Northern Irish golfer Tom McKibbin has offered to adopt a malnourished dog, which is named after him, after it was left abandoned. McKibbin competed at this year’s Open Championship, which is in the same Irish county where the dogs were found in a carrier bag.
The Dogs Trust in Ballymena, County Antrim, were called when six pups were discovered in the Broughshane area by a local walker. All six were found to have been underfed and required urgent attention.
Since then, they have been nursed back to health and ahead of The Open taking place in Co. Antrim, were named after golfers competing in the tournament. That included Belfast-born McKibbin, who was featuring in The Open for the second time in his career.
The 22-year-old caught wind of the story and as a result, reached out to the organisation looking after the dogs. Speaking to UTV, he said: “My girlfriend and mum were sitting watching and they were listening and seen the Dogs Trust and thought it would be cool to give a dog a home.”
A heartfelt gesture from the local hero, who was commended by Sarah Park, the assistant manager at Dogs Trust Ballymena. She said: “We honestly never saw this coming when we named them this way, we are overjoyed and we can’t wait for Tom to go to his new home with Tom.”
She added: “It is truly shocking that these beautiful boys were discarded in a bag like rubbish. Thank goodness they were found when they were, or the outcome could have been very different.
“They are now a healthy weight and sweet, playful puppies that are increasing in confidence every day. With golf fever hitting Northern Ireland this week with The Open in Portrush, we thought it would be lovely to give them inspiring names as we know they will go on to achieve great things in life.”
Alongside Tom, there were dogs named after Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington, Shane Lowry and Justin Rose. Unfortunately for McKibbin, it didn’t prove a good luck charm, given he missed the cut with a three-over-par score after 36 holes.
On the experience of playing a major championship on home soil, he explained: “The crowd supporting me the whole way round was amazing. The whole week was good, positive. I thought I played alright, just a few sort of stupid mistakes that looking back, I wouldn’t really hit different. The shot was fine, just sort of missed in the wrong spot or got the club slightly wrong.”