Daniel Hillier bounced back from the disappointment of a rare missed cut to enjoy a strong start to the Austrian Alpine Open presented by SalzburgerLand.
The New Zealander has been a consistent performer so far this season, with the highlight his runner-up finish at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in the Rolex Series in January.
However, he arrived in Austria at Gut Altentann GC on the back of just his second early exit across his opening 12 starts of the campaign at last week’s Soudal Open.
After putting in extra time on his game since then, Hillier was among the starters in the morning wave to impress as he mixed six birdies with a double bogey to card a four-under-par 66.
“I’m really pleased with how I played today,” he said.
“Didn’t have a great week last week with the ball striking, so I did a lot of work these last few days to get that back on track.
“It’s probably the best I’ve felt over the ball in a while, which was nice.”
“I felt a little hard done by with that double,” said the 26-year-old who won his maiden DP World Tour title at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo in 2023.
“I felt like I hit a pretty good tee shot, but I just had a rank one in the rough. That can happen out here, the rough is juicy and it’s wet.
“You have to be on form. It’s just nice to play solid for the rest of the round.
"It's one of those courses where if you get frustrated and bite off more than you can chew you can get into some strife.
“Just had to stay patient, I knew if I kept hitting the ball well off the tee and into the greens I would have plenty of chances. Thankfully I made a few coming in.”
After rain during the pre-tournament practice days at Gut Altentann GC – hosting Austria’s national Open for the first time since 1992 – Hillier was impressed by how the course held up.
“It is very soft. There’s a lot of standing water, but the greens are awesome, considering how much rain they’ve had,” he said.
“Greenkeepers have done a great job, hopefully we don’t get too much more rain in the rest of the week, but I’m not that hopeful.”
