Twelve months ago Marc Leishman waited around to share in Cameron Smith’s victory; this time he wants to be the one throwing the Australian PGA Championship party.

The two highest-ranked players in the field have opened up a seven-shot gap on the rest with defending champion Smith possessing a three-shot buffer over his close friend and nearest rival.

On a day where few challengers emerged from the pack, Smith compiled a bogey-free 5-under par round of 67, the equal best score of the third round, to take a stranglehold of the trophy still currently in his possession.

The Joe Kirkwood Cup is a piece of silverware that Leishman desperately craves but he will have to produce something out of the ordinary to wrest it away from a young man on the verge of becoming Australia’s best male golfer.

Using the lessons he learnt from playing with Leishman at the World Cup just a week ago, Smith piloted his way around the RACV Royal Pines layout without incident, registering birdies on the fifth, ninth, 12th, 13th and 16th holes.

Even his ‘bad’ shots resulted in birdies as Leishman endured a frustrating day with the putter, not making a birdie until the eighth hole of the day before ultimately signing for a 3-under 69.

Tied for third four shots behind Leishman are 2016 champion Harold Varner III and ACT veteran Matthew Millar, who along with Smith and Braden Becker posted 67s as the likes of Jake McLeod (75), Dimitrios Papadatos (74) and Matt Jager (73) fell back in the pack.

Conscious of the task ahead of him in chasing Smith down, Leishman says he will call on previous come-from-behind wins on the PGA Tour to apply some pressure early and put Smith to the test.

“I need to get off to a pretty good start; not as in the first two or three holes, but the first nine,” Leishman said.

“I need to have a good front nine, at least make him think about it.

“It’s hard to win from the front, it’s also hard to win from behind. It’s hard to win from anywhere.

“I’ve just got to do what I can do, worry about trying to shoot a good score and see if he plays well or not.

“I’m expecting him to, so I’m thinking I’m going to need a really good score.

“I’ve come from behind before, so hopefully I can do it again tomorrow.”

Displaying a maturity in his game that belies his looks, Smith has made just the one bogey since finishing his opening round with dropped shots in each of his last two holes.

He has been content to let those mounting the chase make the mistakes through either carelessness or over-aggressiveness and shows no signs of relinquishing a lead that he has at least partly owned since early in the second round.

“That’s the position you want to be in every week. You want to play against the best players in the world and ‘Leish’ is one of those guys,” Smith said of his final group showdown with Leishman.

“I’m looking forward to a good battle tomorrow with Leish.

“I’m just going to try and go out there tomorrow and do what I have been doing.

“The last couple of days has been probably some of the best golf I’ve ever played and feeling really confident.

“Just looking forward to tomorrow.”

Although he will begin the final round seven shots adrift of Smith, Varner hasn’t given up hope of applying some pressure of his own, his third round of 1-under 71 featuring three straight birdies from holes 8-10 and a costly double bogey at the par-5 15th.

“You’ve got to keep giving yourself opportunities no matter what, you can’t quit,” said Varner, who hasn’t finished worse than sixth in three previous visits to Royal Pines.

“That’s just the MO, you’ve got to do that.

“The last year helped me out a lot because I just had a bad attitude and I think I was like 5 or 6-under after 10 and just pissed it away.

“You just can’t do that.

“I still like my chances though.

“I just need to give myself 18 looks and I think something good will happen.”

The side story to Sundays final round is the race to top the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

Despite a disappointing third round that finished with three straight bogeys, Jake McLeod remains in pole position to claim the one-year European Tour exemption and World Golf Championships starts with Dimitrios Papadatos and Anthony Quayle needing to win the tournament to take over top spot.

The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit is now a race in three as some of the brightest young talents in Australian golf face off over the final two rounds of the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

With a one-year exemption on the European Tour at stake, a strong weekend is potentially life-changing for Jake McLeod, Dimitrios Papadatos and Anthony Quayle, all of whom are in position to challenge for the Joe Kirkwood Cup.

