DP World Tour Championship: Ryan Fox backs Daniel Hillier to confirm PGA Tour card in Dubai
Subscribe to listen
- Share this article
- Copy Link
- Twitter/X
The DP World Tour Championship in Dubai this week presents different opportunities for the two Kiwis in the field.
For Ryan Fox, there’s little pressure. After a big year on the fairways, including winning the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in July, the tournament in Dubai was a chance
to improve his standing on the Order of Merit. Going in at No 8 in the rankings, a win would put Fox in contention to finish at the top of the table – though he would need plenty of other results to go in his favour.
For Daniel Hillier, one more good week to round out the year would put the final touches on securing a PGA Tour card for 2027. The top 10 players on the DP World Tour, also referred to as the European Tour, who are not already exempt earn their way on to the American tour in 2027 and, before Dubai, Hillier held the fifth of those 10 spots.
Hillier sits ninth on the Order of Merit heading into Dubai, and has a 637.25-point advantage over 17th-placed Spaniard Angel Ayora, who is the closest threat to one of the 10 PGA Tour cards available.
It is unlikely Hillier will miss out on a PGA Tour card, but until it is confirmed, nothing is guaranteed. It’s something Fox said would be driving Hillier this week.
“Dan doesn’t need advice from me in that regard. He’s playing pretty well and has done at the back end of the season,” Fox told the Herald.
“It’s been good to see. He had a little bit of a tough stretch through the middle of the year and it’s been good to see him find it again and that [second place] result in India locked it up from my point of view.
“But I think if you’re in the position and you’re chasing one of those cards, it’s harder to be a bit objective on it. You always think that the worst can happen per se and the guys that can catch you will all play well. I don’t think it’s ever the case in real life, but yeah, it’s nice.
“It’s going to be a good week for him. I know he wants to play well, but he’s got a pretty good record in the Middle East. He’s played well a lot over here. So I think he just goes out and does his stuff this week and I think he’ll be fine regardless of how he plays.”
Fittingly, Fox will be there to celebrate with his friend at the end of the tournament in what has become a common occurrence for the pair this year.
Hillier was there to celebrate Fox’s triumph at the Open Championship – being one of the first to greet Fox as he made his way off the 18th green. Fox was then able to return the favour, hanging around to watch Hillier’s final round in India in mid-October despite missing the cut himself.
“The plan is definitely to share a bottle of wine with him on Sunday night to celebrate that before we both fly to different parts of the world,” Fox said.
“I feel like at times it’s been a little bit of a lonely existence as a Kiwi on tour since I started out here and on the PGA Tour. So getting a chance to hang out with Dan, he’s one of my best mates and it’ll be great to see him on the PGA Tour next year. Hopefully get to spend a bit of time with him and look, he was brilliant for me after the Open. I think he was about as excited as I was and also we both charged fairly hard on that Sunday night.
“It was good to be able to reciprocate in India. That was a big week for him, especially how he started the week and [it was] one of those weeks where second, I think, felt like a win and it basically locked up his PGA Tour card.
“It was a really important week for him and it was nice to be able to share that with him and hopefully we can do a little bit more of it going forward and both continue to have some decent success on the other tour, now on the PGA Tour. So that’d be really nice for a couple of Kiwis to be successful out there.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
- Share this article
- Copy Link
- Twitter/X
