The 29-year-old Quayle, still seeking his breakthrough win on the Japan Golf Tour, salvaged a two-under-par 70 at the Sky72 Golf Club in Incheon to enter the weekend tied for fourth and four shots back of amateur leader Cho Woo-young.

Quayle, who fired an opening 65, endured a frustrating start after beginning his second round from the 10th tee.

He dropped shots at the par-3 12th and the par-4 third holes but sparked a late-round rescue with his first birdie of the day at the par-4 fourth.

He followed that up with a birdie at the par-5 fifth and made it four birdies in his final six holes with further birdies at the seventh and ninth holes.

His two-round total of 9-under is just one back of second spot, 21-year-old Cho establishing a three-shot lead at the halfway mark with a round of 8-under 64.

Quayle’s fellow Queenslander Scott Hend is 7-under and tied for 12th after rounds of 69-68, level with Sydney’s Won Joon Lee (67-70) with Brad Kennedy (70-68) and Zach Murray (70-68) tied for 23rd at 6-under par.

A second round of 4-under 68 has put West Australian Jason Scrivener in position for his first top-10 finish since January at the Horizon Irish Open at The K Club.

Splitting his time between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR in 2023, Scrivener had three birdies on the trot from the eighth hole to be one of 10 players tied for 10th at 7-under, six shots back of co-leaders Shubhankar Sharma (66) and Jordan Smith (65).

Making his first start since The Open Championship, Min Woo Lee is one back of Scrivener in a tie for 20th, playing the back nine in 5-under 32 to make an impression on the leaderboard.

On the LPGA Tour, Minjee Lee backed up her opening round of 5-under 67 with a 3-under 69 on Friday to be tied for seventh at the Kroger Queen City Championship in Ohio.

Lee is six shots back of the leader, Peiyun Chien of Chinese Taipei, but just two back of a three-way tie for second between Ruoning Yin (66), Morgane Metraux (66) and Ruixin Lin (69).

Gabi Ruffels made it back-to-back rounds of 3-under 69 to be tied for 14th through two rounds as Sarah Kemp (71) and Stephanie Kyriacou (72) made the cut on the number.

Following on from her career best finish since turning professional last week, West Australian Kirsten Rudgeley (68) is tied for fourth after the opening round of the Ladies European Tour’s Big Green Egg Open, Robyn Choi is tied for third at the Black Desert Resort Championship on the Epson Tour and Kelsey Bennett is tied for fourth after two rounds of the Rose Ladies Open on the LET Access Series.

Photo: Courtesy JGTO Images