Kiwi golfer Daniel Hillier will compete at the New Zealand Open this week. Photo / Getty
Daniel Hillier is used to being a small fish in a big pond, but the DP World Tour rookie is quickly learning to embrace the spotlight on his first season in the big time.
The 24-year-old has made a steady climb up the golfing world in the last few years, and became the second New Zealander to make Europe’s premier tour alongside Ryan Fox, thanks to a seventh-placed finish in the second-tier Challenge Tour standings last year.
It’s seen him quickly thrust into the deep end against some of the best in the world, something he says he’s had to do throughout his amateur career, but Hillier is relishing the challenge.
“It’s been really exciting really,” Hillier said of his first couple months of the season. “I’ve had a pretty cool start out at Abu Dhabi and Dubai and those Rolex series events. They were obviously another level up to what I’m typically used to and to get those straight off, that was was pretty cool.
“To go out there and actually play some half-decent golf was a bit of a confidence booster and made me feel a little more comfortable in those situations and in those tournaments.”
However, Hillier admits it’s been a steep learning curve early in his first season, especially during the Asian leg of the tour where he’s struggled to adapt to unfamiliar conditions on the course.
While he’s made the cut on the majority of the events he’s played this year, Hillier has yet to put together a performance on the weekend to threaten the leaderboard — with just two top-50 finishes in six starts.
Hillier says his game is a “mixed bag” at the moment, but he’s confident he has the tools to compete at the top.
“I haven’t really played my best golf,” he said. “I’ve been making cuts and giving myself plenty of opportunities to to make my way up the leaderboard during the weekends, but just haven’t quite had it click over the weekend.
“I’ve had a lot of good stuff and a lot of bad stuff in between. I think it may be partly due to the fact that I haven’t played a lot of golf in Asia lately. In the last couple of weeks, the courses are just so different.
“I’ve made some mistakes that I wouldn’t normally make, but there’s still plenty of positives in there as well. I’m just gonna keep my head down. I’m feeling good enough about my game that I can go up and put a good result on the board.”
After turning professional in 2019, Hillier has already experienced the highs and lows of life as a pro golfer.
The Covid-19 pandemic meant his first full season as a pro was essentially a write off, while 2021 — where he left for Europe with only a handful of tournament invitations and no certainty of being able to return home — continued to be a challenge at times.
“I think I was away for six and a half months, so it’s probably the most rewarding but the most mentally challenging year of my life. I think it put me in really good stead for the next couple of years.”
After narrowly missing out on earning entry into the DP World Tour on his first try, Hillier stepped it up the next year, securing his card and claiming his second Challenge Tour victory.
Hillier says life as a touring professional hasn’t always been easy, with a mid-season trip home to New Zealand last year to reset and recover crystalising the importance of balance in his career going forward.
“It’s very much a mind game out there and I definitely learned that halfway through last year and actually had to take a couple of weeks break just to reset. I ended up going home three quarters of the way through the season.
“At the time I was thinking that it wasn’t the right choice because I was missing out on those opportunities to get more points. But at the same time, I think that’s exactly what I needed just to reset and forget about the golf that I was playing and all the travel disruptions and the things that weren’t going right.
“I think doing that actually was probably the smartest thing that I ever did because I came back a couple of weeks later to Europe feeling fresh and ready to go again, and I played some of the best golf of the year in that back third of the season. Sometimes all you need to do is just have a bit of a reset and it’s important to know when you need it.”
He’s also had someone close to home helping him on his journey in Kiwi No 1 Ryan Fox.
“It’s obviously all pretty new for me out here. I’m still learning all the golf courses and life on the main tour is very different to what it’s like on the Challenge Tour.
“He (Fox) is helping me, we’re playing practice rounds together and giving me a few insights on the courses, and we go out for dinner and all that sort of stuff. It’s just nice to have a familiar face around and make me feel bit more at home I guess in this new environment. So I’m really grateful for that.”
Hillier says he hopes to replicate Fox’s approach to golf — and life — as he chases his first win on tour.
“He’s a very relaxed character and just loves the game and loves doing other things outside of the game as well. He’s very much into that life balance which I think is really important.
“You see some guys out here that golf is their life and they sacrifice everything else to get to where they are. That works for some people, but I think for us Kiwis in particular we’re very much into that life balance and not throwing all our eggs into one basket type thing. It’s pretty cool to see that he can be so relaxed about it and still play the golf that he’s playing.”
Hillier’s next goal is a strong showing on his return home for this week’s New Zealand Open at Millbrook in Queenstown, where he will be one of the headline professionals gunning for the title.
He says it’s great to have the event back up and running after two years off the calendar due to the pandemic.
“We’re gonna have a lot of great overseas players coming over and testing themselves at Millbrook and that new Millbrook course, which is really exciting.
“I’d like to say it’s probably the best chance I’ve had in the time that I’ve played the event ... I’ve got a couple more years’ experience under the belt and managed to put up some pretty good performances against some pretty strong fields.
“Hopefully I can just develop a game plan that’s sound enough to allow me to just take each shot as it comes and then let the result take care of itself.”
This year’s New Zealand Open will be played between March 2–5 at Millbrook Resort in Queenstown.
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