Lee Westwood put himself in contention at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth after reaching the halfway stage as joint leader.
The Englishman started two strokes off overnight leader Brett Rumford as the Perth native shot an impressive 64 on the opening day at Lake Karrinyup Country Club.
But Westwood reeled in the defending champion with a colourful two-under-par 70 in windy conditions to join him at the top of the leaderboard on eight under.
The field has been cut from 156 to 80 players for Saturday’s third round, where the top 24 players after 54 holes — with the top eight players seeded — will compete in a six-hole matchplay format to determine the winner.
One of those who won’t be competing on Saturday is lone Irish competitor Gavin Moynihan after a tough second round. The Dubliner, who secured his card at qualifying school last November but has so far struggled to get many starts, had five bogeys, a double bogey and just two birdies ina round of 77 which left him well down the field at six over.
Westwood carded three birdies and two bogeys in his opening nine holes but still remained two shots behind Rumford after his solitary gain before they both picked up a shot at the 11th, only to each hand it back at the 13th.
The 44-year-old Westwood hit a stunning eagle at the 15th, which he also achieved in the first round, to draw level at nine under and when his Australian rival bogeyed the penultimate hole, he was one ahead.
However, Westwood dropped a shot at the last to fall back to eight under alongside Rumford, with Thailand’s Prom Meesawat, Dane Thorbjorn Olesen, Scotland’s Grant Forrest and Australian Lucas Herbert one stroke further back.
Olesen produced one of the rounds of the day with a five-under 67 which saw six birdies and a bogey, while Herbert hit three under in a rollercoaster second round of six gains, a double-bogey and one dropped shot.
Meesawat became co-leader with Westwood and Rumford following six birdies and three bogeys, only to drop a shot on the final hole, with Forrest hitting a flawless five under on the back nine to surge up the leaderboard and join the trio at seven under for the tournament.
Westwood played alongside his joint leader during the first two days and will be with the Australian once again for the third round as he looks to battle for supremacy with the reigning champion.
“We both played well.” Westwood told europeantour.com. “We haven’t given too many shots away, made a few putts and I chipped in a couple of times. It’s been fun over the first couple of days.
“I’m just trying to shoot as low as possible. I know if I carry on playing like I’m playing and a few putts start to go in, because I didn’t really hole any putts today, I’ll be thereabouts on the leaderboard.
“To be perfectly honest, matchplay is anybody’s. You’re going to need a lot of luck to win it.”
South African Zander Lombard sits on six under for sole seventh, while Australian trio Anthony Quayle, Adam Blyth and amateur Min Woo Lee, Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who was at nine under before four successive bogeys, American Sean Crocker and Italy’s Andrea Pavan are a shot further adrift.
Collated second round scores in the European Tour ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, Lake Karrinyup CC, Perth, Australia (Aus unless stated, Irish in bold par 72):
136 Brett Rumford 64 72, Lee Westwood (Eng) 66 70
137 Prom Meesawat (Tha) 67 70, Lucas Herbert 68 69, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 70 67, Grant Forrest (Sco) 69 68
138 Zander Lombard (Rsa) 68 70
139 Min Woo Lee (a) 69 70, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 67 72, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 73 66, Anthony Quayle 71 68, Sean Crocker (USA) 70 69, Adam Blyth 73 66
140 Jason Scrivener 67 73, Sam Horsfield (Eng) 68 72, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 67 73, Jack Wilson 73 67, Wade Ormsby 67 73, Nick Cullen 72 68, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 70 70
141 Ben Eccles 72 69, Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn) 70 71, Daniel Fox 69 72, Stephen Leaney 69 72, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 74 67, Seung-su Han (USA) 68 73, Pavit Tangkamolprasert (Tha) 70 71, David Bransdon 71 70, Brad Kennedy 69 72
