Home hope Tom McKibbin says he’s expecting “extremely difficult” conditions in this week’s Irish Open at Royal County Down with wind forecast to get up on the famed Newcastle links.

McKibbin, 21, is also going into this week’s event with a change of caddie having split with veteran bagman David McNeilly and now employing the services of relative rookie Ricky McCormick, a contemporary of his from Holywood Golf Club.

“Royal County Down is a very hard golf course when you just play it casually never mind when you are in a tournament,” McKibbin told BBC Sport NI.

“The weather is meant to be quite breezy so it’s going to be a very difficult test of golf. The person who wins it will certainly have played the best golf over the four days.”

As for his caddie change, McKibbin insists he is going with his “gut feeling” that he needed something “slightly different” after a slight dip in form which has seen him miss the cut in three of his last five events.

McNeilly, whose clients in the past have included Sir Nick Faldo, Nick Price and Padraig Harrington, was on the bag for McKibbin’s first DP World Tour triumph at the European Open last year and his largely consistent form this season.

“I love Dave to bits and Dave has been great for me and I still love Dave. It’s just that I needed to change something up a little bit.”