John Lyras (67, 11-under)

On backing up his opening round

“It was a nice feeling leading the tournament after one round but hit a really nice drive down 10 and made a nice birdie on the first of the day and that settled me down a little bit. I hit the ball a lot better today. I played a really solid round of golf today, I was pretty happy with it. Just had to stay really patient and let the golf course come to me and let the scoring opportunities come when they did. It was a little trickier out here today. The greens were firming up and there were a few tougher little pin positions out there so you just had to be a little bit more defensive than you would normally would like to be. I’m really happy with the patience I showed today and if I can do that tomorrow then hopefully I’ll have a chance in the last round.”

On making his score on the par-5s

“I feel like if I can play the par 5s well and birdie three or four of them and maybe hit a couple in tight and then you roll in a bomb, there’s seven birdies in a round of golf. As long as you can keep the bad stuff off the card, generally you can put a pretty good score together and around Moonah Links I think that works quite well.”

On highlights of his round

“I holed a really nice 20-footer on the eighth down the hill, bit of a double-breaker. I struggled with a couple of the reads on that side today and missed a couple of really good opportunities but that was probably the best roll of the week so far, perfect speed and walked it in Kevin Na-style.”

On putting a nice round together after being overnight leader

“For someone with my lack of experience it’s always a sense of achievement. You just keep building on those goals and elevating them slightly and be really proud of yourself when you do achieve those little goals. My dad and I have been really good in that respect coming from my golf background which isn’t big. Just keeping the goals very small and very attainable and for the most part trying to keep the expectation out of it. I know the game’s there and if I handle myself properly on the golf course I know I can score quite well and make the most of it.”

On the lasting memory of making his professional debut on the PGA Tour in 2019

“I was hitting balls between Jordan Spieth and Sungjae Im before round two. I had a late tee time, I might have been second last group out, and it was amazing to me how perfectly Jordan strikes his wedges and how perfectly struck ball-flight and trajectory with Sungjae and his driver. It was a total metronome and it just showed to me that I still had work to do. I still have a long way to go before I can reach that level. It’s a never-ending quest to conquer this game but if you can set those little goals to get as close to perfection as you can without thinking that you’ve achieved it then I think you can go a long way in the game.”

On the influence of his father Peter

“We have a lot of really great conversations about our golf. I’ve got a really great team around me but at the end of the day Dad’s probably the most important of all and the things he’s taught me are finally rubbing off a bit. Hopefully I can do him proud this weekend. He’s always been right there for me whenever I’ve needed him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he rang me this afternoon and said he was going to come down and watch the last two days. Because that’s exactly what he did before the PGA TOUR event.”

Peter Wilson (65, 8-under)

On the highlights of his round

“I blocked my tee shot on 10 and made a bogey but I did some good work last night and this morning on my putting. I didn’t putt very well in the first round and today I was actually hitting them where I wanted to. These greens are very similar to my home club at Cranbourne so I can read the greens here quite well. The first round I wasn’t hitting it on my lines but today I hit them on my line. The birdie at 11 was about 10 feet, 12 was five feet and the eagle at 15 was about 14 feet. Sixteen was about 10 feet, birdie putt on one was tow feet and six and seven were 10-footers as well. I missed a short putt for birdie on eight too from four feet which was a bit annoying.”

On returning to tournament golf

“Because we haven’t been playing for a year I had a lot of anxiety problems at the first event and then last week at the Vic PGA I was coming top five after the first round and then had one bad hole and missed the cut by one. I felt normal again out here today. It’s taken me a few tournaments to get through it. I’ve bene out here competing for 20 years so to have a whole year off without competing has made it hard to get back into that competitive mode, mentally more than physically.”

On finding his rhythm in the second round

“As soon as I holed the putt on 11 I felt good. I had a really good group. We’re all mates out here and to not see your mates for a year… now we’re back and having a good laugh, back to what we should be doing. When you don’t get to do that for a year you feel a bit empty.”

