{"id":307723,"date":"2026-03-01T08:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307723\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:36:10","slug":"daniel-hillier-wins-new-zealand-open-at-millbrook-in-home-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307723\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Hillier wins New Zealand Open at Millbrook in home triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe blood was pumping, the adrenaline was going, but I\u2019m really proud of how I sort of stuck with it today. The theme of the week \u2013 stayed patient,\u201d Hillier said.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Hillier celebrates winning the 105th New Zealand Open. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Still, it was a slow start. Hillier didn\u2019t hole a birdie putt until the seventh hole \u2013 and that was a tap-in after an exquisite bunker shot. That took him to 19-under and a two-shot lead over Australian Lucas Herbert. He narrowly missed back-to-back birdies but picked up another shot on the uphill ninth hole.<\/p>\n

Hillier was aware that Herbert was close behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean Herbie\u2019s obviously a class player and saw him up there towards the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbert, in the group ahead of Hillier, had bogeyed the hole after finding the long rough \u2013 meaning Hillier then had a three-shot lead as he headed for home. But that two-shot swing was reversed on the par-3 10th hole.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Hillier of New Zealand with the Brodie Breeze trophy after winning the 105th New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort, Arrowtown. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Hillier\u2019s round looked to be unravelling when he dropped his driver in disgust on the 11th tee, fearing the worst as his drive drifted left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat tee shot, I slipped and hit it way out of the toe, didn\u2019t feel great off the face, so yeah, that\u2019s why the club, went.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps to his surprise it found the fairway \u2013 and his second shot found its way inside 2m of the pin. The Kiwi favourite made his birdie putt and regained his two-shot lead over the chasing Herbert.<\/p>\n

Herbert drilled an incredible second on the 17th to set up an eagle putt. The pin placement was front right, bringing the water and green-side bunker into play. He couldn\u2019t manage to convert the 4m putt, but he did walk away with birdie, keeping the heat on Hillier and narrowing the lead to one shot.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Hillier lining up a putt during his final round. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

If Hillier was feeling the heat it wasn\u2019t showing in cool conditions, making a birdie of his own on 17 and restoring his lead.<\/p>\n

When Herbert could only manage par on the par-3 18th hole, the title was Hillier\u2019s to lose. He sensibly kept his tee shot dry on a closing hole that is surrounded by water, leaving three putts for the win. He only needed two to send the thousands of spectators surrounding the green into raptures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the best crowds I\u2019ve played in front of, hands down.\u201d <\/p>\n

After being congratulated by friends, family and most importantly his wife, Hillier was drenched in bubbles \u2013 a soaking he welcomed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hands are still shaking; it\u2019s just been incredible. It\u2019s obviously a dream come true. Ever since I started playing it was the one I wanted to get, and, yeah, I\u2019m lost for words.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty hard to describe, but everything that came out afterwards was just pure emotion. When I\u2019m thinking about it, it gets me a little choked up again,\u201d Hillier told a packed media room.<\/p>\n

After the on-green celebrations came the handing over of the Brodie Breeze trophy and the ceremonial presentation of M\u0101ori golf\u2019s k\u0101kahu. The cloak was worn by M\u0101ori champion \u2013 Mike Toeke before it was presented to an emotional Hillier.<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Hillier of New Zealand celebrates winning the 105th New Zealand Open at the Millbrook Resort. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

The tradition began in 2019, and New Zealand has not had a winner in that time. Until now. Hillier is the first homegrown champion since Michael Hendry won the title in 2017.<\/p>\n

Lucas Herbert\u2019s score of 20-under secured him entry to The Open at Royal Birkdale later this year due to the fact that Hillier had already qualified. The LIV golfer fell short of the title but after starting his tournament by dropping three shots in the first three holes \u2013 being as close as he was showed incredible resolve.<\/p>\n

\"LucasLucas Herbert of Australia and his caddie Nick Pugh. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Hillier collected more than $334,000 in prizemoney for his win. The leading amateur was 20-year-old Kiwi Yuki Miya, who finished 10-under after sensationally leading through 36 holes. Hillier has previously won the leading amateur trophy \u2013 now he has the set.<\/p>\n

\"YukiYuki Miya of New Zealand during round two of 105th New Zealand Open at the Millbrook Resort. Photo \/ Photosport <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool seeing Yuki get that trophy this year, he was impressive when we played together. He\u2019s got a lot of talent for sure, and it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he gets the set along the way as well,\u201d Hillier said of Miya. <\/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":"\u201cThe blood was pumping, the adrenaline was going, but I\u2019m really proud of how I sort of stuck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[142400,1975,6028,18829,168062,9872,18830,1345,78,194,168063,142401,117,111,43,139,69,5493,531,9087,16566,6202,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-307723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-105th","9":"tag-at","10":"tag-champion","11":"tag-daniel","12":"tag-dons","13":"tag-finally","14":"tag-hillier","15":"tag-home","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-kiwi","18":"tag-kkahu","19":"tag-millbrook","20":"tag-new","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-open","26":"tag-resort","27":"tag-triumph","28":"tag-winners","29":"tag-wins","30":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}