142 Steven Brown (Eng) 72 70, Jens Fahrbring (Swe) 68 74, Charlie Ford (Eng) 69 73, Rattanon Wannasrichan (Tha) 72 70, James Nitties 66 76, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 68 74, Jake McLeod 72 70, Richard Green 69 73, Daisuke Kataoka (Jpn) 67 75, Matthew Griffin 70 72, Marcus Fraser 68 74, Dimitrios Papadatos 69 73, Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha) 71 71
143 Matthew Millar 73 70, Jordan Zunic 72 71, Terry Pilkadaris 71 72, Callan O’Reilly 72 71, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 70 73, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 71 72, Nicholas Fung (Mal) 67 76, Adam Bland 73 70, Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 67 76, Jarryd Felton 69 74, Austin Connelly (Can) 69 74, Alexander Knappe (Ger) 75 68, Mark Foster (Eng) 71 72, Cory Crawford 73 70
144 Jake Higginbottom 74 70, Bradley Neil (Sco) 71 73, Johan Edfors (Swe) 71 73, Aaron Rai (Eng) 71 73, Laurie Canter (Eng) 72 72, Chase Koepka (USA) 70 74, Jarin Todd (USA) 73 71, Rak Cho (Kor) 73 71, David Lipsky (USA) 68 76, Peter Fowler 74 70, Aron Price 72 72, Pep Angles (Spa) 71 73, Christopher Mivis (Bel) 71 73, Andrew Dodt 71 73, Todd Sinnott 72 72, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 74 70, James Marchesani (USA) 73 71, Sebastien Gros (Fra) 67 77, Robert Allenby 72 72, Ryan Evans (Eng) 70 74, Poom Saksansin (Tha) 71 73, Joel Girrbach (Swi) 72 72, Scott Vincent (Zim) 73 71, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 71 73
The following players missed the cut:
145 Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 71 74, Steven Jeffress 71 74, Mark Brown (Nzl) 69 76, Paul Peterson (USA) 74 71, Matthew Guyatt 72 73, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 72 73, Victor Perez (Fra) 74 71, Taylor MacDonald 69 76, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 71 74
146 Marcus Armitage (Eng) 74 72, Michael Hendry (Nzl) 71 75, Tom Lewis (Eng) 73 73, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 72 74, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 73 73, Peter Lonard 72 74, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 73 73, Duncan Stewart (Sco) 74 72, Brett Coletta 73 73, Tirawat Kaewsiribandit (Tha) 71 75, Matthew Stieger 76 70, Tom Murray (Eng) 71 75, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 71 75, Johannes Veerman (USA) 72 74, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 71 75
147 Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 75 72, Simon Hawkes 75 72, Berry Henson (USA) 74 73, Josh Geary (Nzl) 74 73, Daniel Pearce (Nzl) 75 72, Arnond Vongvanij (Tha) 72 75, Connor Syme (Sco) 76 71, Danthai Boonma (Tha) 73 74
148 Nico Geyger (Chi) 73 75, Ben Evans (Eng) 75 73, Josh Younger 74 74, Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 75 73, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 73 75, Gary Stal (Fra) 73 75
149 Aaron Townsend 75 74, Andrew Johnston (Eng) 73 76, Javier Colomo (Spa) 72 77, David Smail (Nzl) 77 72, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 75 74, Matthew Nixon (Eng) 71 78, Nathan Kimsey (Eng) 75 74, Richard McEvoy (Eng) 73 76, Brett Rankin 79 70, Daniel Nisbet 73 76, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 77 72
150 Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 73 77, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 75 75, Garrick Porteous (Eng) 74 76, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 73 77, Natipong Srithong (Tha) 70 80, Jonathan Thomson (Eng) 75 75, Nick O'Hern 76 74
151 Jason Norris 74 77, Ben Campbell (Nzl) 73 78, James Heath (Eng) 79 72, Yan-wei Liu (Chn) 81 70, Matthew Baldwin (Eng) 74 77, Danny Willett (Eng) 76 75, Peter O’Malley 76 75
152 Dale Brandt-Richards 73 79, Pontus Widegren (Swe) 73 79, Darren Beck 71 81, Simon Yates (Sco) 79 73, Damien Jordan 72 80, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 73 79, Deyen Lawson 71 81, Michael Long (Nzl) 79 73, Peter Wilson 73 79
154 Travis Smyth 80 74
156 Ben Leong (Mal) 77 79, Nathan Holman 79 77
