Northern Ireland golfer wins maiden DP World Tour title

Northern Ireland's Tom McKibbin won his first DP World Tour tournament on Sunday. He triumphed in the Porsche European Open at the Green Eagle Golf Course in Hamburg, Germany. McKibbin earned his first win on the circuit, where he is still playing on an exemption.

The 20-year-old was very pleased with his DP World Tour victory. These were his statements to the press, according to BBC Sport:

"It's pretty amazing. Yes, it's been a good day. I was in a good group with Jordan [Smith] and David [Law], so it was pretty nice. It was just nice to go out there and put a really, really nice round together.

"I've learnt that I am good enough to win. I always thought I was, but to prove it today was pretty special. I guess I have learnt a lot from failures and missing cuts by a shot and just missing things ever so slightly. So to take all of those things that I have learnt and to put them into play tonight was really nice."

McKibbin played an excellent tournament in this stop of the DP World Tour. His opening round was -1, which placed him T14, but by the second day, he was already among the leaders, achieving -4.

The third round was also good (1), which tied him with five other golfers at the top of the leaderboard. On the final day, the Northern Ireland golfer posted the third-best score of the round (-3). This, coupled with the fact that his closest competitors could not keep up with him, was enough for him to claim his first victory in the DP World Tour.

Tom McKibbin on the DP World Tour

Tom McKibbin hails from Hollywood, the same city that saw the birth of Northern Irish legend Rory McIlroy. 2023 is his first season playing full-time on the DP World Tour, thanks to an exemption (having finished in the Top 20 - T6) on the final 2022 Challenge Tour Road to Mallorca Rankings.

Tom McKibbin at the 2023 Porsche European Open (Image via Getty).

He made his debut at the European level at the age of just 13 at the 2016 Tayto Northern Ireland Open. Until 2020, he played one or two tournaments a year, between the DP and the Challenge Tour. By 2021, he did become a regular on the latter circuit.

In 2022, he consolidated at the Challenge Tour level, obtaining his best result before winning the European Open: runner-up in the Irish Challenge. Other outstanding performances were finishing T3 in the Cape Town Open, T4 in the B-NL Challenge Trophy, and the English Trophy, and T5 in the Italian Challenge Open. He played 25 tournaments and was cut nine times.

In 2023, he had played 17 DP World Tour tournaments in which he had not obtained great results before the European Open: only 4 Top 20 finishes and had been cut six times. However, his chance came in Hamburg and he took it in a superb way. This victory could even open the door to an invitation to debut on the PGA Tour.