Tom McKibbin of Belfast, Northern Ireland is a growing star in the golf world. At 22 years of age, he has the potential to be one of the game’s most notable players. It is ok, and completely understandable if you have not heard of him yet. There is one major reason why. He is on the LIV Tour. People are simply not watching the LIV. In the middle of August, 3.6 million television viewers saw England’s Justin Rose win the FedEx St. Jude Championship on the PGA Tour. Meanwhile, only 334,000 saw Dean Burmester of South Africa win the LIV Golf Chicago.
At the moment, do not expect McKibbin will win many popularity contests. That is because he is already talking about and realizing how fortunate he is of being a multi-millionaire. In this day in age when people are working their asses off just to make ends meet, McKibbin’s recent comments published by the BBC, has the potential of possibly not being very popular.
In June, we first talked about McKibbin and compared him to American golfer Luke Clanton of Hialeah, Florida. At the time, Clanton was becoming a professional golfer and was thrilled to join the PGA Tour. McKibbin, meanwhile has stated the thrill of being on the LIV Tour. While both golfers have clearly not regretted their decision, one must wonder if more people would have heard of McKibbin more if he chose the PGA Tour instead.
McKibbin is 20th on the LIV Tour, and did win the Porsche European Open last year in Germany by two strokes. However, his performances at majors so far have not been great. They are a 41st at the 2024 US Open, a 66th at the 2024 British Open, a 50th at the 2025 PGA Championship and a missed cut at the 2025 British Open.
In order to be better at majors, one needs to golf more, and battle it out for the cut and prize money, and not just receive participation money. That is why you are seeing PGA golfers having more success at majors. McKibbin may be a popular LIV golfer, but people would know him more if he was on the PGA.
