Two-over through the first six holes of the tournament, Hawkes has played his subsequent 30 holes in 12-under par to sit at 10-under through two rounds, one clear of Felton (65) with local hope Connor McKinney (71), Kiwi Kerry Mountcastle (65) and veteran Jason Norris (68) a further shot back at 8-under par.

Now a part-time golfer who works on the ground crew building the new Seven Mile Beach golf course in Hobart, Hawkes followed up his 5-under 67 on day one with a second 67 on Friday, making four birdies in his final six holes to snare the 36-hole lead.

Given his practice schedule consists of two hours each day after work, Hawkes said his early blunders on Thursday helped to narrow his focus to the task at hand.

“It really did narrow a lot of my focus back in,” said Hawkes, who played holes five and six in 11 shots on Thursday but needed just six on Friday.

“It switched me into the mindset to play this golf course for the rest of the two days to be in the right sections of the greens, otherwise you’re highly likely to three-putt.

“I’m not really working with a golf coach at the moment but what that has allowed me to do is to focus back on what I haven’t been doing well enough the last couple of years, which is just picking a target and hitting a golf shot at the target.

“It’s worked really well the last two days.”

Felton also left his run late to take the clubhouse lead at 9-under after the morning groups had finished.

One of seven players in the top 11 on the leaderboard with Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia wins to his name, Felton closed out his round with an audacious flop shot for eagle at the par-5 eighth and a 15-footer for birdie on nine for a round of 5-under 67.

“I was playing really well, I just wasn’t getting as much out of the round as I thought,” said Felton, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

“Even yesterday I played really good in the wind. A nice chip-in and to finish off with a birdie caps off a really good two days.”

Round of the day belonged to Kiwi Kerry Mountcastle, who built his score of 7-under 65 on pin-point iron shots that he converted for birdies on eight separate occasions.

After starting his second round with three pars, Mountcastle peeled off five birdies in his next six holes, earning a share of third with a final birdie at the par-5 18th.

“I hit it close on every hole out of the front nine. The first eight holes I was within 15 feet on every hole,” said Mountcastle, who has been working with Australian coach Dom Azzopardi for the past year.

“I got up-and-down on four after being able to get there into the wind, which surprised me. And then hit it close on five, hit it close on six, rolled in a putt on seven and then it was like, Here we go.

“Yesterday I finished with bogey on eight and bogey on nine but today I had par on eight and birdie on nine. Instead of being 2-under I was 5-under for the nine and I could keep going with it.”

Given his blistering start on Thursday, Joondalup member Connor McKinney remains confident sitting just two shots off the lead.

With an expected influx of members to follow his progress on Saturday, the 21-year-old hopes to put on a show as he chases a maiden professional victory.

“I keep saying this but I’ve played enough times around here and pretty confident in my chances,” said McKinney, who birdied his final two holes to shoot 71.

“All of the members have been saying all week that they’ll be out there on the weekend so make sure you’re up there.”

A total of 69 players made the cut at 1-over including nine amateurs.

Saturday also sees the commencement of the WA All Abilities Open Golf Championship where two-time defending champion Cameron Pollard will put his title on the line against Lachlan Wood and eight other competitors.