McKibbin gaining confidence as LIV Golf season enters final stretch

ROCESTER, England– Tom McKibbin of Legion XIII is one of LIV Golf’s brightest young stars and is rounding into peak form for the final stretch of the season.

McKibbin is coming off the two best finishes of his rookie season. The Northern Irishman finished T5 at LIV Golf Dallas and T4 at LIV Golf Andalucía and has been gaining a great deal of confidence in the process.

"I started the year off quite nicely and then sort of fell a little bit in the middle of the season, which was a little bit disappointing," McKibbin said. "And then the last couple of events have been really nice. I've seemed to play some lovely golf on quite difficult golf courses, which gives me a lot of confidence going forward, and just sort of knowing that I can post those finishes is really nice.”

McKibbin, 22, joined LIV Golf prior to the 2025 season having already won on the DP World Tour, becoming the youngest player from Ireland to win a DP World Tour title since Rory McIlroy when he took home victory at the Porsche European Open in June of 2023. He spoke about how difficult it is to win on LIV Golf with the type of superstars he needs to beat week in and week out.

“I think the thing over here that's hard is having one less day," McKibbin said. "You really have to get off to a good first round. If you don't quite have it the first day, it's quite a lot of grind to make up for it the last two, and then obviously the fields are strong here.”

McKibbin also pointed out how difficult the courses LIV Golf has utilized this season have been.

“There's some incredible players, major champions, and I feel for me personally, I feel like the golf courses have been a little harder," he said. "But overall, I think the main thing for me what I find is trying to get off to a good start so you don't have to chase as much the last couple of days. I haven't been able to win on the European Tour since then, so I think it's hard to win anywhere.”

Now that McKibbin is comfortable on LIV Golf as the end of his first season approaches, it appears only a matter of time before he starts to challenge LIV Golf’s superstars for victories.

Through his 10 LIV Golf starts this season, McKibbin has been absolutely elite off the tee. He’s gained strokes in the category in every start this season and ranks 4th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (+0.87 per round), trailing only Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann, who are the three players leading the LIV Golf individual standings.