The former Australian Amateur champion, who turned professional in May, continued his impressive form at The Vintage Golf Club on Friday, backing up his opening-round 65 with a 66 to reach 11-under-par and join Ben Eccles (67-64) at the top of the leaderboard after 36 holes.

Two big targets loom for Halls over the weekend - one of the country's most prestigious state open titles and winners' category status on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia.

After missing out on earning a card at Qualifying School – Final Stage earlier this year, he has only limited starts on Tour this summer and none locked in for the big events after this week.

And while Halls admits the significance of the opportunity has crossed his mind, he is determined to keep his attention firmly on the golf.

"Yeah, definitely. It comes into your mind, but you just got to try and put it off until Sunday afternoon. And then if you win, then it'll be great," the 21-year-old said just before storms stopped play with 13 groups yet to complete their second rounds.

“Good position heading into the weekend, but there's plenty of golf left, so anything can happen from here.”

Halls made a flying start to his second round, collecting three consecutive birdies to build momentum and ended his day by producing one of the highlight shots on Friday on the par-4 18th to secure his share of the lead.

He struck a gap wedge from 120 metres to set up a tap-in birdie in front of a sizeable gallery.

"I hit a really poor shot into 15 with my gap wedge and tried to have a little bit of redemption and that definitely paid off on that one," he said.

Eccles produced the best round of his 2026/27 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season so far with his 7-under-par 64 featuring a run of five straight birdies on the back nine.

Eccles is chasing a second NSW Open title, having claimed the championship as an amateur 11 years ago at Stonecutters Ridge in western Sydney.

The 31-year-old arrived at The Vintage fresh from a third-place finish at Players Series South Australia at Willunga and has brought that form east, hauling in 15 birdies over the opening 36 holes.

This week has been a huge turnaround compared to what the 2015 champion produced in this event 12 months ago when he struggled to rounds of 79 and 76 to miss the cut by nine shots.

"I played terribly here last year, so for me it was a bit of a change of tactic and just trying to play a little bit more aggressively and it sort of paid off," Eccles said.

"I'm not going to say that I'm upset with 7-under, but yeah, it was probably some of the best golf I've played in a couple of years."

Victorian Lachlan Aylen is hot on the co-leaders’ heels in outright third at 9-under-par after firing a 6-under-par 65 that included a spectacular 125-metre hole-out for eagle on the par-4 second.

Tournament drawcard Lucas Herbert remains firmly in the picture after carding a 4-under-par 67 to move to 7-under-par, four shots behind the leaders.

The world No.53 is drawing on familiar memories as he looks to mount a weekend charge, having won the Ford NSW Open at Murray Downs coming from a similar position in 2024.

"I reckon I was four back from Cam going into the last round two years ago when I got it done," Herbert said after a quick post-round range session.

"I'm happy with it (a 67). There's a lot of scratchy things out there that I thought I could improve and a lot of things that were obviously great to make a stack of birdies to get it to 4-under," he said.

"So I'm keen to get going on the weekend and try to tidy up a few of the loose ends."