Big week ahead for Daniel Hillier


Daniel Hillier – file image courtesy of NZ Open 

The DP World Tour heads east to Dubai for this week’s DP World Tour Championship at the Earth Course at the Jumeirah Estates, the season-ending event consisting of the leading 50 players in the Race to Dubai rankings after this past weekend’s Abu Dhabi Championship.

Amongst the 50 to be making the 140 kilometre trip are three Australians, Daniel Hillier, Elvis Smylie and Kazuma Kobori, who will complete successful DP World Tour seasons irrespective of where they finish in Dubai.

Wellingtonian Hillier, who heads the group following his impressive 5th-place finish in Abu Dhabi, moves up three places to 17th in the Race to Dubai standings. Smylie is 20th after finishing 32nd last week, and Kobori slips to 41st following his 41st-place finish at the Yas Links course in Abu Dhabi.

All three get to play for this week’s US$10,000 million purse in addition to the US$6 million bonus pool should they play exceptionally well this week.

Hillier’s 5th place finish in Abu Dhabi against such a strong field was full of merit, although, as he had done in India a few weeks ago, he let slip a golden opportunity to win the event or finish higher than his eventual position.

Hillier actually took the lead at 24 under when he produced his 7th birdie of the day at the 11th before a double bogey at the 15th, where he failed to get out of the greenside bunker on the first occasion, and a bogey at the last would cost him dearly.

Still, for the 27-year-old he earns a cheque for €301,000, taking his earnings for the season to more than €1.6 million or $A2.9 million.

Importantly for Hillier, however, is the possibility of gaining one of the ten PGA Tour cards available to the leading ten players in the Race to Dubai rankings and not otherwise exempt in the US, Hillier now standing in 12th position in those specific rankings.

Also with a great chance if he can produce something special in Dubai is Smylie, who stands one position behind Hillier in those rankings after his 32nd place in Abu Dhabi although two late bogeys in round four proved very costly for a number of reasons.

Kobori, who, like Smylie, is playing his first season in Europe, has done well to make it to Dubai and gets his chances at the riches of the season’s final event.

The Abu Dhabi Championship was won by England’s Aaron Rai, who defeated Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff, the pair finishing one ahead of Rory McIlory whose last round of 62 so nearly was enough and Nicolai HØJGAARD.

Results

 

/by

Smylie, Hillier and Kobori chasing late season success

The 2024/2025
Elvis Smylie – chasing a big finish over the next two weeks.

DP World Tour season stages its penultimate event this week when the US$9 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is played at the Yas Links Golf Club.

With the leading 50 in the Race to Dubai determining just who will advance to next week’s season-ending US$10 million DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, there is a lot still to play for this week, in addition to the substantial prizemoney on offer.

72 players will tee it up this week, amongst those in the line-up are two New Zealanders and one Australian.

Elvis Smylie in 17th place, Daniel Hiller in 20th and Kazuma Kobori in 38th place in the Race to Dubai rankings, are all assured of advancing to Dubai next week, but a good showing here will provide a boost of confidence ahead of their final test of the season.

New Zealand’s Daniel Hiller gets to play the event for the second occasion, having finished  46th on debut here two years ago, while for DP World Tour rookies Elvis Smylie and Kazuma Kobori, they will play the event for the first occasion.

Smylie has had mixed fortunes in his rookie season. The elegant Gold Coast golfer won the 2024 Australian PGA Championship, leading to his securing the title of leader of the Australasian Tour Order of Merit for the 2024/2025 season.

In 21 DP World Tour starts since his win in Brisbane, Smylie has recorded three top tens, including his runner-up finish in France a month ago. He has, however, missed the cut in each of his last two starts but with an excellent rookie season behind him, he heads to Abu Dhabi with nothing to lose and the possibility of a good week ahead of heading 100 kilometres or so east to Dubai.

A finish inside the top three this week might also bring Smylie into calculations for one of the ten PGA Tour cards now available to the leading ten players in the Race to Dubai Rankings at season’s end and not otherwise exempt from the PGA Tour.

Hillier’s season has also been a roller coaster of sorts, having finished runner-up in the lucrative Dubai Desert Classic early in the year, but there have been only two other top tens in his 23 DP World Tour starts this season, although he was very much in contention in India recently before a back-nine disaster cost him a second title. He finished 9th in that event.

Kobori is playing his first full season on the DP World Tour after his success as the leader of the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Order of Merit in 2023/2024, that title earning him playing rights in Europe.

Like Smylie, Kobori has missed his last two cuts, but he has enjoyed a more than satisfactory first season as he finds his way at this level. His runner-up finish at the British Masters and a 3rd place in Germany during the middle of the year played key roles in the position he now finds himself, and irrespective of how he plays over the next two weeks, he has done well.

Leaderboard

/by

Hannah Green continues late season improvement with runner-up finish in KL


Hannah Green file photo courtesy of USGA

Hannah Green has continued her return to late LPGA season form with a share of the runner-up place at the Maybank Championship at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club in Malaysia today.

Green was tied for the lead through 72 holes with the eventual winner, Miya Yamashita of Japan and former Australian Amateur Champion, Hye-Jin Choi of Korea, but when Yamashita birdied the first extra hole she has recorded her second LPGA victory to go with her AIG Women’s Open Championship earlier this year and she will improve on her current 6th place in the Rolex Rankings.

Yamashita, a six-time winner on the Japan LPGA Tour, where she played most of her golf before joining the LPGA Tour this year, produced a final round of 65 after beginning the final round eight shots behind the 54-hole leader Choi.

Green added another US$237,000 for her share of second place and takes her LPGA Tour earnings beyond US$7.5 million.

Green had been on a run of poor results until the recent BMW Ladies Championship, where she finished 5th, and was then part of the Australian side to win the International Crown event in Korea last week.

“Last couple weeks I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball the best I have all year, so that’s been nice, to have that confidence off the tee instead of having to be forced to layup, things like that,” said Green earlier in the week.

“I have, yeah, four or five people from Australia that follow me in Singapore and then here in Malaysia, so it’s nice to have them. They let me know if it’s a good shot on those kind of blind greens.

“My husband (Jarryd Felton) also just flew in yesterday, so it’s nice to have him here.

“But I don’t know. Just I really enjoy coming to Malaysia. It’s, again, almost like my home event. It’s only a six-hour flight from Perth where I live and also the same time zone. I also call this another home event.”

Lydia Ko was the next best of the Australasians when she finished in a share of 8th place.

The LPGA will complete its Asian swing next week when it plays the Toto Classic in Japan before heading back to the US for two events culminating at the CME Tour Championship in Florida on November 20th.

Leaderboard

 

/by