Tom McKibbin says focusing on his own goals amid outside expectations has been pivotal as he prepares to tee it up on home soil for the first time as a DP World Tour winner in the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by Aviv Clinics.
The Northern Irishman graduated from the European Challenge Tour at the end of last season and secured his maiden DP World Tour title on his 26th start at the Porsche European Open in June.
Victory in Germany saw the 20-year-old become the youngest winner from the island of Ireland on the Tour since Rory McIlroy.
During the course of his amateur career, McKibbin drew comparisons to the four-time Major Champion and McIlroy was one of the first to heap praise on his fellow countryman after his composed performance on the outskirts of Hamburg.
But DP World Tour rookie McKibbin is intent on forging his own path in the game and being unfazed by the pressure that comes with hailing from the same Holywood club in Northern Ireland where former World Number One McIlroy learned his golf.
“I’ve ticked off a few goals this year that I wanted to," he said. "As towards expectations and hearing stuff like that, I try to block it all out and not listen to it as much.
"I’ve heard it a lot for a long time so I’ve gotten used to it but I think my own goals and ambitions, it’s been good and I’ve been fairly happy."
McKibbin lies 38th on the Race to Dubai Rankings in partnership with Rolex and he says confidence gradually built that he belonged on Tour after he began the 2023 season with three consecutive top 20s.
Reflecting on his campaign so far, he said: “It’s been very good. Getting the win tops it all off and it was cool to get that in my first year.
"Besides that, I think I’ve played pretty consistently through the first half of the year and it’s been quite nice to see a lot of top 25s, top 20s and I think that spurred me on to go and get that win."
McKibbin is making his third appearance in this week's tournament, having first taken part when it was sanctioned by the Challenge Tour in 2019, and is aiming to improve on a tenth place finish last year.
The event - tri-sanctioned by the DP World Tour, LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour - sees some of the best male and female golfers compete on the same courses at the same time, with links venue Castlerock joining Galgorm, a historic parkland course, as the new co-host.
“I’m very proud," McKibbin said of having the innovative event in his home country. "I think they’re great venues they have for the event and it’s set up nicely with the two fields, the men and the women, and I think it’s a pretty cool event.
“Castlerock is a good course. I think it’ll play quite tricky this week with a few of what are usually par fives playing as par fours this week. It’ll be interesting to see the scoring, here at Galgorm is great, it gets better every year.
"I’m looking forward to playing it, I’d say it’s one of the tougher venues we play all year so it should be good.”
