Josh Hill gets his second European Tour event underway this week at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic following his maiden outing at last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA and the Dubai-based sensation heads into the oldest tournament in the Middle East looking for victory.
“I think if you don’t aim to win, you’re preparing to fail. Aim for the win and just go out there and have fun and see where that leaves you,” said Hill, when asked what his target was for this week’s tournament. “I’ve spent a fair bit of time watching this tournament and I remember when Tiger came here how big the crowd was. It was probably like eight-deep and I was so shocked. I remember being on my dad’s shoulders just watching it from a perfect view rather than behind people. I’m excited to get out there.”
The 15 year old missed the cut at Abu Dhabi Golf Club last week after rounds of 74 and 76 but revealed he has made a change to his equipment in the lead-up to the Desert Classic while he’s still getting to grips with dealing with the vast amount of media attention he has received since becoming a World Record holder as the youngest winner of an Official World Golf Ranking event.
“I missed a lot of fairways, which you can’t do around there,” said Hill. You can’t score well around there if you’re not hitting the fairways. I’ve just been fitted for new shafts and put a new driver in the bag, so hopefully that will improve it. I played nine holes yesterday and it did, so hopefully keeps going that way.
“You always get media and I think you’ve got to learn it. You’ve got to fit it around your practice which is a good lesson to learn, but I don’t mind it. Just do it and then go out and do what you need to do on the golf course.”
The Englishman, who is coached at the Claude Harmon Performance Academy at The Els Club, gained the experience of a lifetime last week when he played a practice round with World No.1 Brooks Koepka ahead of his European Tour debut. Hill used the opportunity to mine as much information from his esteemed playing partner as possible and will be using it when he tees it up at the Majlis on Thursday (23rd).
“I haven’t really taken on much advice from anybody,” said Hill. “It was mainly just all the practicing with Brooks and learning his knowledge of the game. Obviously I’ve got some stuff from other people but the biggest thing was from Brooks, from being world No. 1, hearing from him was great.”
