Tom McKibbin entered the D+D REAL Czech Masters as the bookmakers’ favourite, but a cold putter and an unlucky break left him well outside the cutline after the opening 18 holes.
Starting round two on the 10th, he made three birdies over the opening nine holes to move towards the provisional cutline, and another birdie on the first got his head above water for the first time.
A bogey on three made the task all the more difficult, and when he three-putted from 27 feet for bogey on the seventh, he seemed destined to miss just his third DP World Tour cut of 2024. Needing two birdies to have any chance, he stiffed his tee shot to three feet on the par-3 17th and rolled in the putt to keep his chances alive heading to the par-5 ninth.
After crushing his tee shot down the right side of the fairway, he ran out into the rough and was forced to layup short. From 85 yards, he wedged to seven-and-a-half feet and held his nerve to climb the right side of the cutline again.
Tied for 60th at -3, he now faces an anxious wait as the afternoon wave head out, knowing that if he slips more than five places down the board he’ll have the weekend off. And after his incredible weekend charge at the recent Italian Open where he squeezed through by the minimum and looked set for certain victory until Marcel Siem holed a raking putt on the 72nd hole, he knows that a good haul of valuable Race to Dubai ranking points are a distinct possibility should he find himself teeing it up on Saturday.