Admitting that he “flat-lined” on the back nine of his opening round of 4-under 67 on Thursday, Dann bolted out of the blocks with birdies at the second, fourth and seventh holes before an eagle at the par-5 ninth gave him a share of the lead at the turn.

A “bonus” birdie courtesy of an 18-foot putt up the tier at the par-3 11th gave Dann the outright lead and then he added his fifth birdie at the par-5 14th in a bogey-free round of 7-under 64.

Dann’s total of 11-under is one better than New South Welshman Travis Smyth (65) and Victorian Josh Younger (64) after the completion of the morning wave and puts him in position to build on his tie for 11th at the Moonah Links PGA Classic three weeks ago.

A 9-iron to 10 feet set up eagle at the par-5 ninth to make the turn in 5-under but Dann pointed to a birdie at the par-3 11th as the key to carrying that momentum through until the final hole.

“I’ve kind of done that a few times where I flat-line through the middle,” said Dann.

“I start quite well usually and it’s all about whether I can get a couple of momentum putts going through the middle of the round determines how I play through the end.

“Eleven was a really strong birdie in my opinion. It was playing cross-wind and into and I hit a flat 6-iron into the middle of the green and holed the putt up the tier from about 18 feet.

“That was a bonus in my mind. I wasn’t trying to make birdie on that hole, I was just trying to hit it to the right spot.

“The last three or four holes could have played tricky if you’d let them so I just played them pretty conservatively.”

Top-five at the Moonah Links PGA Classic in his second start back coming out of hotel quarantine, Smyth recorded his second round in succession at Bonnie Doon with an eagle, backing up his two at the par-4 eighth on Thursday with an unexpected three at the par-5 14th on Friday.

“That was insane,” Smyth said.

“We had a 10-minute wait while the group in front was looking for golf balls and the wind picked up from 10 km/h to 25 in a heartbeat. It felt like it was playing an extra club longer every minute that we waited.

“I just managed to carry the out-of-bounds right and went into the bunker, hit it out with an 8-iron to 135 and then holed a 7-iron, little chip into the wind.

“One bounce and straight in.”

Younger used an eagle at his final hole – the par-5 ninth – to join Smyth at 10-under through 36 holes and one shot back of Dann.

“I missed the green in the right-hand swale. Thankfully the pin was on the left and I opened up the lob wedge, hit a good chip and lucky enough it went in,” Younger said of his late surge up the leaderboard.

“I was a bit down-grain so that made it a little bit easier but had a bit of green to work with. Just had to hit a nice one and managed to do it.”

The 2019 NSW Open champion had a full schedule planned on the Asian Tour in 2020 and was tied for fifth in his tournament return at the Gippsland Super 6 in January.

“I played pretty good at the first one back at Gippsland and I just felt like I was making some mistakes,” said Younger, who was top-20 at the Victorian PGA Championship.

“I was getting a little bit angry with myself so that proves you’re making some silly mistakes and trying to force some things and never really clicked into gear for that month.

“I was home for a couple of weeks, worked on a couple of things and tried to simplify a few things and stay patient out here. So far it’s going all right.”

Following a steady 6-under 65 in round one, Andrew Evans recorded three consecutive birdies from holes seven to nine to close out his second round of 68 and move into outright fourth at 9-under.

Veteran Matthew Millar holds fifth place at 8-under with a round of 5-under 66 on Friday morning while two-time Australian Open champion Peter Lonard is one of five players tied at 7-under as the afternoon groups tee off.