Tom McKibbin Ahead In Race For Masters And Open Spot At Hong Kong Open

LIV Golfer Tom McKibbin is halfway to places at two of next year’s Majors as he takes a two-shot lead into the third round of the Hong Kong Open.

For the first time this year, the prestigious International Series tournament is offering slots at the Majors to the champion.

With 36 holes to play, the Legion XIII player is best-placed to take advantage of that incentive after he followed up a brilliant 10-under 60 in the first round with a five-under 65 in the second round.

It’s not just the prospect of a Masters debut and his third Open appearance McKibbin is playing for, with a maiden Asian Tour win also on the line, and the Northern Irishman was satisfied with his work following the second round.

“Very, very solid day,” was the 22-year-old’s assessment of a bogey-free round that included a run of three successive birdies between the 12^th and the 14^th.

McKibbin’s round wasn’t quite as spectacular as his effort on Thursday, when he fell just one shot short of becoming only the third player to shoot a 59 on the Asian Tour, but he identified which part of his game had been found wanting.

He added: “Game played very, very similar to yesterday. Just didn't hole us as many putts. But yeah, very happy to keep the bogeys off the card.”

McKibbin had a quietly impressive maiden season with LIV Golf, finishing 20^th in the Individual Championship on the way to helping Legion XIII win the Team Championship.

He believes continuing an attacking approach over the final two rounds at Hong Kong Golf Club can make his year even better.

He said: “Hopefully, very similar stuff would be nice. Think I've sort of took the approach going into this week just to sort of play very aggressive and sort of just whatever the outcome is, come the end of the week, it is what it is.

“And I think maybe I'll just keep doing that. And, you know, I've had a quite nice year. So why not just go for it?”

Another LIV Golfer, Peter Uihlein, is right behind McKibbin on the leaderboard, and given the Range Goats GC player’s approach on Friday, continuing to play aggressively could be a necessity for the leader.

Uihlein is just two back of McKibbin on 13 under, and it would have been considerably better had he not made a triple bogey on his penultimate hole, meaning he had to settle for a 63 rather than threatening a sub-60 round.

That calamity aside, Uihlein’s round, which included 10 birdies, was incredible, but he was still far from happy with his performance in pursuit of his third International Series title. He also insisted the chance of a course record had been the furthest thing from his mind.

He said: “I hit it awful. Absolutely. Hit it terrible. Oh, it was awful. I didn't hit a fairway until 18, and then I was in the middle of a divot, and then my next fairway I hit was on four and just had a clod of mud. I drove it awful. So, no, there was no thoughts of anything like that, it was survival.”

While McKibbin and Uihlein will both have designs on the two Major places, they are far from the only ones in contention with two rounds to play.

Uihlein shares second with Thai players Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Jazz Janewattananond, while tied for fifth are McKibbin and Uihlein’s LIV Golf colleagues Louis Oosthuizen, Thomas Pieters and Charles Howell III on 12 under.

For some other big-name LIV Golfers, the week wasn’t as productive, with players including Graeme McDowell, Danny Lee and Adrian Meronk missing the cut.