A barnstorming finish from Travis Smyth in the second round of the $1.69 million NZ Open has set the Australian up a for a red-hot tilt at what would be a long-overdue second win as a professional.<\/p>\n
Smyth biridied his last four holes to sign for an eight-under 63 on Friday, leaving him in a tie for second with New Zealand’s DP World Tour star Daniel Hillier at 11 under.<\/p>\n
They were both a shot behind boom Kiwi amateur Yuki Miya, midway through the second round at Millbrook Resort.<\/p>\n
It was a gruelling day for the 31-year New South Welshman, who was up at 4.30am in time to complete the last seven holes of his rain-delayed opening round before switching his focus straight to round two.<\/p>\n
The Asian Tour regular made the late decision in January to renew his Australasian Tour membership with the hope of making a late run at the Order of Merit title.<\/p>\n
Were that to happen, Smyth would earn a full DP World Tour card for 2027.<\/p>\n
But adding to his sole win as a professional – which came at the Yeangder \u00a0TPC back in 2022 – is very much front of mind.<\/p>\n
“I want to play well, I want to lift trophies,” said Smyth, who has had more than 20 top-10 finishes since that triumph in Taiwan four years ago.<\/p>\n
“I’ve put myself in contention so many times and I’ve only won once as a pro and once as an amateur.<\/p>\n
“I feel like I should be holding more trophies, so that’s what I’m aiming for.”<\/p>\n
Smyth was tied for second with Hillier, a shot behind the 20-year-old Miya.<\/p>\n
The young amateur star bounced back strongly from a double bogey late in his round with birdies on his last two holes to card a 67.<\/p>\n
“That double set me back a bit, I definitely had to regroup after that one but I clawed my way back,” said Miya, who doesn’t intend to turn pro until after the 2027 Eisenhower Cup.<\/p>\n
“Obviously there’s a long way to go, still 36 holes to play, but I’ll do my best, stick to my processes and see how it goes.”<\/p>\n
Hillier overcame an upset stomach, swing issues and a tricky schedule to stay near the top of the leaderboard at 11 under.<\/p>\n
The top Kiwi hope knocked in three birdies to complete his opening round of eight-under 63 and then backed up with a three-under 68.<\/p>\n
It would have been even better but for a bogey on the par-3 18th, when Hillier hit his tee shot into the water surrounding the green.<\/p>\n
“That probably should have happened a lot earlier than it did,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The swing wasn’t feeling that great.”<\/p>\n
Hillier has made a flying start to his 2026 campaign on the DP World Tour with top-five finishes in Dubai and Bahrain.<\/p>\n
Since 2003, the only New Zealander to win the national Open was Michael Hendry in 2017.<\/p>\n
Australian LIV Golf star Lucas Herbert made a big move on Friday with a 65 to go to seven under.<\/p>\n
But his playing partner and defending champion Ryan Peake is almost certain to miss the weekend action after bogeying the last two holes of his second round to sign for a 71.<\/p>\n
Peake is at level par, with the halfway cut projected to be two under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A barnstorming finish from Travis Smyth in the second round of the $1.69 million NZ Open has set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-506883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}