THE 152ND OPEN

July 21, 2024

Daniel Hillier

Mixed Zone

Q. How's it been for you? You must be mixed with all sorts of emotions finishing a major like that.

DANIEL HILLIER: I just got goose bumps when you said that. It's been an amazing week.

Yeah, very much a grind throughout a lot of it. It's been tough out there, but proud of the way I fought all week. Hopefully manage to stay in the first top 20 in a major, that would be pretty cool. Yeah, just loved every minute of it.

Q. Obviously the first nine, if I'm correct, you got at least a birdie and all the rest were pars. On that back nine, was it proving to be quite tricky at the end there? Obviously you've got your leaders who are on their way to the back nine. Is it proving to be quite a challenging end to this campaign?

DANIEL HILLIER: Yes, absolutely. You have 8 of the first 9 holes where it's hard off the right, and then you turn around and you've got to quickly adjust to it coming hard off the left. Yeah, I didn't quite do that unfortunately. Just made a couple of early bogeys on that back nine.

Yeah, proud of the way I fought at the end there. Had a couple of good up-and-downs having four wedges into the greens. Kept myself in a pretty good position. Yeah, happy days.

Q. Obviously four days of major golf, you're probably feeling it now, but what's been your highlight throughout the four days here at Royal Troon?

DANIEL HILLIER: It's hard to pick a moment. I would say maybe the eagle I made on 16 in round 2. Obviously just outside the cut line there, and that brought me pretty comfortably inside at a pretty crucial moment. Pretty proud of that one.

I'll keep looking back on that to say that's how I made my first cut in a major.

Q. To be honest, New Zealand golf this week has been a great week. Do you look at it and think this is a good time for you and all the players to be putting golf on the map for New Zealand?

DANIEL HILLIER: Oh, 100 percent. It was great. We had four Kiwis out here this week. It's a bit of a shame that we didn't all make it through the weekend, but Kazuma and Mike are both quality players. Kazuma has got a lot of years ahead of him. He'll definitely be playing in more majors. No doubt he's show his face a few more times. And Mike is a great ambassador for the sport as well.

Pretty awesome having all those boys out here. Hopefully we can spoil a few younger guys to get out here as well.

Q. Hopefully go have a few beers tonight anyway.

DANIEL HILLIER: Yeah, I would think that's a good plan. Got to celebrate the fiancee's birthday. That Friday was a bit quiet for her sake. We'll celebrate her birthday, belated birthday.

Q. What's next for you now then on the golfing calendar.

DANIEL HILLIER: Olympics is coming up. Have a few days off to chill out. So reset. The swing might be a little out of whack after battling these winds all week. So tidy that up and look forward to another good week.