If either of the trio were to be victorious in the co-sanctioned event on Sunday, they would automatically become a member of the European Tour and the runner-up on the Order of Merit would be offered European Tour membership for 2019.

McLeod, the NSW Open champion and Order of Merit leader, at one point had a three-shot lead during the second round on Friday but after a double-bogey at the par-4 17th closed at 8-under, one shot behind tournament leader Cameron Smith.

He will play alongside Papadatos (7-under) on Saturday in the second last group of the day while Quayle is two shots further back in a tie for eighth.

Second and fourth on the Order of Merit respectively, both Daniel Nisbet and James Nitties missed the cut on Friday so can’t improve their position while only a victory could propel West Australian Matt Jager into a position where he might snag a spot on the European Tour.

With the winner of the Australian PGA Championship to pocket $237,500 in prizemoney, both Papadatos and Quayle would leapfrog McLeod if they were to secure victory but the young Queenslander hopes to continue the hot hand that also saw him finish third at the Australian Open.

“I feel like I’m playing really nicely, the putter feels good and I’m hitting it well,” McLeod said after his round.

“Just need to work on distance control stuff with my wedges, but those poor swings, just lack of concentration out there, especially on 17.

“I should have pulled out (of the tee shot); I knew that was not going to end well for myself.

“It’s a bit of an up and down day and it was a lot of good and a lot of bad.

“It was just one of those days, but the good was a bit better, so it was nice to have a couple under today.”

Jager, who along with Papadatos works with Sydney-based coach Gary Barter, followed up an opening round of 65 with a 1-under 71 to be tied for fourth, two shots behind tournament leader Cameron Smith.

Given the way he played on Thursday, Jager knows that if he can eradicate some errors that the Joe Kirkwood Cup is well within his reach.

“Still only a couple back, right there,” said Jager, who holed his 6-iron at the par-4 seventh for par after hitting his tee shot into the water.

“If I can just match a bit of the putting and the ball-striking over the weekend then I’ll be right there.

“My short game was what saved me all day. I didn’t hit the ball great, worked hard and grinded when I needed to just give myself a chance going into the weekend.”

Current Order of Merit standings:

Braden Becker began 2018 by hitching a PMX camper trailer to the back of his Nissan Dualis and driving he and his girlfriend across the Nullaborr; he could end the year with a first class ticket to the European Tour.

As the leaders largely trod water in the third round of the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort on Saturday, Becker used an eagle at the par-5 12th to propel him to the equal best score of the day and move into a tie for sixth heading into the final round.

The plan at this stage is to pack the trailer again in January and head off on another cross-country adventure but if he can follow up his third round of 67 with something similar on Sunday he and girlfriend Hayley Bettencourt may have the opportunity to go global.

Forced to go through both stages of ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Q School this time last year, Becker began 2018 with limited status, using his off weeks to caddie for Hayley who is a professional golfer in her own right.

They drove 16,000 kilometres in two months chasing events on the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series up and down the east coast, completing their journey with a round of the Nullabor Links, Hayley setting a new course record of 2-under on the 1,365 kilometre desert golf course.

“I thought I played really well and shot even,” said Becker.

“We bought the camper trailer only a week or so before deciding to come over to Victoria. It’s just a tent pull-out, it folds over off the top.

“It’s a good camper trailer, we really like it. We’ve got a nice queen-sized proper mattress in there; it’s actually really comfortable.

“It’s really good, it’s comfy, we love doing it, we love travelling around and we’re planning to do it again in January.

“We’ve just got to work out the details of where we’re going to be at what point and at what time.”

Hayley will once again carry for the bag for Braden on Sunday, using her experience playing the former Ladies Masters at Royal Pines to give her man any advantage she can on one of Australian golf’s biggest stages.

“She’s played the Ladies Masters here and is a top golfer herself. She’s played it a bunch of times and always told me how tough it is,” said the 26-year-old former trainee at Mandurah Country Club.

