The scene is set for a tense third round on Saturday at the $250,000 City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder WA PGA Championship, with Victorian Tom Power Horan among several players to surge into contention on Friday.
Power Horan (71-65) was leading at eight-under before Lucas Higgins of NSW charged past him to reach 11-under-par late on Friday afternoon.
Elvis Smylie was tied for second with Power Horan, and four others — Lincoln Tighe of NSW (70-67), Victorian duo Kyle Michel (66-71) and Abel Eduard (69-68), and WA’s Jordan Doull (71-66) were tied at seven-under.
Power Horan said he had continued the hard work away from the rigours of tournament competition after Thursday’s round.
“I went to the range after the round (on Thursday) to hit a few tee shots, just relax a little bit and stay a bit calmer,” he said.
“(It was) more just to tell myself ‘it’s all there’ and to let it go, rather than hanging on for my life at times (as) it feels like.”
Power Horan said he had called upon the experience gleaned from playing overseas in the past two years.
“You definitely learn a lot, and you learn a lot off the course,” he said.
“I’ve been exposed to some of the best players in the world this year, which is great to see, and I realised what good is.
“There a lot of great players on the Australasian tour who maybe don’t realise how good they are because they’re not competing against top-50 players every weekend.
“You only get those opportunities at the bigger tournaments at the end of the year.”
On the local conditions, Power Horan said they had not yet been an issue.
“I’ve had a bit of a break so I feel fresh,” he said.
“Most of the year I was in between events, waiting around, and it was quite difficult and I did fatigue myself.
“I did three months in Europe and it was probably too long.
“To have four or five weeks off with family and friends and to come back fresh was quite nice.
“Obviously you get a bit of rust but it’s nice to be playing.”
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