New Zealand golfer Daniel Hillier mis-hits an 8-iron, makes a hole-in-one and wins a BMW

Daniel Hillier took an 8-iron on the 17th hole at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, a par-3 of 187 yards, in the first round of the Spanish Open on Thursday. He caught the ball off the toe of the club, the Associated Press reported.

It was pretty crazy. To be honest, I toed it quite a bit. Wasn’t too happy with the strike.Daniel Hillier

The ball “kind of hung in the air for a little bit longer than I thought,” he said. It landed level with the flag, took one hop to the left and rolled into the hole.

The car

The first player to make a hole-in-one on the 17th that week won an all-electric BMW iX5, valued by the European tour at about $157,000. Hillier had not known. “I didn’t realize a car was on offer,” he said, and then pointed out that it was a long drive home to New Zealand.

It was the fifth hole-in-one of his career, he thinks. He finished the day four under par with a 67, a shot behind the three leaders, Grant Forrest, Connor Syme and Eugenio Chacarra.

Hillier is 28. In March he won his own national open, the New Zealand Open, days after his wedding. “It just keeps getting better,” he said.