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Rising star and Rory McIlroy protégé Tom McKibbin is poised for a dramatic move to LIV Golf despite a debut season on the PGA Tour.
The 22-year-old Northern Irishman, who developed his game at the same Belfast club as the four-time major champion, is set to join Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton’s LIV side.
Despite McIlroy’s opposition to the LIV since its creation, it even seems that McKibbin’s men contacted the dissident league supported by Saudi Arabia to launch this approach.
A likely change, first reported by Spanish website TenGolf, will be an awkward talking point as McKibbin takes part in the Abu Dhabi Team Cup dress rehearsal for the Ryder Cup this week. Hatton is also part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team, managed by Justin Rose and overseen by Luke Donald.
McKibbin’s likely defection comes after he claimed a PGA Tour card in November, having finished among the top 10 players without a card at the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai.
However, he looks set to forgo that opportunity and take the final spot in Rahm’s Legion XIII squad with Hatton and American Caleb Surratt in the four-man squad. He is set to become the second player from Northern Ireland to move to LIV Golf after 2010 US Open winner Graeme McDowell joined in 2022.
After the Team Cup event in Abu Dhabi this week, McKibbin is scheduled to compete in the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic next week. The LIV golf season begins in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 6.
It remains to be seen what McIlroy thinks of the decision by McKibbin, who turned professional in April 2021 and won his first DP World Tour event in June 2023 at the Porsche European Open in Germany.
McIlroy, another Hollywood golfer, took particular interest in the trajectory of his career, with players sharing a warm embrace after McKibbin won his PGA Tour card and McIlroy won the Race to Dubai and DP World Tour Championship.
McIlroy’s initial fierce opposition to the LIV Golf concept from its inception, however, has since subsided.
McKibbin remains a candidate to earn a spot on the European Ryder Cup team in September.
