THE 153RD OPEN

July 18, 2025

Daniel Hillier

Mixed Zone

Q. We're here with Daniel Hillier Friday at The Open Championship at Royal Portrush. 2-over today, seemingly three down. What did you make of the conditions the last two days?

DANIEL HILLIER: Tricky. I know it could be a heck of a lot worse. Yeah, just enough wind to make it a bit of a grind out there. Fought pretty hard the last couple of days. Hopefully it's enough to see me through the weekend, but it's going to be a long day of waiting.

Q. Hovering right around the cut line at the moment although it is predicted to get a little bit trickier out there. How was it in the rain yesterday particularly? It did rain pretty hard; how do you think that affected your play?

DANIEL HILLIER: Yeah, that was brutal. Ten minutes after we teed off, it just started pelting down. It was sideways rain for a little bit there. It wasn't the nicest introduction to the week.

Again, I fought well through that stretch of holes, managed to get through it sort of 1-over, I think. Yeah, made a couple of nice -- I made an eagle on 12, I think it was. That was a nice little bounce back. Yeah, kept fighting the whole way.

Q. A fantastic eagle on the 12th. A bit of a tough finish here today, two bogeys the last three holes. In saying that, there will be a few bogeys at Calamity. Can you just paint a picture of what that hole is like as a player and what the tee shot looks like from your perspective and what's going through your mindset as you approach that shot?

DANIEL HILLIER: It's tough enough as it it is, and I just didn't have the right club for it. We had 4-iron and 2-iron in the bag, and I needed a 3-iron. Just tried hitting a 4-iron about head height. You try to do that, and it's pretty easy to miss it right, and that's what I did. It's a pretty brutal tee shot. It was either that or hit 2-iron over the back and try to two-putt from 80 feet.

It's pretty important that you have the right club. Definitely needed 2-iron more than 3-iron. It's just that one shot was the one time I needed it. Yeah, made that hole pretty hard for sure.

Q. As I said, you'd be far from the fewest to make a bogey on that hole, and that was a good save with that putt to close it out on the finishing stretch. What's your plans for the rest of the day from here sort of waiting on the cut line?

DANIEL HILLIER: I try not to look at it too much. I've got my fiancee here, so that's cool. I'll hang out with her for the day. We'll just chill out and hopefully, I don't know, keep the fingers crossed and see what happens.

Q. Pint of Guinness?

DANIEL HILLIER: Have to be. It's Guinness. You've got to do it.