Justin Warren (69, 8-under)

On a bogey-free 3-under 69

“Woke up feeling good after a solid round yesterday. Came out this morning to try and get the momentum going that I picked up on the back nine yesterday. Got it to 1-under early but struggled through the middle. Grinded out a lot of really good pars but then the last five or six holes I hit the ball amazing and gave myself a lot of really good chances and unfortunately just didn’t hole them. Bit of a frustrating day. Bogey-free round of 69 could quite easily have been a lot worse if I didn’t do what I did on the front nine but could have been a hell of a lot better if I’d holed a few putts on the back. Up there at the top of the leaderboard with the afternoon field to go so fingers crossed I don’t fall too far behind because the conditions are pretty amazing out here right now.”

On the par saves that held his front nine together

“On the fourth I had a long way in for my second shot but 3-wood has been a really good club this week so I decided to have a crack and go for it. I blocked it right into the long stuff and had to hack it out just short of the green. Didn’t hit a very good chip to about 10 feet away and holed that par. That was nice, to keep the momentum going early. On the eighth hole I hit my drive left and had to hit a little low punch out short right of the green, flubbed that chip and had a 20-footer for par and binned that too. Even on nine I only had a wedge into the green and flew it over the back to a back pin which is just absolutely dead and hit this little bump 3-wood into the slope, trickled it up to four feet and holed that for par to keep the momentum going. I started the back nine with a birdie and got into a bit of a groove from there.”

On the experience of holding a round together

“It’s a trait that I’ve always had. I’ve always been a bit of a fighter and never really given up on a round of golf because you just never know when you’re going to have that amazing stretch of holes. It could literally start at any moment. I do my absolute best to never give up on a round and a little bit of that has to do with the college background, playing college team golf over in America. We play 54-hole tournaments and if you have a bad first day you can’t throw in the towel and give up because you’ve still got your teammates relying on you to produce some scores over the next couple of days so the team can have a good chance at winning the golf tournament. Regardless of how bad I start or whatever I do to stick to whatever I’ve been working on, keep grinding and eventually that little amazing stretch of holes could start at any moment and you could rattle off any number of birdies in a row. I’ve done it in the past and you just know that at any moment you could get it going.”

Ryan McCarthy (67, 8-under)

On continuing his good run of form

“I’ve been playing quite solid the past four weeks. I’ve been hitting it really nicely and it’s just nice to see a few of the putts drop in now. I played the par 5s a lot better today than I have in some other sloppier rounds.”

On his extended break from the game

“I got injured in 2017 and had two years where I couldn’t play. I got my Tour card back and played one event and then the lockdown happened. There have been a few times with a few tough tee shots where you get those butterflies in your arms and tummy again but the more we play you play your way into form. It feels like the more we play the better it gets.”

On the injury that sidelined him for two years

“I had a double hernia operation and then had nerve aggravation after that. I ahd a couple of attempts at coming back to play including being disqualified from the tour school at this golf course two years ago. It was probably a blessing in disguise because I was having to take that many pain-killers to try and get through a round. I got through that, it took 18 months to two years to really settle down and now it’s back on track again.”

On falling in and out of love with golf

“I’d just got status in Europe and I burnt myself out a little bit trying to chase a card on the main tour. At the time it seemed like a great little break but once the nerve aggravation happened it was a matter of Geez, am I ever going to be able to play again. I’ve probably fallen out of love with golf twice in my life. Once was after playing a couple of years in Asia and found it in Latin America and I’ve found it again now.”

On the low point of facing the possibility of never playing again

“I took a couple of jobs. One was reading electricity meters and the other was starting on the coffee machine at the golf club I’m currently teaching out of at Ranfurlie. You’re on minimum wage and making coffees for members thinking, Wow, what was it like a year ago when I was playing on the Euro Tour. I’ve got enough good people around me that I never got too low.”

On falling back in love with golf

“It was actually with Brady Watt and another friend, just playing at Ranfurlie and I had 62 on a Tuesday out of nowhere. It didn’t hurt and then I tried to get a little bit fitter and from there it grew and grew. It probably took 6-8 months after that but the idea of playing again on the Aussie Tour and playing overseas, those dreams pop back up.”

