Charlie Hillier, parents to reunite for first time since pre-COVID at AdventHealth

The 2014 Junior World Golf Championship marked Charlie Hillier’s second trip to the United States from his native New Zealand. At the first practice round that week, Hillier – who had come to the U.S. two years prior to watch the U.S. Open at The Olympic Club – was greeted by an older gentleman with a flip chair made of plastic and snap-together glasses. That man asked his name, watched him play over the next six days, and would help change his future – it was Jamie Bermel, the head men’s golf coach at the University of Kansas.

Hillier finished sixth that week – he led halfway through the third round, attracting a lot of attention – and Bermel approached him after the final putt dropped and wished him well.

He asked if Hillier had ever thought about playing at Kansas.

“I didn’t realize you were supposed to call Coach, ‘Coach,’ so I said, ‘Jamie, to be honest with you,’” recalls Hillier, “’I don’t even know where Kansas is.’”

Bermel replied, “I think you’re going to find out.”

Indeed, Hillier committed to Kansas just two days later. He spent four years as a Jayhawk, and now he’s in his third full season as a professional golfer.

“I got to Lawrence, Kansas in 2015,” said Hillier, “and they haven’t been able to get rid of me since.”

This week’s AdventHealth Championship in Kansas City will mark another very special moment for Hillier in Kansas. He’s going to see his family for the first time since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I haven’t been this excited to play golf in a long time,” said Hillier.

Hillier, who has status on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica this year after failing to advance through First Stage of Korn Ferry Tour Q-School by one stroke, received a sponsor exemption for this week’s event in Kansas City. Blue Hills Country Club is a course he’s played “about 50” times, and he’s able to sleep in his own bed, eat whatever food he wants, and “not speak Spanish,” he said with a laugh.

His parents, Sarah and Lee, are in the U.S. now.

They went to watch Hillier’s brother, Harry, play his final tournament as a collegiate golfer. Harry was recruited to play at the University of Kansas as well and is in College Station, Texas, with the team. Sarah and Lee Hillier flew from New Zealand to Los Angeles last Thursday, jumped on a flight to Austin, and arrived in College Station on Friday afternoon. Two family friends are in tow, too.

They’ll arrive Thursday morning after a red-eye flight to Kansas from Texas, and that first hug, Hillier said, is going to feel extra sweet.

Growing up, Hillier and his brother were soccer guys, through and through. Their grandfathers – on both sides – played in the English Premier League, one for Chelsea and one for Fulham. Golf was just a hobby for a long time. The brothers would go to a free clinic at the course near their home on Tuesday nights and “just hang out,” Hillier recalls, before the assistant pro at the course asked the pair if they ever considered playing seriously. They declined, saying they “were soccer players,” but as time went on, and especially after attending the 2012 U.S. Open, golf became a more important thing on their radar.

It was their first golf coach in New Zealand who planned that trip, and that coach had attended the University of Oregon. The brothers visited the campus after the week at The Olympic Club, and Hillier was hooked.

“The Oregon campus, obviously it’s one of the elites of the elite. And as soon as I saw that, I was like, ‘This is where I want to be,’” said Hillier of playing collegiately in the United States.

It was Oregon men’s golf coach Casey Martin, Hillier said, who encouraged him to really commit to getting better and return to America to play the Junior World in a few years. Hillier worked through an independent study program for his final two years of high school so he could do his schoolwork through the morning and practice in the afternoon. He felt as if he was late to the game, he admits, because he saw 15-year-olds who were already teeing it up in the U.S. Open.

But all that hard work paid off. He had nine top-20 finishes in his final season at Kansas, tied for the most on the team, and led the team with 23 under-par rounds that season.

After Hillier graduated from Kansas, he maintained amateur status to try and win the Asia-Pacific Amateur (winners receive a Masters invitation). That year, 2019, he played golf from January through November with “maybe” two weeks off, he remembers. He took a break during the holiday season and was preparing go to PGA TOUR China Q-School in spring 2020.

But after COVID hit, he was left with minimal options, so he returned to the U.S. He has made two cuts on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica this season and is hopeful the appearance of his parents and the comfort level around Blue Hills will help propel his season.

The way the pandemic restrictions worked in New Zealand – the government dropped the two-week hotel quarantine for returning nationals just this month, while the country will only open its border to all tourists on July 31 – the family was unable to reunite, save for on FaceTime.

But now the family gets to have a little face time. And Hillier can’t wait.

“I met with my sports psychologist (on Monday) and I don’t usually get too high on the golf course and she was like, ‘You’re going to have a lot of emotion running through you on Thursday,’” Hillier said with a laugh. “But I view (this week) as a success already to see my family, play in front of friends and some sponsors and even some ‘adopted’ American moms and dads … it’s just awesome to give back and let them watch me play and meet my parents for the first time (since the beginning of COVID-19).”