OPINION: While major spotlight shines brightly on Rory McIlroy once again, Northern Ireland's Tom McKibbin set to fulfil childhood dream

Northern Irishmen Rory McIlroy and Tom McKibbin will both be in action at the US Open this week. PICS: PA

McKibbin has enjoyed a mightily impressive start to his professional career, picking up a maiden DP World Tour title in Hamburg last year aged just 20 and earned his spot amongst the world’s elite by coming through a qualifying event last month.

Growing up on the same Holywood Golf Club fairways and greens that Mcllroy honed his craft years prior, it’s perhaps poetic that McKibbin’s first taste of major action comes at the same venue where he won the US Kids Golf World Championships in 2015 – a time where he harboured dreams of making it as a professional.

Those dreams have quickly turned into reality and McKibbin’s emergence has rightly generated excitement from a Northern Irish sporting community that are always keen to support their own – everyone will be behind him on Thursday morning as he tees up alongside Rico Hoey and Matteo Manassero (11:45am BST) when work productivity will likely take a nosedive around the country.

McKibbin returns to the North Carolina course in fine form, collecting four top-10 finishes on the DP World Tour in 2024 and currently sits 19th on the season’s rankings with the leading 10 players set to earn PGA Tour cards for next year.

He played a practice round with countryman McIlroy on Tuesday, no doubt picking his brain as the pair plotted their way around Pinehurst, and that would have acted as perfect preparation for McKibbin – while he’s entering his first major, McIlroy has dealt with the unique pressure 61 times throughout his career and experienced every emotion.

There has been more attention on the 21-year-old since that breakthrough success in Germany 12 months ago with the triumph acting as a sign of what could be to come, but McKibbin has been able to shoulder the weight of expectation and feels it has helped bring his game to another level.

"Just having the comfort of that win, knowing that this year I can play freely, not that I wouldn’t before, enables you to really go out and enjoy it,” he said in a blog post ahead of the US Open. “Nothing, so far, has gone astray in my game so long may that continue.”

This first step onto the major stage is another milestone ticked off for McKibbin, who is setting his sights not just on grabbing one of those 10 tickets onto the PGA Tour, but also a spot at The 153rd Open, which is being staged at Royal Portrush in 2025. You’d be a fool to put any of it beyond him given the quality he has produced so far.

He’ll likely be happy to soak in the experience of his surroundings this week, but it’s not the same case for McIlroy, who has to somehow stop the golfing juggernaut that is Scottie Scheffler as he looks to win a second US Open crown, 13 years after his first.

Failure to lift one of the biggest titles since 2014 has perhaps overshadowed McIlroy’s remarkable consistency in a regularly unpredictable sport – he has recorded a top-10 finish at each of the last five US Open tournaments and 17 top-five major finishes throughout his career.

It’s unfortunate he’s running into Scheffler, who is the shortest-priced major championship favourite since Tiger Woods in 2009 and has set a new season-high earnings record by collecting an eye-watering $24 million in 2024 – so far.

McIlroy will end the hoodoo at some point – he’s surely too good not to – and perhaps with many already crowning the dominant world number one as champion, this could be the perfect time to strike.