Hill (29), a greenkeeper with the Rawhiti Club in Remuera, won his passage into the world event with a classy display at the PBA finals in Dunedin and put to rest some uncharacteristic lapses that affected his game in the Scottish and Welsh events the day before.
On Saturday, Hill's form in the world singles competition was nothing short of brilliant.
He was composed at the mat and his knack of drawing shots from seemingly impossible situations not only helped break down his opponents, but drew applause from the large crowd.
He dominated his semifinal against Dunedin's David Archer, while in the other semifinal, New Zealand No 1 Chris Lourie (Hamilton) had to battle his way out of a tiebreak with No 2 Murray Glassey (Napier) to earn his place in the final.
Hill won the first of the two-game final 8-5, in a match that featured arguably the shot of the tournament.
Lourie had crowded the head in the seventh set. Hill missed with two drives in an attempt to clear the head, but on his fourth and final bowl opted for a draw shot, which nudged around Lourie's four-bowl cluster to come to rest alongside the jack.
With Lourie still in the game at 7-5 in the ninth and final set, Hill repeated the shot he had mastered in the seventh to win the first match.
A classy four-shot head in the third set of the second match, followed by two in the fourth set, had Hill in control of the second match, as he cruised through the remaining sets.
Hill won the second match 9-6 to claim the New Zealand title and earn his passage into the world final.
Lourie was full of praise for Hill.
"I was a little loose at times and it cost me," Lourie said. "It's always very nice to play against Jamie. You really have to bring your game with you and he's really had the wood on me this year.
"I was pleased to at least have been competitive with him. He's a classy bowler."
Hill also won the Shanghai singles on Saturday night after a close battle with Dunedin's Bill Hinton. The prize for this was a trip to Fiji.
Fairfield's Ken Walker and Mark Watt beat North Islanders Murray Glassey and Stephen Zino 15-14 in yesterday's PBA cash pairs.
