TaylorMade Golf – Tom McKibbin wins maiden career DP World Tour title at the 2023 Porsche European Open

June 4, 2023 – Tom McKibbin held off a crowded leaderboard in Hamburg, and a couple of home favourites, at the Porsche European Open to secure his first career DP World Tour victory with the new Stealth 2 fairways and TP5x golf ball of TaylorMade Golf.

The Northern Irishman, just 20 years of age, finished with a final round of 70 to finish nine under par, and was the only athlete to shoot all four rounds under par with rounds of 72-69-72-70. On the 18th hole, McKibbin found the green from 203 yards out of the semi-rough, leaving a comfortable two-putt with his TP Bandon putter and TP5x golf ball to claim a two-stroke victory.

Tom switched into a brand new TP Bandon putter this week, looking for some inspiration on the greens. He had half an eye on a putter change and noticed a putter on the tour truck that had actually been built for another Team TaylorMade athlete which caught his eye. Tom gave it a quick test and got to work with it on the putting green with TaylorMade Tour Technician, Alex Marine. Alex did a quick loft and lie and check, and with the putter equipped with a KBS graphite shaft, Tom was super comfortable with it right away. A graphite shaft can help with pace putting as it’s slightly softer in the tip, and the rest is history.

“I approached it the same as the first three days. The course is hard, the way I played the first three days was good enough so I thought if I played the same sort of golf and shot three or four under it might be enough. I knew going out it was such a hard golf course that you didn’t have to force loads of birdies and there wouldn’t be too many people going too low. That helped a bit. I played it the exact same and fortunately played a little bit better,” said Tom McKibbin.

“(My hands on 18) were alright actually. I hit five iron. I picked a club I knew wouldn’t go in the water. I hit it right edge of the green and if it turned over I knew it would go further, so I had no worries. But it was such a good shot, it felt pretty amazing.”

“I’ve learned that I’m good enough to win. I always thought I was, but to prove it today was pretty special. I guess I’ve learned a lot from failures, missing cuts by a shot and missing things slightly. So to take those things I’ve learned and put them into play was nice,” concluded.

This was only McKibbin’s 26th start on the DP World Tour after graduating from the European Challenge Tour, and he becomes the youngest Irish golfer to win on DP World Tour since fellow Team TaylorMade athlete (and Holywood, Northern Ireland), Rory McIlroy in 2009.

Using his Stealth 2 fairway woods Tom led the field in greens hit under regulation (70,85%). His all-round game was on point all week, where he had the least amount of bogeys all week (8).

What is in the bag of Tom McKibbin? 

• Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (9,0º, Fujikura Ventus TR 7-X)
• Fairway woods: TaylorMade Stealth 2 3 & 7 (15,0º, Fujikura Ventus TR 8-X; 21,0º, Fujikura Ventus 8-X)
• Irons: TaylorMade P760 (4); TaylorMade P7MC (5-6); TaylorMade P7MB (7-9)
• Wedges: TaylorMade MG3 (46º); Titleist Vokey SM9 (50º, 54º); Titleist Vokey WedgeWorks (60º)
• Putter: TaylorMade TP Bandon 1
• Golf Ball: TaylorMade TP5x

By REDACCIÓN