The 22-year-old, who was playing in only his fourth major championship, posted a two-over par 73 in Friday’s second round which leaves him in serious threat of missing the cut – the line currently sits at two-over. McKibbin began with a birdie at the first, but a double-bogey on the eighth hole proved a setback heading into the back-nine, where he dropped further shots on both 11 and 14. A birdie at 15 boosted McKibbin’s hopes, but he couldn’t find another shot across the final three holes to secure safe passage into the weekend, instead being made to sweat into the evening. McKibbin has successfully made the cut at all three of his previous major appearances, including the PGA Championship earlier this year, but was left to rue what he deemed avoidable errors on Friday. "Not great,” he said. “A little bit annoyed. "The crowd supporting me the whole way round was amazing. The whole week was good, sort of 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. “Overall, I actually thought I played quite nicely, just a few silly mistakes. "I think that's what's probably most annoying. I feel like I actually played -- this is probably the best I've played out of them all. "Just so many like stupid errors, just pins at the back of the green, hitting over the green. It's just where there's nothing really wrong with the shot. So I think that's what's a little bit frustrating.” Just like countryman Rory McIlroy in 2019, McKibbin was dealing with the pressure of playing in front of a home crowd on the biggest stage for the first time in his career. The former Belfast Royal Academy student, who switched to LIV Golf for the 2025 season, was amongst the first trio out for Thursday’s first round, playing alongside two-time champion Padraig Harrington and Nicolai Hojgaard. "I've hit plenty of tee shots,” he reflected on that experience. “It's obviously a very difficult tee shot at 6:30am. "I've hit two decent ones down there that I think now going forward, I don't think there will be many harder tee shots going forward from that. After that, nothing really too much (learnings). "It's very hard obviously when you don't really play much links golf, and then you start playing it two days or three days before a tournament. "Yeah, besides that, all good. I felt like I've been playing nicely. I felt like, as I said, I've played okay. I didn't really see too many big issues. Yeah, it's definitely strange playing a course that you've played a lot before, playing sort of in a tournament.” McKibbin has four LIV events remaining this year, starting with their United Kingdom tournament at JCB Golf & Country Club later this month before moving on to Chicago’s Bolingbrook Golf Club on August 8.