Complete guide to the 2026 New Zealand Open<\/a><\/p>\nA runner-up here in 2024, Hillier signed for a seven-under-par 64 to sit at 18-under-par through 54 holes, and has another Kiwi, Kerry Mountcastle (64), and Australia\u2019s Curtis Luck (63) right behind him at 17-under, setting up what should be a super showdown on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Also well in the hunt for the Brodie Breeze Trophy is Australian Lucas Herbert, whose nine-under-par 62 lifted him in outright fourth at 16-under, three ahead of a group of four players tied for fifth.<\/p>\n
On a day made for low scoring, Hillier had played steady, if unspectacular, golf through his first 13 holes, with two birdies sitting alongside 11 pars. But then, with the leaders moving further away, his charge to top of the leaderboard started with a birdie on the par-5 14th.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a\u00a0crazy last few holes,\u201d Hillier said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have my best early on. It was one of those days and I had to stay patient. I knew there were a couple of par-5s I could take advantage of later in the piece. Thankfully I could do that and\u00a0it was pretty cool\u00a0to get one at the last as well\u00a0in front\u00a0of that massive crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being in contention on Sunday has become a regular occurrence for Hillier, who has two top-fives on the DP World Tour already this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking ahead to tomorrow I would love a replay of that and some more,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously\u00a0I have a job to do. I will rest up tonight and have a good sleep and come out firing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mountcastle reached 18-under with a hole to play but dropped a shot when his tee shot plunged into the water at the par-3 closing hole.<\/p>\n
It was only a minor blip on an outstanding afternoon that featured nine birdies, the 30-year-old rating his round as \u201cnine out of 10\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything was kind of firing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sort of not really thinking about what\u2019s happening in the tournament. It\u2019s just I\u2019m out here trying to hit shot after shot and it\u2019s kind of the first time when I\u2019ve been up the top where I\u2019ve been this comfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally I\u2019m always thinking about, Oh, I need to do this or what\u2019s going on about that?\u201d<\/p>\n
An ever-present on Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia leaderboards this summer, Luck is hoping to complete back-to-back victories for West Australian golfers at Millbrook after being part of the celebrations of Ryan Peake\u2019s memorable win last year.<\/p>\n
Playing the NZ Open for only the second time, the former world No.1 amateur is in a very positive frame of mind heading into the final round where a win would take him top of the Australasian Order of Merit, earn him an Asian Tour card and a place at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite cruisy today so that\u2019s always nice when you finish a round,\u201d Luck said. \u201cIt\u2019s high-pressure circumstances being in the back end of the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to really think too far ahead. Obviously fantastic that Peaky won last year and it was pretty cool to be able to celebrate with him afterwards. It\u2019d be nice to get another WA player on the board straight after.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being three-over after just three holes in the horrible conditions on Thursday, Herbert has collected 20 birdies, continuing the fine form that has handed two top-10s on LIV Golf\u2019s first two events in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the story of my past, I think four tournaments,\u201d the Victorian said. \u201cI have got off to a shaky start and had to fight it back from oblivion. It\u2019s good to get back sort of in with a look in the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three other Kiwis remain in the mix for Sunday, The overnight leader, NZ amateur Yuki Miya, wasn\u2019t able to keep pace with the more credentialled players at the top of the leaderboard, dropping to a share of fifth at 13-under after a 70.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a 66 from Steven Alker has the 54-year-old at 12-under-par in a tie for ninth alongside Sam Jones (66).<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was moving day and I wanted to be a little more aggressive, but tomorrow I am going to need to be\u00a0really aggressive\u00a0to catch the guys in front,\u201d Alker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am having a blast with \u2018Goldie\u2019 (Jeff Wilson) on the bag and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0been a lot of fun and great to be back in New Zealand playing again. That is the coolest part.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lowest round of the day belonged to Korea\u2019s Chan Choi, who matched the Championship course record with a 10-under-par 61. After making the cut on the number, he is now in a share of eighth at 12-under.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s Tomoyo Ikemura was another to make a sizeable move on Saturday, carding a bogey-free, eight-under-par 63 to be 13-under-par overall.<\/p>\n
The final round will get underway at 8:08am on Sunday with the final group teeing off at 12:59pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: PhotoSport NZ] A sensational late Saturday afternoon surge from New Zealand\u2019s Daniel Hiller has handed him a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[121913,64,63,256282,136842,755,146406,250380,5507,175343,175344,163416,85,256283],"class_list":{"0":"post-511531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-asian-tour","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-curtis-luck","12":"tag-daniel-hillier","13":"tag-golf","14":"tag-japan-golf-tour","15":"tag-kerry-mountcastle","16":"tag-lucas-herbert","17":"tag-millbrook-resort","18":"tag-new-zealand-open","19":"tag-pga-tour-of-australasia","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-steven-alker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511531","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=511531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}