{"id":509540,"date":"2026-02-28T10:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509540\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T10:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:53:08","slug":"new-zealand-open-dan-hillier-surges-into-lead-with-late-birdie-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509540\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Open: Dan Hillier surges into lead with late birdie run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DanDan Hillier makes birdie on the packed 18th hole at the 105th NZ Golf Open at Millbrook Resort. Photo \/ Mike Thorpe<\/p>\n

The second biggest roar came on his previous hole when he made eagle on the par five 17th. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty excited, pretty amped up, coming down those last couple of holes. Obviously, a couple of birdies just to sort of get me back in the mix – and then to finish it like that today was pretty special,\u201d said Hillier. <\/p>\n

Up until Hillier late heroics the story of the day was the incredible surge of Kerry Mountcastle. The 30-year-old New Zealander had a share of the lead when he stepped onto the 18th tee \u2013 then hit his worst shot of the day to find the water. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hit the ground before the ball; I knew where that one was going as soon as I looked up. So grabbed a ball out of the bag and reset,\u201d said Mountcastle.<\/p>\n

\"KerryKerry Mountcastle of New Zealand during day three of the 105th New Zealand Open presented by Millbrook Resort. Photo \/ Michael Thomas \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Mountcastle made a tidy up and down to limit the damage to bogey, ending his round in what was then a share of the lead with Australian Curtis Luck on 17-under. <\/p>\n

It was a rare blemish for Mountcastle on a day where he said, \u201ceverything was firing\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery part of the game just felt really solid, and I just felt really comfortable out there.\u201d <\/p>\n

Adding to his relaxed approach was his part-time caddie and fianc\u00e9e, Georgia Brown. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe is here this week mainly because I helped her with her job at the end of January – at the horse sales. She was like, \u2018well, I guess I owe you one\u2019, so, she\u2019s out here and it\u2019s a really good relationship. It just makes it easier on me because we\u2019re both out here having a good time together,\u201d said Mountcastle.<\/p>\n

\"KerryKerry Mountcastle with fianc\u00e9e Georgia Brown. Brown is caddying for Mountcastle at the New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort. Photo \/ Michael Thomas \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Mountcastle and Hillier will be in the final group for the final round as they bid to end an eight-year drought for Kiwi golfers at their home Open. Trying to stop them will be two well-placed Australians in Luck (who will also be in their group) and LIV Tour representative Lucas Herbert. Herbert shot the lowest round of the tournament on Saturday when he signed off on a 9-under par 62. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s well aware that the large crowd that surrounded the closing holes is hoping for a homegrown winner. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sports-nut part of me that would love to see Dan [Hillier] win because he\u2019s such a good player and he\u2019s a really great, I\u2019d say kid, but he\u2019s married now, I can\u2019t really say he\u2019s a kid. He\u2019s a great dude, unbelievable golfer.<\/p>\n

\"LIVLIV Golf Tour member Lucas Herbert of Australia eyes up a putt during round three of the 105th New Zealand Open. Photo \/ Michael Thomas \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always impressed whenever I play with him, so there\u2019s a sports nuffy in me that would love to see him win, but, unfortunately, I\u2019ve got to try and spoil that. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then Kerry\u2019s got his fianc\u00e9 on the bag, which is always a great story too. So, yeah, try and spoil a couple of parties tomorrow,\u201d <\/p>\n

Told of Herbert\u2019s endorsement, Hillier was humbled. <\/p>\n

\u201cWow. That\u2019s very kind of him. I don\u2019t know if he means it or not, but he\u2019s a great man and obviously we all want to see each other do well. But, yeah, I think the Kiwis are all hoping for a Kiwi this time round,\u201d said Hillier.<\/p>\n

\"LucasLucas Herbert with caddie Nick Pugh. Photo \/ Michael Thomas \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Herbert is a refreshingly honest sportsman \u2013 when asked how he\u2019ll sleep on the eve of the final round where he\u2019ll be right in contention, he forewarned that his answer would be predictable. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna say a heap of cliche s*** here that\u2019s not gonna be any fun for you guys as journalists, but literally just like stick to processes and do the things that I\u2019ve done for the last 51 holes to get myself back into this position.\u201d <\/p>\n

He says \u201c51 holes\u201d because after the first three of the 54, he\u2019s played so far, he was 3-over par. <\/p>\n

Herbert has played the next 51 holes in 19-under par. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis course lends itself to low scoring, so it\u2019s not impossible to go and have 62 or 63 out there,\u201d says Herbert.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Hillier of New Zealand hopes his name will remain on top of the leaderboard when the tournament ends on Sunday evening. Photo \/ Michael Thomas \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Scoring may be harder on the final day with the weather forecast predicting an end to the golden weather of the second and third rounds. <\/p>\n

Mountcastle believes it\u2019ll still take a low score to get his hands on the Brodie Breeze trophy. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s supposed to be a bit colder with maybe a bit of wind, so it might not be that low, but this course is one of those courses where you sort of need to shoot low.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mountcastle and Hillier will tee off just before 1pm. Another all-Kiwi grouping will be just ahead of them at 12.26pm with PGA Champions Tour heavyweight Steven Alker (-12) paired with young amateur Yuki Miya (-13). Left-hander Sam Jones is another well-placed New Zealander at 12-under.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt who the local galleries will be following around the final 18 holes at Millbrook Resort. <\/p>\n

Mike Thorpe<\/a> is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan Hillier makes birdie on the packed 18th hole at the 105th NZ Golf Open at Millbrook Resort.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,242240,23689,3023,755,161514,16371,23445,18140,3127,16804,255574,7888,85,22665,3605,3205],"class_list":["post-509540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-birdie","tag-dan","tag-eagle","tag-golf","tag-hillier","tag-into","tag-late","tag-lead","tag-new","tag-open","tag-par","tag-run","tag-sports","tag-surges","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509540","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=509540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}