'One shot at a time': How another Kiwi golfer can join the PGA Tour in 2027

Daniel Hillier isn’t getting too far ahead of himself.

Schedule-wise, sure. Signing on to play in the Australian PGA Championship, the Australian Open and again partnering Ryan Fox as they look to defend their Chasing the Fox title late in the year, the rest of 2026 is pretty well planned out for the 28-year-old on the golf course.

But in terms of results and what he might achieve in this final stretch of the season, Hillier was taking things one tournament at a time.

Over the next five weeks, the Wellington product is playing a high-stakes game on the DP World Tour, formerly known as the European Tour.

As part of a pathways partnership with the PGA Tour, the top 10 players at the end of the DP World Tour not already exempt earn entry on to the American tour for 2027.

Heading into this weekend’s tournament in Spain, Hillier sat 13th on the DP World Tour leaderboard, holding one of those 10 tickets to the PGA Tour.

But as he saw last year, the final stretch of the campaign can lead to plenty of change in those rankings, particularly with the end-of-season Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in November offering inflated points and prizemoney.

Ryan Fox (left) and Daniel Hillier won the annual Chasing The Fox six-hole event in 2025. Photo / Photosport

“I’m sitting in a decent position at the moment. I’m inside that cutoff to get a PGA Tour card but yeah, I guess the main thing I always talk about is just not getting too far ahead of myself,” Hillier said.

“Still a lot of golf to play and, I guess for me, just taking it one shot at a time is the motto I always go by. When I get too far ahead of myself, get a bit excited, then I don’t get the most out of my game.

“I just need to do my job as well as I can and then hopefully, yeah, the results will take care of themselves.”

Over the next few weeks, Hillier will play tournaments in Spain, India and South Korea, after which the top 70 players on the leaderboard move on to play the Abu Dhabi tournament. Following that, the field is further cut to just 50 players for the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Daniel Hillier won the New Zealand Open in February. Photo / Photosport

Hillier heads into Spain on the back of finishing in a tie for 30th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland last week, with any lingering effects of a rib injury that forced him to withdraw from an event in Switzerland in early September seemingly behind him.

“It was definitely a bit of an eye-opener when I got that little injury, just to make sure I was managing my body a bit better,” he said.

“I’ve still been doing all my gym work, but it’s pretty easy to overlook things when you know the body’s feeling a bit tight in certain areas. You have some long days, you know, the recovery aspect becomes really important. I think just managing the recovery side of things a bit better going forward is going to be big for me.

“I’m not 20 years old anymore, so I don’t bounce back as quick as I was when I was younger and you see a lot of guys out there now, the amount of effort they put into their bodies and making sure that they can last a whole season because it’s quite taxing out in Europe.

“You’re flying to different countries every week, especially us Aussies and Kiwis, we have a long way to travel so there’s a lot of that that isn’t too good for the body, so you need to be on top of all that stuff for sure.”

Hillier will be one of two Kiwis in the field for this week’s tournament in Madrid, with Kazuma Kobori also taking to the tee boxes.

Kobori, 24, also has plenty to play for as he looks to make a move and earn a spot in the tour’s big tournaments in November. As it stands, Kobori is ranked 82nd on the DP World Tour leaderboard and so needs some good results to force his way inside the top 70 by the start of next month.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.