A blemish-free second round at the ISPS HANDA Vic Open has handed Jason Scrivener a two-shot lead after the morning’s play as winds pick up around the beach-side course.

After a sensational round of 8-under par on day one, Scrivener recorded six birdies to finish 6-under 66 on day two to push to the top of the field.

“It’s been two solid days’ work,” said Scrivener, who’s strong form has been evident early this season after three top-10 finishes on the European Tour.

“It’s just patience really, I think knowing there’s a lot of birdies out there helps.

“If you try to rush them, you can make mistakes, so just plodding your way around and being smart about it.

“I can’t really fault it really; I played nicely, so I’m looking forward to the weekend.

Returning to Melbourne after a stint overseas, the Western Australian is pleased with his form in the varying weather conditions.

“I think we can play; the golf course has been pretty benign the last two days, so definitely aware that it can get up and the scoring can get a lot tougher,” he continued.

Playing in the second group out this morning, fellow West Australian Matt Jager picked up where he left off in 2018, shooting 6-under 66 to take full advantage of the morning’s conditions at 13^th Beach Golf Links.

“Even though it seemed really calm, there was still enough there today to make it tricky,” Jager said of the conditions.

“The early morning wind typically is quite heavy being this coastal anyway, so it was doing enough to trick it up.

“I just managed my ball pretty well and here we are a couple 66’s, it’s pretty good.

With six birdies yesterday, Jager took his form to another level on the creek course for round two.

“Certainly the 10th hole of the day was a highlight obviously making eagle there,” said Jager.

“That came off the back of making a really good save on the 9th, a short par-4 where I felt I should have used my length to my advantage and scrambled for a par.”

Scotland’s David Law also recorded 6-under for the morning to record an 11-under two-day total, while Victorian Matthew Griffin, who won the Vic Open in 2014, has finished at 10-under alongside Michael Hoey, Anton Karlsson and Grant Forrest.

Overnight leader Nick Flanagan and favourites James Nitties and Lucas Herbert continue their Vic Open campaign this afternoon in round two. Click here to follow the live scores.

Jason Scrivener has bounced back from a disastrous start to finish inside the top-20 at the European Tour’s season-opening Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club in the United Arab Emirates.

Bogeys at three of his first five holes was not how the West Australian would have wanted to start his 2019 campaign but 18 birdies and six bogeys over his following 67 holes saw Scrivener steadily climb the leaderboard, ultimately finishing tied for 16th.

It took a stunning comeback of his own for Irishman Shane Lowry to register his first win in four years, Lowry falling four behind South African Richard Sterne in the final round before making a birdie at the 72nd hole to win by one stroke.

The 18th hole also provided Scrivener’s first birdie of the week after he started the first round from the 10th tee, a second round of 65 the equal best score of the day as he comfortably qualified for the weekend.

There was another slight stumble in the third round with a 2-over 74 but a round of 68 to close out the tournament lifted him 18 places up the leaderboard to be the leading Australian.

The cheque for €78,351 will come in particularly handy given Scrivener proposed to girlfriend Simone over the Christmas break.

There was an even greater final-round surge from Queensland’s Scott Hend who delivered one of the best rounds of the day – a 5-under 67 – to rocket 31 places up the leaderboard and a tie for 27th.

Despite a bogey on his opening hole of the tournament New Zealand’s Ryan Fox bounced back with birdies at four of his next five holes but was unable to maintain that cracking pace, finishing alongside Hend in a tie for 27th.

The ‘Fox Tracker’ was heating up when Fox registered birdies at the second and third holes in the final round but bogeys at 11, 14 and 16 kept the Kiwi from making more of an impression.

A consistent week of scoring saw Sam Brazel finish tied for 42nd while Lucas Herbert’s second round of 7-under 65 was the highlight as he ended the week 3-under and tied for 54th.

The European Tour now moves on to Dubai for the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at the Emirates Golf Club.

