Wellington golfer Daniel Hillier has revealed the reason for his sudden withdrawal from a European Challenge Tour event in the Czech Republic last month – and it's not what you might expect from a professional golfer.
The 22-year-old was playing the second round at the Kaskada Golf Challenge in Brnowhen he withdrew having completed 13 holes. He wasn't injured and he wasn't disqualified.
Hillier explained it was a much simpler reason than that.
"It wasn't one of my finest moments. Hopefully, it's a once-in-my-career type thing but I actually ran out of golf balls," Hillier told the Herald.
"There I was coming down the stretch and I was pretty close to the cut line. I got one of the tee shots that I didn't like (on the par four fifth hole which was his 14th), pretty gross wind into the left which isn't great for any right-hander and it was OB (out of bounds) five metres off the fairway.
"Sure enough I sent four balls out of bounds in a row and, yeah, had to pack my bags and walk in. I did have more balls than four but I lost a couple more early on in the round.
"It was just one of those things that you never really expect to happen. I can look back on it now and have a bit of a laugh about it. So hopefully it doesn't happen again."
While social players can get balls off their partners, it's not allowed in the professional game if players run out.
"I was lost for words when it happened. I can just remember standing up on the tee with my last ball in my hand, and the guys in the group behind me were watching it all unfold. And they saw that last ball sail into the out of bounds and I turned around and said 'well, that's me done boys' and grabbed the bag and walked down to the clubhouse."
Daniel Hillier is close to securing a DP World Tour card. Photo / Photosport
Every weekend hacker can probably relate to Hillier's experience off the tee. But how did things go so wrong for a professional who is on track to earn a full DP World Tour card for next season?
"I guess the background is the buildup to it. We were actually put on the clock the previous hole as we were falling a bit behind the group in front and trying to get us to hurry up so I was a little bit flustered.
"I got to that tee shot and the first ball I hit actually went left where there is a hazard. But there are also trees and you can't really tell if it goes into the hazard or not. So I walked out there and I couldn't find it.
"I was talking to the referee and he said 'you can't actually prove that the ball has gone into the hazard, so you're going to have to go back to the tee'. So I had to run back to the tee and stood up there again, and didn't want to go left and have the same thing happen. So I hit it a little bit right, and a little bit right is out of bounds, so proceeded to do that three times."
Ordinarily, six balls in the bag would be enough but Hillier admitted he has carried more since that fateful round.
"You know at that stage of the second round I figured if I lose six balls, I'm not making the cut. So thought that would be more than enough. But yes, it's just one of those things. I've definitely packed more balls every round since then."
Hillier is 20th on the European Challenge Tour order of merit having endured a mixed run of form. He finished 68th at the DP World Tour's Cazoo Classic on Monday following a tie for seventh in his last Challenge Tour event in Austria.
The top 20 at the end of the season on the Challenge Tour earn their full DP World Tour cards for next season.
Hillier has a big opportunity over the next couple of weeks to boost his Challenge Tour standings, starting with the DP World Tour's Hero Open at Fairmount in Scotland this week and next week's Cazoo Open in Wales. He also will have some Kiwi company in Ryan Fox and Josh Geary this week.
"Three Kiwis here like we did last year, which is pretty cool and I will hopefully catch up with Foxy. He's obviously been doing really well this year and it would be great to see him and congratulate him on his recent success."
The Fairmont golf course is five minutes down the road from St Andrews and Hillier is expecting some good scoring.
"It's a typical links style course and the conditions are meant to be pretty good this week. So I just have to keep it in front of me and hope the putts drop in at the right time."
