After establishing a five-stroke buffer with a round of eight-under 64 on Friday, Strange could only reach nine-under by the end of day two at Spalding Park Golf Club near Geraldton.

Favourable conditions greeted players in the latest event of the WA swing of the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series yet Strange had bogeys at two, 14 and 15 in his second round of 71 to open the door to the chasing pack.

Hawkes was the player to make the most significant move with the round of the day on Saturday, a bogey-free six-under 66 to move into outright second and just three strokes back of Strange.

Continuing his outstanding form throughout the WA swing, Joseph Ha is in third after a four-under 68 moved him to five-under, Simon Houston one stroke further back at four-under after a 71 on Saturday.

Four players – Daniel Fox, Braden Becker, Andrew Kelly and Haydn Barron – are at three-under and ready to pounce but will need to produce something special to overtake Strange at the top of the leaderboard.

With rain forecast, players will be battling the elements as much as each other to determine this year’s winner of the Spalding Park Open.

The third and final round tees off from 8am AWST with the leading group of Strange, Hawkes and Ha getting underway at 9.40am local time.

Click here for the Round 2 leaderboard.