Friday at Victoria Golf Club wasn’t quite the Sunday sounds of the Masters but it was not wholly dissimilar when Scott rolled in a 25-foot eagle putt to grab a share of top spot heading to the weekend of this historic Australian Open.

With half the tournament done and half still to go the Queenslander so many came to see – reigning Open champion Cam Smith – was expected to be the one making the running.

But it was the veteran Scott, playing like the Scott of old, who stole the show.

A blistering seven-under 63 at the Victoria Golf Club saw the 42-year-old join local Melburnian David Micheluzzi at the top of the leaderboard.

For his part, Smith spent much of the afternoon wondering where he would be for the weekend after a second consecutive round of one-over saw him hovering on the cut line.

It wasn’t until the last groups of the day made their way up the final holes at Kingston Heath and Victoria that his fate was sealed: the two-overs were in.

David Micheluzzi was impressive after his low first round to end day two in a share of the lead. PHOTO: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

It will take something special from here for Smith to salute but if the energy of the crowd cheering him on can parlay into scoring, he will have a better than even money chance.

However, after the heroics of last week at Royal Queensland and the celebrations that followed, it would be less than human for fatigue not to be a factor and nobody would begrudge the 29-year-old a less than perfect weekend.

While Smith will still draw his fair share of attention the spotlight now, though, is firmly on Scott.

“I hit some much better shots today,” the 2009 champion said of his six shot turnaround from day one.

“I’d be lying if I said I’m 100 percent confident with exactly where it’s going, but I had a better idea today.

“I think I was just trying too hard to swing good yesterday and just making it hard for myself to even swing the club, so I did the opposite today.”

“It’s always nice when the tournament can take a lot of players out of it. If I can play well tomorrow and it’s only a few guys in it, that’d be a great position for Sunday." - Adam Scott.

Scott says his experience and presence on the leaderboard may play a role in the final result but not until Sunday.

“It’s spread a little bit, the leaderboard, I guess, although I didn’t have a good look at it and hopefully I can keep running in this direction tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s always nice when the tournament can take a lot of players out of it. If I can play well tomorrow and it’s only a few guys in it, that’d be a great position for Sunday. Then maybe I have some advantage from experience.”

For his part Micheluzzi showed great maturity to return a sub-par score after such a scintillating first round.

In professional golf it’s widely accepted that the round following a super low one is among the most difficult and under those conditions, anything in red figures is more than acceptable.

Playing Kingston heath for his second round, Micheluzzi admitted struggling with the layout.

“There's more drivers that suit me at Victoria and I was just feeling a little bit off with my swing,” he said.

“Maybe it was a little bit quick, maybe it was a little bit of nerves, I don't know. “There's a lot more drivers at Vic. I'll work on that tomorrow morning, hopefully do what I did yesterday and play some good golf. I'm just happy to be in contention.”

While disappointed with his play he is nonetheless looking forward to a Saturday tee time with Adam Scott.

Asked if he recalled where he was when Scott won the green jacket in 2013, Micheluzzi recounted a remarkable tale.

“That's an unbelievable story actually,” he said.

“We were playing Junior Interstate Series in Perth and we were the No.4 match out. “It was a par 3 start – I can't remember who caddied for me – but we were on the green and we heard the biggest roar. We were watching it but we had to go out, we couldn't skip the tee time or push the tee times back.

“We heard the biggest roar and we just knew it was Scotty. It was so cool. I can't even remember how I went in that match, I was so excited.”

The 26-year-old from Cranbourne, on the southeastern outskirts of Melbourne, is no stranger to the top of the Australian Open leaderboard.

As an amateur in 2018 he was just one shot off the pace with two rounds to go before eventually finishing T5 behind Abraham Ancer and says that experience will be helpful over the weekend.

“Today's guy is a little bit more conservative because I was a bit aggressive back then and got myself into a little bit of trouble,” he said of himself.

“I think I was leading by four and then had three bogeys in a row from trying to push it, trying to make birdies.

“I think this one's a little bit more conservative, knows what to do now, knows to take one shot at a time and not skip ahead.

“The last three Aussie Opens I've led at some point. It's pretty cool. Hopefully we can go out and put on a display.”

Scott and Micheluzzi are three ahead of nearest challengers American Gunner Wiebe and their compatriots Josh Geary and Haydn Barron.

The cut fell at two-over-par with 71 players set to play the third round before a controversial second cut to the top 30 and ties will be made at the end of play Saturday.