A young man with a fascinating back story, Jordi overcame early nerves on Friday morning to follow up his 8-under 63 in Round 1 with 3-under 68 at Palmerston Golf and Country Club to be 11-under heading into the weekend.

Using a broomstick for the first time, Sydney’s Jason Hong produced the round of the day, a 6-under 65, to sit in second spot at 8-under with fellow New South Welshman, Nathan Barbieri (67), and Gold Coast’s Jack Munro (68) a further shot back in third.

A top-three finisher three times previously at Palmerston, Brisbane’s Tim Hart (69) is one of six players five strokes back at 6-under par, including Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia winners Cory Crawford (67), James Conran (67), Anthony Quayle (66), Zach Murray (68) and Andrew Martin (68).

Jordi is one of 12 Americans in the field this week, four of whom have made the cut that fell at 1-under par.

Unlike his countrymen, Jordi signed up to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Qualifying School last month on a whim, but now finds himself in position for a potentially life-changing week.

Tied 16th at Q School, a win would guarantee Jordi starts in both the BMW Australian PGA Championship and men’s Australian Open later this year, an incredible prospect for someone who only returned to golf last April on the back of a five-month mission trip to Turkey and Cyprus.

“I just felt like the Lord told me to go play professional golf when beforehand I really didn’t know what I was supposed to do,” Jordi said after Round 2.

Admitting that there were nerves as he started the second round with a four-stroke lead, Jordi dropped shots at each of his opening two holes. Belying his inexperience, he responded with six birdies across the rest of his round, unleashing an emotion-charged fist pump when he birdied his final hole.

“I didn’t eat my breakfast this morning, that’s how nervous I was, but I kind of had to settle in,” he added.

“You just can’t get ahead of yourself. I just took my time out there, put some thought into my shots before executing them and thankfully I was able to execute a bunch of shots on the back.

“I knew I needed one more,” Jordi said of the release at his final hole, the par-5 ninth.

“For me, I just needed one more and I got it on that putt and so I was very happy about that.”

Putting a broomstick putter that he borrowed from a friend less than a week ago into his bag, Hong actually carried two putters in Thursday’s opening round.

He felt comfortable enough to ditch the short putter on Friday and made five birdies in the space of six holes around the turn to surge into second.

“I actually putted with two putters yesterday,” said Hong, who had top-four finishes at both the Vic PGA and The Heritage Classic last season.

“I took the 3-wood out of the bag and used two putters just in case. It was my first round with it, so some of the lag putts I used my short putter and then with the short putts, I used the broomstick.

“I think I’ve figured it out now, so I don’t need the short putter anymore.”

Runner-up to Daniel Gale when the NT PGA was last played in 2023, Hart is staying with the aggressive approach that has served him so well in previous trips to Palmerston.

The 36-year-old made three birdies in succession from the 13th hole, including a two at the par-3 14th that has been statistically the toughest hole on the golf course the first two days.

“The first couple of years I came up here, I was a little bit conservative,” said Hart.

“I just thought, you know what, let’s get as close to the green as possible.

“I hit driver on every hole I can. I’ll take the big dog out and just try and get as close to the green.

“I know my hands are pretty good and I’ve got a pretty decent short game so I can make a score.”

In his first tournament back since losing sight in his left eye last year, Jeffrey Guan shot 2-over 73 in Round 2 to miss the cut.

Round 3 will tee off at 10am AEST on Saturday with television broadcast to commence at 3pm on Kayo Sports and Foxtel. The final round will be broadcast from 1pm-6pm AEST Sunday.