On importance of top-10 finish at The Players Series

“That was massive because traditionally, even when I was playing well, last rounds have been a bit of a weakness of mine. So to shoot 4-under, 6-under on the weekend was a positive affirmation that the things I’m working on and where I’m trying to take my game is going in the right direction.”

On highlights of his second round

“Two was a two-putt birdie and I was kind of playing defensive golf until I hit a 6-iron totwo feet on eight and then accidentally got too far back into a tier on nine and had a short birdie putt and the back nine I played quite well. I holed a 40-footer up a tier on 12 which was nice. It’s just an enormous golf course that seems to beat me up. I sat down Monday feeling a bit miserable about the weekend and thought that someone’s going to shoot 66 around there, how do you do it? How do you break it down? There are two short par-4s on each side, there are four par 5s, I’m hitting it well so it was a practice session on Monday and a change in mindset  about the whole course.”

James Marchesani (67, 8-under)

On continuing his good recent form to be near the top through 36 holes

“Not having played competitively for a year it was a bit strange teeing it back up but we’re in our fourth week in a row now so the form’s starting to come back through, which I thought might happen. The game’s feeling steady and it’s nice to be in the mix with a couple of rounds to go.”

On finishing with an eagle and two birdies

“I was a bit stiff on 14. I had one come bck off the front of the green and it rolled back down into a divot. I had no real shot, left that short and ended up making a good five. I knew the holes coming in were going to play downwind so you had to get after them. Last week they played into the wind and pretty tough so managed to make a nice eight-footer on 15 for eagle to get the one back on 14 and holed a nice putt down the hill on 16 for birdie. Again it was playing completely different. Last week we were hitting 3-iron in and today was a sand wedge. Certainly got the better wind direction and then hit driver-driver on 18 to 40 feet and two-putted to finish off a nice round.”

On immediate playing future prospects

“Unfortunately PGA TOUR China’s been cancelled for this year and all our status has been cancelled as well so it doesn’t really leave us with a lot of option at the minute. There’s rumour that there might be a PGA TOUR Asia instead next year but at the minute just trying to finish off these next four events well, retain status here in Australia. Then it will be a matter of getting a part-time job through the winter and see what happens come the end of the year.”

On what he’s taken from being in contention past two weeks

“I battled a little bit last week on the Open Course in comparison to the rest of the scoring because I thought the scoring was pretty good on Saturday and Sunday with the wind direction that we had. As the weeks have gone on and we’ve built into more rounds I’ve felt the game getting a bit sharper as each round went on. That gets the rust thing of not having played any competitive golf in close to 11 months, it was bound to happen. Just keeping on top of it and trying to stay patient with it. I’m in a good position now and the game feels reasonably sharp. There are still a few things I’d like to clean up but in a good position going forward.”

Travis Smyth (67, 7-under)

On leaving lockdown after returning from the US

“I got out on Saturday the 30th of January so I must have arrived around the 15th. I got out on the Saturday and flew straight to Melbourne, had a few days practice at Peninsula-Kingswood and then went straight into the tournament on Thursday. It was a pretty quick turnaround.”

On time spent in hotel quarantine

“I had my 2-iron with me but all my other irons were coming from America so I couldn’t do any swings or anything or do any putting. I was just hanging out watching golf, working out and having ice baths. Ordering Uber Eats and making coffees.”

On his play in the Vic PGA where he missed the cut

“The game was pretty rusty. I’ve changed my equipment massively so I only had one week working with it back in America and then I flew in, did the two weeks, came out and I was pretty scrappy. I hit it OK last week but my putting was terrible. I kept saying to myself that missing the cut might have been a blessing in disguise because it gave me two days to just go and work on it. I practiced my putting a lot and the last two days I’ve been putting nicely. I feel like I’m back to normal.”

On the changes to the equipment in his bag

“I’ve gone from the iBlades to PING Blueprint irons and made them a lot longer in the short irons, similar to what Bryson (DeChambeau) does. I’ve made them 4 degrees more upright than what I had them before for a few reasons. My back was getting real sort so having that extra length and being able to stand closer to the ball, my body’s much more upright so it takes all the strain out of my back and it doesn’t hurt to play golf anymore.”