Jason Scrivener has charged home in the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic to claim top Australasian honours and his first top-10 of the year.

With seven birdies against a lone bogey, the West Australian jumped 29 places up the leaderboard on Sunday to finish T6 in an uncharacteristically low scoring tournament.

Scrivener’s 72-hole total of 16-under matched his lowest score in relation to par since he joined the European Tour in 2015 but was seven behind winner Li Haotong of China who beat home Rory McIlroy by one.

Sam Brazel was next best of the Australasians, two shots behind Scrivener, but with the bunched nature of the leaderboard that meant he was 16 places further down the standings at T22.

Andrew Dodt had a disappointing final round after a promising start to the tournament where he held the lead at one stage on day two.

Starting on the 10th tee on Friday, Dodt was 5-under through his opening nine holes with three birdies and an eagle and picked up a sixth shot of the day at his 11th.

But he lost momentum with a bogey at his 14th then tumbled down the standings with a double at his final hole of the day, the 9th.

Dodt eventually signed for scores of 67-69-68-71 to be 13-under and T29.

Scott Hend and Brett Rumford were both 11-under and T37, the last of the Australasians to qualify for the weekend after the cut fell at 5-under-par.

The low scoring was a source of some controversy with Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal suggesting on Twitter the course set up was too easy.

Wade Ormsby and Ryan Fox were among those who might agree, Ormsby firing rounds of 72-69 to be 3-under and Ryan Fox with back to back 71’s to also be in red figures but both missing the weekend.

Jason Norris and Marcus Fraser were both over par through 36 holes, Fraser earning a special mention from the European Tour for his assessment of his opening round.

The Tour awarded Fraser ‘Best sarcastic Tweet of the year so far’ for this post round effort:

Solid start today, closed it out nicely with 3 bogeys. Got em right where I want them. @EuropeanTour @OMEGAGolfDubai #DFL

— Marcus Fraser (@Marcusfraser) January 25, 2018

The last event of the 2017 Ladbrokes WA Pro-Am Series was played at Sea View Golf Club in the Cottesloe Links Champion of Champions event before all players took a well earned Christmas break on a perfect Perth day.

The popular new event attracted 36 local Professionals including Jason Scrivener, Michael Long, Stephen Dartnall and Daniel Fox all competing in the inaugural tournament.

Strong easterly winds made playing conditions tough in the morning, Correy price and Conor Brown leading the way with 1-over par 72.

By the time the afternoon field headed out on to the links a wind switch and some hot weather was in play to keep them on their toes. By end of day’s play though it was the best ranked player in the field, Jason Scrivener coming through for honours with a great score of 3-under par 68.

“What an awesome event to finish the year off. There is no better place to play golf at on a day like today, the views are simply stunning," said Scrivener

“As you can tell by the turn out of Professionals playing today, it’s a great event to wind down the hectic year with. We all look forward to coming back next year, credit to Tristan and Sea View Golf Club for this awesome day."

The last event of the year was also going to decide the Ladbrokes WA Pro-Am Order of Merit winner for 2017. Leader Kris Mueck, who after long deliberation decided not to make the trip West to protect his lead, had a slim lead over WA local Brody Martin, who could take out the title with a solo win on the day.

Shooting a solid 74 in the morning unfortunately didn’t get it done confirming a nice Christmas bonus for Mueck to enjoy for his great work in 2017.

The WA PGA would like to thank all Clubs and PGA Professionals that hosted an event this year and looks forward to working with all again in 2018.

Jason Scrivener completed a Western Australian hat-trick on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia after he stormed to victory at the NSW Open on Sunday.

The 28-year-old claimed his first professional title in style as he fired a final-round 65 to win by six strokes at Twin Creeks Golf & Country Club.

Scrivener’s win followed West Aussie successes in the previous tour state Opens in the past month when Stephen Leaney and Michael Sim both claimed long-awaited victories at the Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open and Queensland Open respectively.

