Ireland's Paul Dunne suffered a poor finish to his second round at the Australian PGA Championship in the early hours of Friday morning to slip back to six shots off the lead.

Two bogeys and two birdies saw Dunne go to the 17th at level par for the day and just three shots off the lead. However a bogey at the penultimate hole, followed by a disastrous double bogey at the last meant he carded a 75 to finish at three over par.

It’s a positive week so far for the Greystones golfer however as he comfortably made his first cut as a full European Tour professional, having missed the final two rounds at Leopard Creek last week.

In tough conditions David Lingmerth reeled off six birdies in his first 12 holes to take a one-shot lead, while pre-tournament favourite Brandt Snedeker missed the cut by a huge nine shots.

Sweden’s Lingmerth shot a 68 at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast to reach the halfway stage as the outright leader on three under par.

Five players – England’s Mark Foster, South Africa’s Zander Lombard, Spain’s Pablo Martin Benavides, Australia’s Matthew Miller and American Peter Uihlein – are tied for second a shot further back.

Rhein Gibson, who fired a world record 16-under-par 55 at a National Pro Tour event in the United States three years ago, shot a course-record 64 on Friday to join a group of six players at one-under.

After a first round 79, Gibson slipped to nine-over after two holes on Friday but stormed up the leaderboard with five birdies and two eagles in his last 10 holes.

“To be able to do that on a Friday to make the cut and get back in contention, it’s probably better than a 55,” he said.

Snedeker, who has seven wins on the elite PGA Tour, carded a 75, nine better than his first round but still leaving him languishing way back at 15 over par.

“I definitely feel embarrassed about my play the last two days,” Snedeker said. “I’m going to need to come back down here and redeem myself.”