides.
“The front nine seems to be the nine to try and get a good score going and then you have to hold on when you get on the back. It’s very, very difficult.
“The bunkers are very, very deep and there’s a lot of sand in them so the ball doesn’t really roll into the middle and you get stuck up quite close to the face. So avoiding those will be key.”
Meanwhile, Galway amateur Liam Nolan is not in Troon to make up the numbers and it’s a testament to his ambition that his only goal is to see where he ends up “on Sunday evening”.
The Bearna native (24), who will make his major championship debut in the third last group of the day at 4.05 pm, is not setting the bar at merely making the cut.
As he prepares to turn professional later this summer, the former Walker Cup star is here to compete and he’s hoping to round off a special week and overcome the inevitable nerves by putting in a memorable performance.
“It’s been pretty special,” Nolan said as he prepared to head out for his last practice round with Scotland’s Ewan Ferguson, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger and England’s Sam Hutsby.
“There are a lot more people here today, so it’s getting that little bit more nervy. But I am trying to enjoy every bit of it. Hopefully that looks after the nerves.”
Nolan has made good use of his time so far, playing with three Open champions.
Having teed it with up with Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry on Monday, he joined 2004 Troon winner Todd Hamilton and former Irish Open champion John Catlin on the back nine on Tuesday.
“Todd was very generous sharing all of his knowledge when he won here in ’04,” he said.
“It was really cool to walk and play with him, and ask him a lot of questions, and I also played with John Catlin, who was also fun to play with.”
Hamilton (58) famously used a fairway wood to chip close at the final playoff hole and beat Ernie Els here 20 years ago and he hasn’t forgot how to play that shot as he returns to The Open for the first time since 2018.
“Every hole, he dropped like three balls 30 feet short, and got out his three wood and hit it up to four feet; every one of them,” Nolan said.
“He was trying to teach John the shot, but John wasn’t really getting the hang of it. Todd is one of the best at it.”
Christy O’Connor Jnr famously described a late afternoon tee time at The Open as akin to being “out with the bin men” as dusk falls and field (bloated from the preferred 156 to 159 this year) battles to finish before dark.
“I don’t mind,” he said of his late tee time with Spanish amateur Jaime Montojo Fernandez and Kiwi Kazuma Kobori.
“I know Jaime from Spain really well. Played with him a few times before. Nice to have a familiar face. I’m looking forward to getting going.”
As for his goal, it’s certainly not just to make the cut.
“My goal is to enjoy myself, keep striking it the way I am and see where I end up Sunday evening,” he said.
As for making the cut, he said: “I don’t believe in that! I just want to play well and see where that leaves me.”