Harrington tipping Tom McKibbin for "quick" win on Tour

Tom McKibbin pictured after finishing 6th in the Challange Tour Grand Final in Mallorca, McKibbin also secured a DP World Tour Card for 2023. Picture: Niall O'Shea

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON reckons it won’t be long before Holywood teenager Tom McKibbin wins on the DP World Tour.

The three-time Major winner was thrilled to see the Holywood star (19) graduate from the Challenge Tour and John Murphy and Gary Hurley battle their way through the 108-hole Q-School last month.

All three are at Leopard Creek for this week’s Alfred Dunhill Championship and while McKibbin describes the venue on the edge of Kruger National Park as “pretty special”, Harrington sees the Newtonabbey star as an exceptional talent who will win soon.

“He’ll win quick,” said the three-time Major champion (51), who enjoyed a stellar season, winning four times on the PGA TOUR Seniors. “I’d say he’ll win before any of the others, and it could be pretty soon.

“He’s a great ball striker, but he was solid all year on the Challenge Tour and looked very comfortable. He didn’t just have a few good results, he was up there nearly every week.”

Harrington won in just his 10th European Tour start and has always insisted making it on tour is a question of feeling you belong.

McKibbin, who has had two top-20 finishes in his first two starts as a rookie, described last week’s tie for 15th in the South African Open as “a solid week for not having my best stuff”.

Set to turn 20 on December 19, he is now ranked 318th in the world, making him the fifth-highest-ranked Irish player behind his mentor, world number one Rory McIlroy, and the second-highest from Northern Ireland, ahead of 403rd-ranked Graeme McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion.

There’s a good field at Leopard Creek this week with recently crowned South African Open champion, Thriston Lawrence, joined by multiple Major winner and former world number one Ernie Els, fellow Major winners Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, and former Alfred Dunhill Championship winners Branden Grace, Brandon Stone, Richard Sterne and Christiaan Bezuidenhout.

Harrington, who will round off 2022 with his son Paddy in next week’s PNC Championship, where Tiger Woods is expected to play with his son Charlie, plans to start 2023 with starts in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the Dubai Desert Classic and the Ras Al Khaimah Championship.

He confirmed he will not defend the Ascension Charity Classic in St Louis next September as it clashes with his 28th consecutive Horizon Irish Open start at The K Club.

McIlroy and Shane Lowry will also play Abu Dhabi and Dubai while Séamus Power will likely commit to Abu Dhabi as it takes place the week after the Hero Cup match between Great Britain and Ireland and Continental Europe.