Hillier and Anstiss storm in front at The Mount OpenYellow Golf Clubs icon

Daniel Hillier is joined at the top by James Anstiss after two rounds at the Christies Flooring Mount Open held at Mt Maunganui Golf Club.
In his quest in capturing the season-long points race for the Jennian Homes Trophy, Hillier fired another round of six-under to finish at 12-under for the tournament to be tied at the top of the leaderboard.
 
There are only two people that could stop Hillier from winning this week, with both Hydes and Toomey needing to win in order to steal the trophy away from him.
 
However, Hillier has the goal in mind of winning this week and winning the Jennian Homes Trophy in style.
Although he began his second round with some speed wobbles, he’s happy with his second round which sent him up the top of the leaderboard.
 
“I had a three-putt on the first hole [seventh] and then managed to get myself into a bit more of a groove and capitalise on some chances and kept building a score throughout the round.
 
“I’ve been pretty aggressive so far this week. I’m hitting a lot of drivers and hit some good ones today; I drove a couple of the par 4s and having two-putt birdies on those was a little bonus so I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully the putts will drop and we’ll make a couple more good numbers over the weekend,” Hillier explains.
 
He’s played with Hydes over the opening two days and has managed to keep an eye on his good mate as he looks to spoil his party. Hydes needs to win and Hillier needs to finish lower than second for Hydes to capture the Jennian Homes Trophy.
Hillier says if he’s able to finish the event off in style, it will be a special year.
 
“It’s special to be in contention for the Jennian Homes Trophy. I guess that shows that I’ve been playing really well the entire season and it’s nice to get off to a good start here and I’ve just got to keep my head down and execute the game plan for the remainder of the tournament.”
“Jimmy [Hydes] and I are good mates and it’s always fun teeing it up alongside him. He’s a phenomenal player and he could easily fire up over the weekend. I could see that he hasn’t hit his straps quite yet but is still there or thereabouts so he could definitely go low over the weekend and keep me on my toes,” he says.
 
Joining him at the top is James Anstiss after a scintillating round of eight-under 64. Anstiss, a former winner of the Jennian Homes Trophy, got off to a hot start in blustery conditions this afternoon. He birdied the opening two holes and made three on the trot from the fifth to the seventh and made the turn in five-under par. He added three more from the 13th to the 15th to cap off a stellar round in challenging conditions. Anstiss says it’s nice to see his name at the top of the leaderboard again. “It’s nice to be in contention again at one of these events and it puts me in a nice place for the weekend. I’m looking forward to it. “It was really windy this afternoon. I took advantage of the holes that were downwind as they were playing fairly short and managed myself well on the holes that were playing into the wind. I got out of position a few times but managed to scrape a few pars, it was fun,” he says. Mt Maunganui Golf Club is a familiar stomping ground for Anstiss having spent a lot of time with his college teammate Bailey Smith who is a member. He says he gets a few of the members bounces now, and hopes to get a few more over the weekend in his showdown with Hillier. “I’ve hit driver everywhere. My good mate Bailey Smith used to live on the course, both his parents live on the course, so I’ve been up and played here quite a lot with them and other events like the Grant Clements Memorial held at this course. “Dan’s obviously in some pretty good form to be leading the Jennian Homes Trophy. It’ll be a fun weekend playing with him and I think the forecast is for more wind,” he says.
 
Kit bittle sits a shot further back of the pair at 11-under. Play gets underway from 8.30 tomorrow morning.
 
