In summary

  • Defending champion Fifa Laopakdee leads after a 72 added to his opening 63, despite four back-nine bogeys on day two.
  • Australian Louis Gomez sits a share of eighth, seven shots back, after a 2-under 69 in the final group on a windswept South Course.
  • Tasmania's Jonty Lunson carded a 1-under 70 to move into contention, with nine players ahead of him heading into Saturday.

Only five under-par rounds came from the 120-player field on a windswept South Course, and two of them came from Australians.

Gomez turned in a 2-under-par 69 in the final group to climb to a share of eighth place, just seven shots behind the leader, defending champion Fifa Laopakdee of Thailand who followed his opening 63 with a 72.

Earlier in the day, Tasmania's Jonty Lunson carded a 1-under-par 70 to sit at 1-over-par overall

From Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane, Gomez is making his Asia-Pacific debut and now has a realistic shot of becoming the next Australian to claim the AAC title and the huge rewards of a start at the Masters Tournament and The Open.

He produced three birdies in four holes on the back nine to move into contention and his situation could have been even better coming into the weekend but for two three-putts from long range at the end of the round – the 17th for a bogey and the 18th for a par.

“Conditions are brutal out there today,” he said.

“After yesterday's round, I knew that this afternoon was going to be really windy so I went down to the range and I was working on hitting the ball low, focusing on that just in preparation for today.

“I felt like that really helped me and I did a good job of navigating the ball.”

Lunson, who only received his invitation to play in the event last Thursday afternoon, has nine players ahead of him heading into Saturday.

Among those are New Zealander Cooper Moore, the runner-up in this year’s NZ PGA Championship and 2025 Australian Boys’ Amateur champion, who is outright second at 5-under-par after he carded a 70.

“It's definitely doable,” Lunson said of his prospects of catching Laopakdee over the weekend.

“I was 3-under through nine.  Made the turn and bogeyed one and two pretty bad, and hit it between 10 and 20 feet on all seven holes after that and didn't make a single putt.  A lot of them were close.

“(I) just do the same thing, get rid of those two bad bogeys in the middle and hopefully hole a few putts.”

The highlight of Lunson’s Friday came at a short but dangerous par-3 17th, where he hit a 56-degree wedge to around six feet to set up a birdie, one of four he had on his first nine holes.

“It wasn't too hard to start off, maybe first five or six holes, but once the wind picked up, yeah it got very tough,” he said.

“So breaking par, definitely very happy.”

Like Lunson, Gomez is confident he has a chance to take the title with two rounds to play.

“I definitely think anyone within seven shots of the championship going into the last day has a really good shot,” he said.

Australian No.1 Harry Takis is now 10 shots behind after a second round of 4-over-par 75, his scorecard ruined by a triple-bogey at the par-4 second hole.

Although Takis found five birdies, his card also featured a double-bogey and four bogeys.

Kayun Mudadana also fell down down the leaderboard with a 75 to be at 2-over-par overall, in a tie for 12th, while it was also a struggle for Wesley Hinton (80) and Sam Cascio (78), but they safely qualified for the weekend at 9-over and 10-over respectively.

The Australians to miss the cut were Graham Hourn (79-79) and Richard Heath (83-78).

Trying to match Hideki Matsuyama as a back-to-back Asia-Pacific Amateur winner, Laopakdee made it to 10-under-par through his opening nine holes today but than ran into trouble on the second nine, with four bogeys cutting into his lead.

“I am in a better position than last year, and you know, anything could happen but I think I'm in a good position,” he said.

“I can relax and have a great time this evening and get ready for tomorrow.”