TELFER’S TAKE 12.10.26

For amateur golfers, grabbing an elusive hole-in-one will always be one of the highlights, if not the highlight, of your golfing days, something this writer hasn’t experienced (yet) from my 60 years of playing this infuriatingly crazy game.

For pros, perhaps it’s because they seem to come along sort of regularly, they are not such a big deal. Sure, there are always high 5’s all around, then it’s on with job. A hole-in-one of course doesn’t mean you’re going to win the tournament, but it can help. Although in Daniel Hillier’s case, his ace at the Spanish Open left him well placed inside the top 10 after Day One, but by the time the tournament finished three days later, Daniel had slipped down to a tie for 26th place.

But as holes-in-one go, Daniel’s, at the Real Club de Campo Villa in Madrid at the 17 th hole in his first round, will always linger I suspect as something special for him. The hole was playing 170 metres on Day One with the pin cut front left in a tight awkward position. He flew his tee shot deliberately past the pin to avoid bunkers guarding the front of the green. The ball took one hop and spun back towards the pin and eventually rolled in the hole.

Daniel, at that moment, became the owner of a very flash-looking vehicle parked behind the tee. I took no notice of the make or model of the car, but my ears did prick up when a commentator mentioned the car had a value of $330,000.

One shot worth a third of a million dollars. Is it any wonder so many youngsters dream of one day becoming “the best golfer in the world”.

It was Hillier’s 7th hole-in-one.

The Kiwi, I suspect, left the Spanish capital on Sunday night nonetheless with mixed feelings - great that he had won a super luxurious car but disappointed he didn’t take the opportunity after that first round to finish high up on the scoreboard and confirm his place inside the top 10 on the DP World Tour’s Order of Merit. A run of bogeys on the last day saw him slip a couple of places to 14th on that all important top 10.

There is still the best part of a month’s golf left on this Tour, so Daniel has plenty, if not limitless, chances to climb back up inside that top 10.

His fellow Kiwi Kazuma Kobori missed the cut in Spain due to a horrible opening round of 77 which included 2 double bogeys and 4 bogeys in his last 12 holes. This left him outside the top 100 after Day One and realistically little chance of making the cut on Day Two. There will be some concern now in the Kobori camp with Kazuma’s ranking now having slipped to 88. Only the top 100 players at the end of the regular Tour this year get their playing card for next year’s Tour.