For further information, contact jason@golfnz.org
 
For live scores, click HERE
 
Scores after round 2 - Fri 11 Dec 2020
132 James Anstiss (PGA New Zealand) 68 64, Daniel Hillier (PGA New Zealand) 66 66
133 Kit Bittle (Gulf Harbour Country Club) 67 66
136 Tae Koh (Windross Farm Golf Course) 67 69
137 Will O'Connor (Royal Wellington) 72 65, Jordan Loof (PGA New Zealand) 70 67, Jimmy Zheng (Howick) 68 69, Jared Edwards (Royal Auckland and Grange) 68 69, Chang Gi Lee (PGA New Zealand) 67 70, Zachary May (Russley) 65 72
138 Sung Jin Yeo (PGA New Zealand) 69 69
139 Jerry (Xiangming) Ren (P, Gulf Harbour Country Club) 72 67, Dongwoo Kang (PGA New Zealand) 71 68, Mako Thompson (Maraenui) 71 68, Gareth Paddison (PGA New Zealand) 70 69, James Hydes (Gulf Harbour Country Club) 70 69, Fraser MacLachlan (PGA New Zealand) 70 69, Munchin Keh (P) 69 70, Josh Geary (PGA New Zealand) 69 70
140 Luke Brown (PGA New Zealand) 71 69, Kazuma Kobori (Rangiora) 70 70, Hiroki Miya (Russley) 69 71
141 Kieran Muir (Omokoroa) 72 69, Mark Brown (PGA New Zealand) 71 70, Jordan Woodall (Cambridge) 69 72, Jaeseung Na (Whitford Park) 67 74, Mark Hutson (PGA New Zealand) 65 76
142 Luke Toomey (PGA New Zealand) 74 68
143 Cameron Jones (PGA New Zealand) 72 71, Jayden Ford (Judgeford) 72 71, Wenyung Keh (P) 72 71, Trevor Marshall (PGA New Zealand) 72 71, Robby Turnbull (Remuera) 70 73, Mason Lee (PGA New Zealand) 70 73, Taylor Gill (PGA New Zealand) 69 74, Michael Hendry (PGA New Zealand) 68 75
144 Lachie McDonald (Marton) 73 71, Momoka Kobori (Rangiora) 72 72, Troy Ropiha (PGA New Zealand) 69 75, Ryan Rooney (Feilding) 68 76
145 Shaun Campbell (Omanu) 73 72, Sam Vincent (Riverside) 73 72, Rhys Thomas (Futures Waikato) 72 73, Sam Reese (Gulf Harbour Country Club) 72 73, Fiona Xu (Titirangi) 71 74, Stephen Liu (Whitford Park) 71 74, Woonchul Na (PGA New Zealand) 70 75
146 Joshua Bai (Akarana) 76 70, Darae Chung (Shandon) 75 71, Cameron Harlock (Royal Auckland and Grange) 72 74, Jared Pender (Te Puke) 72 74, Matthew Morris (Royal Wellington) 71 75, Johnny Tynan (Titirangi) 71 75
147 Anna An (Muriwai) 75 72, James Tauariki (Futures Geyserland) 75 72, Mitchell Kale (Tauranga) 74 73, Thomas Woods (Miramar) 74 73, Kevin Koong (Muriwai) 72 75, Liam Hewitt (Queens Park) 72 75, Cosmo Graham (Hastings) 71 76, James Watkins (Royal Wellington) 70 77, Sam An (Titirangi) 69 78
148 Harry Bateman (PGA New Zealand) 79 69, Kyle Wong (Titirangi) 74 74, Caerwyn Ross (Paraparaumu Beach) 73 75, Siyi Keh (P) 73 75, David Kim (Akarana) 73 75
149 Laura Hoskin (P) 77 72, Hanee Song (P) 76 73, James Fellows-Ford (Hamilton - St Andrews) 76 73, Karan Nalam (Royal Auckland and Grange) 75 74, Charlie Smail (Walton) 74 75, Sam McGovern (Hamilton - St Andrews) 73 76
150 Tae Min Kim (Gulf Harbour Country Club) 76 74, Ross Allott (Waitemata) 76 74, Daniel Freeman (Remuera) 75 75, Kahu Tataurangi (Remuera) 75 75, Ing Iadpluem (Futures Waikato) 74 76, Logan Madden (Morrinsville) 73 77, Eunseo Choi (Takapuna) 73 77, Logan Hooper (North Shore) 70 80
151 Liam McFarlane (Omanu) 76 75
152 Maddie May (Russley) 79 73, Damian Kempson (Mt Maunganui) 79 73, Dean Sipson (Mt Maunganui) 78 74, Linna He (Titirangi) 78 74, Sam Marsters (Miramar) 76 76, Nathan Clark (Tauranga) 75 77, Jesper Bengtsson (North Shore) 73 79
153 Oak Archvarin (Riverside) 79 74, Dominic Brettkelly (Hororata) 75 78, Kunaal Singh (Whitford Park) 73 80
154 Grant Stockman (PGA New Zealand) 79 75, Henry Spring (Whakatane) 79 75, Hayato Miya (Russley) 78 76, Sieun Ha (North Shore) 77 77, Ethan Jones (Manaia) 76 78, Brett Peacock (Titirangi) 76 78, Tuhourangi Wilson (Karamu) 75 79, Alexander Peterson (Mt Maunganui) 75 79, Aileen Du (Remuera) 75 79, Misong Jang (North Shore) 75 79, Taylor-Rose Perrett (Omanu) 75 79
155 Malcolm Wells (PGA New Zealand) 78 77, Michael Ellis (Lakes Resort Pauanui) 77 78, Harry Ward (Paraparaumu Beach) 76 79
156 Jarrod Millar (Whitford Park) 78 78, Jerry Song (Queenstown) 78 78
157 Samuel Dodds (Pupuke) 75 82
160 Giles La Ville (North Shore) 81 79
161 Daniel Haretuku (Whitford Park) 77 84
163 Jun Hee Cho (North Shore) 81 82, Daniel Newman (P, Gulf Harbour Country Club) 77 86
167 Danielle Price (P) 84 83
169 Bridget Connolly (Waitemata) 86 83
177 Subin Wui (North Shore) 86 91
178 David Khun (North Shore) 91 87