The new and the old, as it were. And Tom McKibbin’s maiden voyage into the shark pool of professional matchplay got off to a smooth start as the 22-year-old Belfastman teamed up with seasoned campaigner Tyrrell Hatton to dominate their fourballs and hand Great Britain and Ireland their opening point over continental Europe as Justin Rose’s side established a 3½ to 1½ lead after the first day’s play of the Team Cup in Abu Dhabi.
“Tom played good. He drove the ball really well, which was good, because I was spraying it sideways after the fourth hole or whatever,” said Hatton of McKibbin – a likely new team-mate of his also in LIV, where the Northern Irishman has been targeted to join Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team – following a comfortable 3 & 2 win over Antoine Rozner and Julien Guerrier.
The combination of McKibbin and Hatton never trailed in their match, moving into the lead with a Hatton birdie on the par 5 fourth only to be pegged back by a Guerrier birdie on the fifth. However, McKibbin’s birdie on the eighth saw the GB&I pairing turn one up and Hatton’s birdie on the par 5 10th and another from McKibbin on the 14th saw them move clear.
Other GB&I wins came from Jordan Smith and Laurie Canter by one hole over Rasmus Hojgaard and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and in the anchor match from Tommy Fleetwood and Aarron Rai by 4 & 2 over CE playing captain Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero.
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Another all-English pairing in Matthew Jordan and Paul Waring halved with Thorbjorn Olesen and Niklas Norgaard, while only win for CE came in the top match where the French duo of Romaine Langasque and Matthieu Pavon beat Rose and Matt Wallace by 3 & 1.
Saturday’s second day of play features two foursomes sessions, with McKibbin paired with Rai against Hojgaard and Neergaard-Petersen. “It was great to get out and play with Tyrrell who is very experienced in these situations. It definitely took a little bit of pressure off me,” said McKibbin.
“I’m really, really pleased with that because some of the key messaging is to get off to fast starts and I did notice there was a little bit too much blue on the board for my liking which I was contributing, as well. But the team rallied well.
“Obviously foursomes [on Saturday], a different format, different style of golf, probably one of my favourite styles of golf. It’s tricky. So hopefully we can kind of keep the momentum up. But yeah for my decision-making point of view, I’m very happy,” admitted GB&I playing captain Rose.
The Team Cup – formerly known as the Seve Trophy and revived in 2023 as the Hero Cup – is played in Ryder Cup year and organised by the DP World Tour with the aim of assisting European captain Luke Donald identify possible partnerships. This year’s Ryder Cup takes place at Bethpgae Black in New York on September 26th-28th.
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