Golf: Daniel Hillier hits hole-in-one in strong start to Open de España
Whatever comes from the rest of his week at the Spanish Open, Kiwi golfer Daniel Hillier will leave Madrid with more than he arrived with.
The 28-year-old won a new BMW iX5 SUV after making a hole-in-one in his first round on the par-three 17th, landing his tee shot just beyond the pin but with enough backspin for the ball to hop into the hole.
Speaking to Ten-Golfafter the round, Hillier said the shot wasn’t exactly what he had in mind when he hit it.
“It was crazy. I mean, you can’t see the bottom of the hole, so I didn’t know that it went in until I saw people jumping and cheering in the grandstand over the back,” he said.
“So, that was really cool. I didn’t actually hit it how I wanted to, but I feel like that’s the way it goes with hole-in-ones. It’s never the ones that you [hit] pure straight at the flag. It’s always the interesting ones, for me in my experience anyway. Really grateful that I was able to grab that car as well.”
It capped off a decent day on the course for Hillier, who finished his round four-under-par to sit in a tie for fourth with three other players.
Along with his ace, Hillier carded five birdies to cancel out three bogeys – two of those coming in his front nine.
Three birdies in a row on holes 12, 13 and 14 saw him put his round on the right path, with his last dropped shot of the day coming on the par-four 10th.
Hillier ended the day one shot off the lead, held a five-under by Scottish duo Grant Forrest and Connor Syme, and Spaniard Eugenio Chacarra.
“It’s pretty tricky out there. A bit of wind blowing now. The greens are obviously very soft, so it’s kind of hard to control the spin. I think I managed it well today and hopefully I can keep doing that for the rest of the week,” he told Ten-Golf.
The tournament shapes up as the start of a big run for Hillier, who is looking to claim one of the 10 available PGA Tour cards on offer in DP World Tour, often referred to as the European Tour, this year.
As part of a pathways partnership with the PGA Tour, the top 10 players at the end of the DP World Tour not already exempt earn entry onto the American tour for 2027.
Heading into this weekend’s tournament in Spain, Hillier sat 13th on the DP World Tour leaderboard, holding one of those 10 tickets to the PGA Tour.
Including this weekend’s event in Spain, there are five tournaments left on the DP World Tour schedule this season, with one in India next week and a South Korean tournament the following week before the season concludes with limited-field events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Fellow Kiwi Kazuma Kobori had a rough start to his week in Spain, finishing his first round at six-over to sit well down the leaderboard.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.