Daniel Hillier socres opening round ace in Madrid
A sensational hole-in-one on the 17th has helped Kiwi golfer Daniel Hillier into the top five after the opening round of the Open de Espand DP World Tour event in Madrid.
Hillier aced the 17th hole at the Real Club de Campo Villa Madrid course, which saw him card a four-under opening round 67 at the Open de Espana.
LATEST HEADLINES:
It is the fifth hole-in-one of the 28-year-old's career.
"Yeah, it was pretty crazy. I mean, obviously you can't see the bottom of the hole, so I didn't know that it went in until I saw people, you know, jumping and cheering in the grandstand over the back. So yeah, it was really cool," he said after the completion of the round.
Hillier used an eight iron on the 165 metre hole, saw the ball pitch right by the hole, and softly drop in, but ironically, it wasn't what he described was a perfect shot, even through the outcome was.
"Didn't actually hit it how I wanted to, but you know, I feel like that's the way it goes with hole in ones.
"It's never the ones that you pure straight at the flag. It's always, yeah, the interesting ones for me in my experience anyway," he said.
The ace also saw Hillier win the keys to a new BMW iX5, an electric car worth well over NZD $100,000.
Hilliers best result of late was a tie for second at the British Masters in August.
Hillier's in a tie for fourth after the first round, just a shot off the lead, which is shared by Spain's Eugenio Chacarra, and Connor Syme anbd Grant Forrest, who are both from Scotland.
Fellow New Zealander Kazuma Kobori is six-over and a long way down the order.