With the Emirates Australian Open teeing off in Sydney this week, and a strong WA contingent set to be in attendance, there is every possibility of the run of wins from the west coast continuing on.

Scrivener will be chief amongst the WA challengers after his breakthrough success, which has followed a strong season on the European Tour where the Mandurah local has knocked on the door of victory with three top-five finishes.

“It feels pretty good, I think it looked a lot easier than what it was – it’s hard work to win,” said Scrivener.

“After the 16th hole I figures I’d probably have to do something drastically wrong to not win. It was a weird feeling those last couple of holes because the first 16 were just brutal.

“I’ve come close before and just haven’t got across the line. It’s just nice to play that well under pressure so I’ll definitely put that in the memory bank.

“I’m stoked. I’ve been working really hard the last few years and been patient with everything I’ve done.”

Scrivener made the late decision to play at the Australian Open following his win and spurn the opportunity to head back to the European Tour and play at this week’s event in Hong Kong.

“I’m a little bit shocked, to be honest. I think after winning [on Sunday] it’s probably helped my chances of finishing high up the money list or Order Of Merit here and there’s a lot of perks that come with that,” he said.

“I spoke with Ian Davis, my manager. We spoke about it two weeks ago before the NSW Open and said if I did win I would probably lean towards playing the Australian Open. When that happened, it made it a trickier decision to make.”

Scrivener therefore joins a strong West Australian challenge that will test their mettle against the world’s best including defending champion Jordan Spieth and Jason Day.

Curtis Luck, who led the tournament after the first round when he played alongside Spieth 12 months ago, returns alongside this year’s ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth champion Brett Rumford, as well as recent tour winners Leaney and Sim.

Former champion Greg Chalmers will also peg it up in Sydney along with Jarryd Felton and Min Woo Lee, who both finished tied for sixth at the NSW Open, as well as Ollie Goss, Nick O’Hern, Daniel Fox, Rick Kulacz and Stephen Dartnall.

Amateurs Haydn Barron and Kiran Day have joined them after coming through qualifying this week.

Jason Scrivener has broken through for his first Professional victory after pulling away from the field in the 2017 NSW Open at Twin Creeks Golf & Country Club.

Scrivener teed off in the final group of the day with a one shot lead over Victorian Lucas Herbert and Queenslander Daniel Nisbet but streaked away to win easily by six shots after a round of 7-under par 65. He finished the tournament 24-under the card.

It’s a landmark win for the 28-year-old who has been on the verge of his first Professional win in the past, he’s had three top-5 finishes on the tough European Tour this year alone, including a fourth place finish in the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth.

Despite his dominant win, he said it was tougher than it looked on the leaderboard.

“It feels pretty good, I think it looked a lot easier than what it was; it’s hard work to win,” Scrivener said.

“After the 16^th hole I figured I’d probably have to do something drastically wrong to not win. It was a weird feeling those last couple of holes because the first 16 were just brutal.

“Even though I was playing nicely, you never know especially around here, there’s bogeys and doubles to be made as well.”

The West Australian said the win gives him confidence in getting the job done should he find himself in this position again.

“I’ve come close before and just haven’t got across the line; it’s just nice to play that well under pressure so I’ll definitely put that in the memory bank.

“I’m stoked. I’ve been working really hard the last few years and been patient with everything I’ve done.”

Herbert would finish in outright second, signing off with a birdie on the 18^th to be 18-under the card.

2015 NSW Open Champion Ben Eccles (VIC) was outright third on 16-under the card.

Chris Crabtree (QLD) and Blake Windred (NSW) round out the top-5 and were also the best placed amateurs finishing 14-under the card.

For his win, Scrivener picks up AU$72,000.00 and moves to 5th on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia now travels to The Australian Golf Club for the 2017 Emirates Australian Open, 23 – 26 November.

For round four scores please visit pga.org.au

For ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit rankings please visit pga.org.au