In what is the absolute dream scenario for the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, WPGA Tour and broadcaster Fox Sports, when coverage begins on Saturday at 2pm AEDT the final groups will be littered with our current best players, veterans still capable of mixing it and a group of leading male and female stars of the future.

Two of those rookies with bright futures ahead of them are David Micheluzzi and Stephanie Bunque, two young players that Ogilvy has taken an active interest in the past two years.

Ogilvy (8-under) and Micheluzzi (7-under) will play in the final group while Bunque will be in the third-to-last group with three-time Asian Tour winner Terry Pilkadaris after posting a bogey-free second round of 5-under 66.

When the 2006 US Open champion was first introduced to Micheluzzi the young Victorian responded by shooting consecutive rounds of 9-under par in social rounds that they played together, a first impression that Ogilvy has not soon forgotten.

“He was towelling me up by a mile a couple of years ago,” Ogilvy recalled. “He moves his body really well and he’s not afraid to go really low. That’s the first thing I noticed.”

Ogilvy has also recently provided some guidance to Bunque, the 23-year-old turning professional earlier this month and banking her first cheque of $1,000 in a Gen Z pro-am organised by Ogilvy at Wodonga Golf Club two weeks ago.

“It’s great for her, it’s going to be a really good experience for her,” Ogilvy added.

“It clearly shows that she’s got what it takes to play at the higher level. This is her first time playing for a cheque so that’s a difficult thing for people and to be top five or six in a tournament like this after two days with guys around… It’s a different environment for everyone, to be playing well that’s awesome.

“I’ll be sending her a text tonight for sure.

“This is exactly what we wanted. Exactly the spirit of the tournament.”

It was a strong showing from the girls in the field on Friday with amateur Doey Choi one shot behind Bunque at 5-under after a second round of 4-under 67 while LPGA Tour player Su Oh rebounded after a frustrating first day with a 6-under 65 to be tied 14th, Kiwi Michael Hendry the only other player in the field to match Oh for the low round of the day.

Having come up through the amateur ranks together, Micheluzzi has no doubt that if her putter is running hot that Bunque is a genuine threat to win the tournament.

“She hits it miles. She hits it unreal. When she gets the putter going, that’s when she’s scary,” said Micheluzzi, who turned professional himself in September 2019 and finished top five at the 2018 Australian Open while still an amateur.

“She can really pose a threat to anybody. It will be awesome to see what she can do over the weekend.

“She’s always hit it far, always had amazing potential so hopefully she does well this week and then onwards for the rest of her career.

“This would be a pretty good start if she can do well here.”

Surrounded near the top of the leaderboard by some of the biggest names in Australian golf, Bunque said that she made a conscious decision to ignore the leaderboard on the mobile scoring app the players are using this week after falling foul of it in a first round of 1-under 70.

“Scoring as we go on the phone is all new to me and yesterday I got caught up in occasionally looking at the leaderboard and seeing where I stood,” admitted Bunque, who spent the extra hour caused by a morning rain delay by watching Korean thriller ‘Voice’ on Netflix.

“Today I told myself not to worry about that and just worry about building the score and making sure I shoot a good enough number.

“I didn’t look at the leaderboard once all day which I was really happy about but I’ve just had a quick squiz and it’s pretty good company.”

Following his course record 61 in the opening round Nathan Barbieri endured a horror start by dropping four shots in his opening four holes but showed great composure to right the ship and post a 3-over 74 to sit just one back of Ogilvy.

Gippsland Super 6 winner Marcus Fraser moved into a tie for sixth with a 5-under 66 alongside current PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit leader Brad Kennedy, reigning NT PGA champion Aaron Pike, Andrew Dodt, Scott Strange, Daniel Fox, Pilkadaris and Choi.

For the next two rounds leading junior players will be added into each group within the field as they contest the Junior Players Series over the closing 36-holes.

View the round two leaderboard at pga.org.au.