Daniel Hillier is delighted to maintain his strong start to the DP World Tour campaign with an opening 66 at the 2026 Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
The New Zealander began this week at Royal Golf Club in sixth place on the Race to Dubai Rankings delivered by DP World following three top-ten finishes from four starts.
Hillier shared fifth in the season-opening BMW Australian PGA Championship before a tie for sixth at the Crown Australian Open the following week.
He improved further with a runner-up spot at the Dubai Invitational, which kicked off the International Swing, before coming home in tied 26th at Emirates Golf Club last week.
The 27-year-old, who started on the back nine on Thursday, bounced back from a bogey at the 12th with a birdie at the 13th to reach the turn at level par.
How it stands after day one in Bahrain 🇧🇭#BahrainGolfChamps pic.twitter.com/Z2sov13AFG
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 29, 2026
A stunning run of three birdies and an eagle in four holes from the first catapulted Hillier into contention before he added another gain at the seventh to set the initial clubhouse target of six under.
Only leaders Alejandro Del Rey and Freddy Schott could better the Antipodean's score of 66 as he continued his rich vein of form.
"It was a fun day today," Hillier said. "It was a bit of a scrappy start on that front nine, but I made a nice little par save on 18, which was my ninth hole, and the hole got a little bit bigger on the back nine which was nice.
"I didn’t really do anything different. I think I just tried to keep hitting it in the right spots and stayed patient – I think that’s the big thing out here with the breeze getting up a little bit.
"You can get caught out pretty easily, so you just stay patient and keep hitting it in the right spots.
"It’s really important (to start the season strongly), it was definitely a goal of mine. I got off to a good start last year – I came runner-up in the Dubai Desert Classic - and I wanted to try to do that again to take a bit of pressure off on the rest of the year.
"It was nice to be able to come out and do that again today early on for sure.
"I think (I need to) just keep doing what I’m doing. A couple of times late last year I got a little bit ahead of myself, so I think when I’m in those situations, treat every shot the same and just keep knocking on the door until it opens."
