Hillier named in Nomura Cup Team

NEW ZEALAND GOLF NOMURA CUP TEAM ANNOUNCED

New Zealand Golf have named an exciting team to contest the 2017 Nomura Cup at Sungai Long Golf and Country Club, Malaysia.

The team includes Nick Voke (Auckland), Ryan Chisnall (Tasman), Daniel Hillier (Wellington) and Luke Brown (Northland). 

Two experienced players lead this team in Voke and Chisnall, both incumbent Eisenhower team members from last year’s successful Worlds Team Championships campaign.

Voke, who is the top ranked New Zealand Amateur on the R&A World Rankings has also been performing well of late, with three top 10s in his last four events, including a T5th at the prestigious Western Amateur Championship.

Tasman’s Chisnall is the rock of the team, a steady player who has found his feet at the international level of play. His consistent play is a feature of his game and he will be looked to as the anchor of this team. His three top twenty finishes in his last three starts at the Players Championship, the Southern Amateur Championship and the Western Amateur Championship are a testament to that.

The third player of the four man team is Hillier, while still young at just 19, he has already amassed a number of key titles, including two New Zealand Junior U19’s Championships, the 2017 Australian Junior Championship a Charles Tour event in the Harewood Open as well as a New Zealand Amateur Championship. This will be Hillier’s debut in a senior representative team, but one he is more than ready for.

Brown rounds out the four players to represent New Zealand in Malaysia. He has shown steady improvement over the last 12-18 months and has earnt his position in the team through his dedication to bettering his game and through the performances that have come as a consequence of this hard work. Brown, who successfully made three cuts while traveling and playing in the United Kingdom in May and June, has won both his most recent tournaments, taking out the Bream Bay Classic and The North Harbour Stroke Play titles.

Denzel Ieremia (Waikato / Iowa State) has also been named as the non-traveling reserve for this event. While in previous years players have been able to attend the various professional tour schools that are held during the latter parts of the year, without missing out on national honours, sadly this year there is a clash. With Nick Voke registering for this year’s Web.com Tour Qualifying Series there is the potential for his second stage to clash with the Nomura Cup. If Voke makes it through his first stage in early October, and we hope he does, Ieremia will step in to take the then open fourth position within the team.

High Performance Manager Gregg Thorpe commented, "Nick has been an integral member of both the 2015 Nomura Cup and last year’s Eisenhower Trophy teams, it’s important we give him every chance to represent New Zealand again, while also being supportive of his eventual move into the professional ranks.

“In fact, I hope he can’t play come November! In the same breath we want to leave that spot open for him as part of his plan B. Either way, I know Nick or Denzel will bring something special to this team come November, and either way it’s a strong line up” concluded Thorpe.

The last time New Zealand held the Nomura Cup was in 1995, when Russley Golf Club in the Garden City of Christchurch hosted the event.

The Nomura Cup, is a biennial competition rotated among the Asia-Pacific region. It was first held in the Philippines in 1963.

Conducted by the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, each team consists of four male players, contesting 18 holes of stroke play for four days. In each round, the lowest three individual scores constitutes the team score for the round.

The four-day (72-hole) total is the team’s score for the championship. The winning team receives the Nomura Cup, which was named after Shun Nomura, the former Vice-President of the Japan Golf Association who donated the Cup.

Gregg Thorpe - High Performance Manager