LIV Golf-linked Tom McKibbin wins Team Cup match alongside Tyrrell Hatton

It’s the elephant in the room at this week’s Team Cup in Abu Dhabi after Tom McKibbin, who is representing Great Britain and Ireland, was reported to be set for an imminent switch to LIV Golf.

The 22-year-old Northern Irishman neither confirmed or denied the strong rumour when it was raised with him in an interview earlier in the week and, in fairness, that is his prerogative.

By all accounts, it definitely seems that it is happening and it was ironic, of course, when Justin Rose, the Great Britain and Ireland captain, then announced that McKibbin would be teaming up with Tyrrell Hatton in Friday’s opening fourball session.

Hatton, after all, is already a member of Jon Rahm’s Legion III team on the breakaway circuit and the only LIV Golf player among the 20 players taking part in the Ryder Cup preparation event at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

Tyrrell Hatton and Tom McKibbin celebrate after winning their match during day one of the Team Cup at Abu Dhabi Golf Resort | Richard Hathcote/Getty Images

It meant the spotlight was on that particular pairing and, purely from a golfing perspective, they certainly look as though they’ll make good team-mates if indeed they are both playing flying the LIV Golf flag when the new season starts next month.

As Great Britain and Ireland emerged from the first day with a 3.5-1.5 lead over a Continental Team being captain by Francesco Molinari, Hatton and McKibbin gelled instantly to deliver a 3&2 win over French duo Antoine Rozner and Julien Guerrier, who was a late replacement for Nicolai Hojgaard after he was forced to withdraw due to illness.

“It was good,” reported Hatton of the duo’s work. “I think we did really well as a team. We dovetailed nicely. Yeah, we made plenty of birdies, didn’t give holes away and didn’t drop any shots as a team, which I think is important. They had to birdie it to win a hole and, overall, it was a good day.”

Concurring, McKibbin added: “We both played pretty solid. If I hit a poor shot, Tyrrell followed it up with a good one and, if he hit a poor one, I luckily hit a good one after that. Tyrrell is obviously a phenomenal player and it makes it easier when you are playing with someone like him.”

In truth, it’s not really the time for McKibbin to be addressing speculation about his future. He’s earned his place on this team and, of course, will still have a chance, even if it is going to be massively slimmer than if he was playing on the PGA Tour in particular this year, of making Europe’s team for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September.

At the same time, though, it doesn’t mean to say that it shouldn’t be glossed over in media chats and it was only natural that he was asked in this instance if he had been happy to get inside the ropes and away from the noise, so to speak. “It was good,” he declared. “It’s always nice to get out there and play some golf and let your golf do the talking.”

What about Hatton? “Just get on with the job,” he said with a smile. “Dodo (Edoardo Molinari, one of Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald’s vice captains) has done a lot with the stats for both teams and Rosey and Luke have looked at it. They have tried to pair guys with games that match up with each other. I’m not one to look at the stats but I guess in fourballs me and Tom match up really well. It was nice we could go out there and win our point today.”

Rose, who lost his own match but was happy to see his team win the opening session, insisted that the Hatton and McKibbin partnership had nothing to do with the speculation about the latter, who, of course, has been mentored by Rory McIlroy through their well-publicised Holyrood Golf Club connection.

“Yeah, that one kind of fell into place to be fair without any other agenda to be honest with you,” said the Englishman. “So statistically, there's a huge influence on how we match players up and pairings up and things like that. You know, I also wanted to share the top players.

“Give players the opportunity to kind of develop those relationships, these young guys develop those relationships that could be future pairings for many different types of team events for the future. There's always a lot to consider this week and going forward.” Then asked if it was a happy coincidence to put them together, he added with a smile: “It really was, yeah.”

Jordan Smith interacts with team-mate Laurie Canter during day one of the Team Cup | Andrew Redington/Getty Images

If he joins LIV Golf, McKibbin will lose the PGA Tour card he secured at the expense of Jordan Smith through last season’s Race to Dubai. However, that won’t then go to Smith due to the deadline for those ten players having expired.

That must be a tough one for the Englishman to follow but, after joining forces with Laurie Canter to deliver another full point for Rose, as Tommy Fleetwood and Aaron Rai did in the anchor match, Smith insisted he is not upset with McKibbin.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I mean, the only thing is I didn't have a card and I don't have a card, so it doesn't really change anything for me. Tom's got to look after himself, I've got to look after myself. There's nothing towards him, there's nothing towards me. We've been getting on great. We're playing darts together, we're having dinner together, we could even play together, that would be absolutely fine.”

On the darts front, Hatton hit a 180 in the team room on Thursday night. “Luke the Nuke has inspired a nation,” he said of double world champion Luke Littler. “I think everyone just started throwing darts again. Yeah, it was a fun moment last night in the team room. I certainly got excited after that one. I was sprinting around just going mental. I was just happy there were people there to witness it and it was at the start of a leg, so it was important.

“That was number four in my tally (of 180s), so it is pretty rookie numbers compared to a lot of people, but I was absolutely buzzing with it. I think I was more excited about that than getting a hole in one, to be honest (laughing).”