Arrowtown, New Zealand: Hometown favourite Daniel Hillier said winning the New Zealand Open on Sunday made it the "second-best day of his life", beaten only by his wedding a week earlier.
DP World Tour regular Hillier capped a memorable week in the South Island's Central Otago region, clinching the $1.2 million tournament by two shots.
He became the first New Zealand winner of the country's national open in nine years and earned a berth at the Open at Royal Birkdale in July.
"That is the second-best day of my life behind my wedding last week," Hillier said.
"This has been the absolute best week of my life.
"And to break the Kiwi drought here is pretty special -- to do it in front of my family, my friends and my new wife.
"I've been dreaming of this for a long time, and I knew I had the game to do it."
Hillier closed with a four-under 67 in cold weather to finish on 22-under at the picturesque Millbrook Resort course near Queenstown.
He was two strokes ahead of Australian LIV Tour golfer Lucas Herbert, with New Zealander Kerry Mountcastle and Japan's Tomoyo Ikemura a further three shots back in a share of third.
Hillier was the highest-ranked player, at 100th, coming into the Asian and Australasian Tours co-sanctioned tournament.
The 27-year-old has racked up four top-10 finishes in six World Tour events, including a runner-up finish at the Dubai Invitational in January.
"It was just a matter of not getting ahead of myself, and I was pretty proud of how I did that the whole week," Hillier said.
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