TELFER’S THOUGHTS 2.6.26

After returning to the DP World Tour following his creditable showing at the USPGA Championship a few weeks back, Kiwi golfer Daniel Hillier I’m sure is more determined and confident than ever he can gain his playing card for the USPGA Tour in 2027.

Last week in Austria Hillier took another step towards fulfilling that goal with a 7th placing at the Austrian Open. What was especially significant here was his move now into the top 10 on the DP World Tour‘s Order of Merit, or the Race to Dubai as it’s officially known.

At season’s end the top ten place-getters on that Road to Dubai all receive playing cards for next year’s PGA Tour, the world’s leading and richest golf tour.

Hillier was the personification of sub-par consistency at the Kitzbuhel Club - four rounds in the 60’s which saw him knit together two 65’s over the weekend. He recorded only 1 bogey in those closing 36 holes and finished the tournament as the leading player with the highest number of greens reached in regulation. And to add a little lustre to that impressive stat, he also emerged from the week as the longest driver in the field. He averaged 324 yards off the tee, with his longest drive measuring a staggering 363 yards. Perhaps his mate Ryan Fox has been slipping him a few tips on

how to smash a golf ball.

Of course now that he’s got himself into that all-important DP World Tour’s top 10, his task is to stay there for the next five months until the season ends in November. That won’t be easy. Essentially every player on that DP World Tour, somewhere between 200-300, is focused on winning one of those highly sought-after ten cards. Hillier came close to edging his way into that top 10 last year only to stumble slightly in the closing tournaments and miss out by a couple of spots.

However his fellow Kiwi on the DP World Tour, Kazuma Kobori, has more pressing problems after another missed cut last week in Austria. He’s now missed the cut two weeks running, but hardly because of poor golf. In both of these last two tournaments he’s shot rounds of 69 and 71. I can’t imagine Kobori or his team are unduly worried about events of the past fortnight. Yes he slipped down the Race to Dubai standings and currently stands in 75th place on the DP World Tour, but remains comfortably inside the do or die number of 115. He must finish inside that figure to retain his playing card for next year.

Not having any of those sort of worries is Steve Alker on the USPGA Seniors Tour after another successful week, this time in Morocco at the Trophy Hassan 11. Alker tied the low round of the final 18 holes in Rabat to finish in second place in this US$2.5million tournament to ensure another healthy pay cheque. It was his 4th top 10 finish of the year and he lies in 4th place on the Seniors Tour Order of Merit. The winner here for the first time on the Seniors Tour was the 52-year-old Australian Scott Hend, a regular face of many years at the NZ Open. This breakthrough win for Hend guarantees him full exemption on the Seniors Tour through until the end of 2027.