Four-time winner this season Joaquin Niemann heaped praise on 22-year-old LIV rookie Tom McKibbin and is backing him to make the breakthrough into the winners circle.
McKibbin has registered four top-7 finishes in his maiden campaign on the Saudi backed tour including two in his last two starts and looks on course for another high finish after back to back rounds of 68 at LIV Golf UK.
McKibbin (-6) shares sixth place and trails Niemann by eight shots heading into the final round at JCB Golf and Country Club and he got a glimpse of the Chilean’s quality on Friday when they were paired together during his round of 65.
Niemann looks on course to wrap up a fifth individual title of the season and almost certainly the season long individual standings title on Sunday but he admitted after his second round that McKibbin did catch his eye after playing with him for the first time this season and is backing him to be one of the top players on the circuit.
“Yeah, it was the first time that I played with Tom since he joined. I never played with him,” said Niemann.
“I enjoyed playing with him. I think he’s a great golfer. Obviously he’s had the results before. He was in the top 10 on DP World. He probably hasn’t had the results he wants to on LIV so far, but I think he’s going to be all right. He’s really young.
“You can tell coming from Ireland, I think they build pretty good golfers there, and the way he controls the ball into the wind and his short game, yeah, he’s going to be great.
“It was good fun playing with him, and you can tell he’s a confident player.”
McKibbin has always been dubbed as a precocious talent, even since his childhood with comparisons to Rory McIlroy never far away.
But while a first victory on any tour since 2023 has eluded him thus far his Legion XIII teammate Jon Rahm and fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell have singled him out for praise in recent weeks.
“He’s a fantastic young man,” said Rahm last week in Portrush. “For a 22-year-old to be as calm and collected as he is is quite phenomenal.“He’s quiet by nature, but even in competition when things go wrong, he stays quite calm, and it’s just remarkable and an incredible gift to have for a young player.
“I don’t think I can relate to that whatsoever, so I’m a little bit jealous of that. I think it’s going to serve him very well in the long run.
“Obviously, I think he’s internally processing the same emotions that all of us are processing, but outwardly, he stays really, really calm, and that helps him quite a bit, on top of having a fantastic golf swing.”
Rahm’s jealously of McKibbin extends far beyond the mental game and he also admits that he marvels at his golf swing.
“I don’t know what it is about Northern Ireland, but they have two of the most beautiful golf swings ever produced in golf [in McKibbin and McIlroy].
“He’s a fantastic golfer in general. He’s got all the tools he needs to succeed in this game, and so far in his early career, he’s done so.”
McDowell believes that McKibbin’s daily exposure to two-time major winning Rahm on a daily basis will accelerate his growth curve and help turn him into a major champion.
“Tom is a great player. Tom is going to do well with a guy like Jon Rahm next to him. He will learn a lot from him. That will accelerate his learning and experience and turn him into a major champion quicker than perhaps he would have been,” said the 2010 US Open champion.
