ISPS HANDA WORLD INVITATIONAL

July 31, 2021

Daniel Hillier

Galgorm Castle & Massereene Golf Club

Quick Quotes

DANIEL HILLIER: It felt obviously pretty good after yesterday's performance, and yeah, obviously had a pretty slow morning this morning. I think when I got here I was a little bit half asleep really and took me a while to get going, but yeah, I mean, that hole-out on 11 was nice, sort of the boost I needed, I think, just to keep me going the rest of the day. Managed to roll a nice one in on 16 to give myself half a chance tomorrow.

Q. It's no fun, is it, walking off of 5 3-over for the front nine?

DANIEL HILLIER: Yeah, a bit of a slow start. Yeah, I mean, that first hole obviously pretty uncharacteristic three-putt there, and then just caught a flier on the next one, and yeah, there was two shots gone pretty quickly right there.

Yeah, it was one of those courses you really need to be on your game, and if you're not, you do get punished pretty quickly. Yeah, it's just one of those front nines really.

Q. We saw your reaction on 11, so yardage and club, please?

DANIEL HILLIER: Yeah, 153 meters, and I was sort of right in between 9-iron and pitching wedge. It was straight downwind, playing about 140, and I figured long is no good, left is no good, so just took a wedge and hit it as hard as I could, hit a nice hard draw in there, and it looked good all the way really. I looked up and thought, this could be all right, I've hit it well, and sure enough, saw it drop in the hole, which is really nice.

Q. I look at you on the 18th thinking, please don't go for it. What's the thought process because you fancied it, didn't you.

DANIEL HILLIER: Yeah, I did. My miss is typically to the right and I had a pretty good number with a 4-iron. Yeah, I mean, I wasn't really thinking about the water at all and just hit it a little bit off the toe, and into the wind, it turned over and away she went.

I'd probably still hit the same shot again if I could. Obviously just be a little bit more cautious of what the wind was doing, and yeah, I mean, it's just one of those things. Bit of a nice up-and-down there to finish, but yeah, that was unfortunate.

Q. You're in the mix, aren't you, which is wonderful. Tell us your thoughts about tomorrow.

DANIEL HILLIER: Yeah, it's great to be in the mix even after a pretty tough day today, but yeah, obviously was still able to make up some ground. I'll go out tomorrow, and I've obviously got a game plan for the week and that's been working so far, bar nine holes today, so I've just got to stick to that and hopefully the putter is a little bit hotter tomorrow and we'll see some more birdies.