The 22-year-old needed an invitation to play at Bonnie Doon Golf Club this week and only arrived in Sydney on the morning of the tournament, his home club of Murwillumbah Golf Club one of many to disappear under floodwaters.

He didn’t complete his opening round of five-under 66 until Friday morning due to Thursday’s rain delay and then shot six-under 65 in his second round, the highlight a hole-in-one at the 123-metre par-3 15th to reach 11-under through 36 holes.

He sits two shots clear of West Australian Jarryd Felton whose seven-under 64 was the best on day two with 15-time Japan Golf Tour winner Brendan Jones (66) picking up four shots in his final three holes to get to eight-under, holing a wedge from 45 metres for eagle at the par-4 16th and adding birdies at 17 and 18.

Victorian Ben Wharton (66) is a shot further back in outright fourth with Sydney’s Austin Bautista (66) rounding out the top-five at six-under.

A former member of the Golf NSW High Performance Squad, Higgins has only limited status on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia and is currently third reserve for next week’s TPS Hunter Valley tournament, now determined to make a lasting impression from such a strong position.

“I’ve been working hard to try and get a start in these four-round events so to actually get a start and have the lead is great,” said Higgins, who hit 8-iron at 15 for his first ace in competition play.

“I’m just going to embrace it and try my best to do what I can.

“Seeing all the floods was pretty surreal to be honest. I’m very lucky to be down here and playing.

“My family is OK which is the main thing. Everyone is going to have to rebuild again. We only had a flood four years ago so it’s pretty hard to see.

“Hopefully I can do everyone proud back home and give them something to smile about.”

After a difficult two-year period where consistent tournament play has been hard to come by, Felton is starting to see the benefits of recently linking with mental coach Sean Lynch.

He was tied for 18th as partner Hannah Green stole the show at TPS Murray River two weeks ago but eagled the par-5 ninth to close out his second round in style and earn a spot alongside Higgins in Saturday’s final group.

“It capped off a really nice round,” Felton said of his eagle from 20 feet.

“Just steady progress through the middle of the round and a nice eagle to finish which gave me the confidence to finish it off.

“It’s great that I’m playing good and I can speak about playing good but when you’re playing bad it’s a pretty lonely sport.

“I’ve been doing some work with Sean Lynch the last few weeks and he’s been a massive help.

“Making inroads now which is really nice.”

Wharton made a late charge up the leaderboard in the morning wave with birdies at each of his final three holes while Bautista also eagled the par-5 ninth in his round of 66.

Round one co-leader David Micheluzzi also made eagle at nine to reach eight-under for the tournament but dropped shots at four of his final five holes will see him enter the weekend tied for 12th at four-under par.

Tied for second at TPS Murray River a fortnight ago, West Australian amateur Hayden Hopewell is part of a six-way tie for sixth at five-under as he seeks to build tournament experience with an eye to turning professional at the end of the year.

“All these events are great experience, great learning, getting a feel for professional life out here,” said Hopewell, the 2020 WA Open champion.

“I’ve been happy with how I’ve been playing and hopefully keep the ball rolling.”

Fellow amateur Kelsey Bennett will also begin her third round at five-under after picking up three birdies in her final five holes.

“I was pretty happy with the finish, couple of birdies and Johnny really helped to keep me dry,” Bennett said of her caddie/coach John Serhan.

“I’m hoping to have another couple under tomorrow. Lucas is a great player so it will be a pretty interesting weekend.”

The leading groups will commence their third rounds at 12pm on Saturday and entry is free for spectators. The final two rounds will also be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo with coverage to commence at 12.30pm on Saturday and 12.30pm Sunday.

Click here for the Round 3 draw