“She’s won amateur events in almost every state so she’s a really good golfer in her own right so I have no issues trusting her game and how I should be playing the golf course.

“She’s given me a hell of a lot of good advice around here so that’s been handy.

“There have definitely been occasions in previous weeks where I’ve been playing pretty good and all of a sudden I’ll hit a couple of bad shots and you lose your head a little bit.

“She’s there to remind you what we really want.”

Second at the SP PNG Golf Open in April, Becker won four pro-ams in the West Australian swing and did enough to retain his card for next year.

He has offered to return to Q School to caddie for a mate in two weeks’ time but knows what a good finish on Sunday will mean for his own prospects in 2019.

“This is my first Aussie PGA, it was my first Aussie Open so it’s a whole new feeling for me,” Becker explained.

“I’m sitting 48th currently on the Order of Merit and coming into the week I thought if I made the cut and had a decent number I’ll make enough money to stay inside top 50. Top 50 should get me into Vic Open, World Super 6 Perth, NZ Open, all the big ones at the start of the year that I didn’t get to play this year.

“That was the real goal at the start of the week but we’re in day three and I’ve had a good one today so who knows.

“Hopefully I’ll have another good one tomorrow and if I don’t it’s not a big loss either.

“I’m just really happy with the way the year’s gone and anything else from here is a bonus.”

Kiwi Ryan Fox hasn’t discounted making a Sunday tilt at the title but concedes either Marc Leishman or Cameron Smith are capable of taking a stranglehold of the Joe Kirkwood Cup in the third round of the Australian PGA Championship.

A bogey on the par-4 18th hole soured what was an otherwise impressive round of 3-under 69 from Fox who compiled one of the better morning rounds in what were again perfect conditions.

West Australian Braden Becker was the major mover on Saturday morning, an eagle and two birdies in his final seven holes rocketing him up into a tie for sixth with a 5-under par round of 67.

Four birdies in the space of seven holes around the turn also launched Canberra veteran Matthew Millar up into a tie for sixth, the 42-year-old continuing his great week after being named ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Player of the Year at the Greg Norman Medal on Tuesday night.

A birdie at the first hole saw Jake McLeod join Cameron Smith on top of the leaderboard but as the wind strengthened Fox believed that only two players were likely to gap the field heading into the final round.

“If the breeze gets up like it’s supposed to, I think it will be quite tricky out there,” said Fox, who was tied for 23rd as he completed his round.

“I wouldn’t expect anyone to run away with it other than maybe ‘Leish’ (Marc Leishman) or ‘Smithy’ (Cameron Smith).

“If one of those guys gets going, obviously they’re world class players and you can see them even in tricky conditions shooting 4 or 5-under and getting a decent gap on the rest of the field.

“As you’ve seen with the scoring the last couple of days, if you shoot anything under par, it’s actually a pretty decent score out there.

“There’s still a low one out there, but it just seems to be a little trickier this year for some reason.”

One of the longest hitters in world golf, Fox got off to a flyer with birdies at the first and third holes but a bounce off the cart path at the par-4 seventh saw him drop a shot, a shot he earned back at the par-5 9^th hole.

Birdies at 11 and 13 propelled him further up the leaderboard but he admitted that he has had to temper somewhat his normally aggressive approach.

“I think if you’re on, you can all-out attack it,” Fox said.

“I’ve been fighting my swing a little bit the last couple of weeks. There are some places you can hit it around here that are really ugly. I managed to find a couple of them over the last couple days.

“So taking a slightly more conservative strategy than I probably normally would and that’s on me fighting mainly the lefts, to be honest.

“There are a few holes where there’s some trouble left, so I laid back off the tee and tried to keep it in play that way.

“But if you’re on and feeling good, you can definitely take the golf course on.”

It had to be ‘Beef’.

Coming off birdie at the par-5 15th and consigning his day one horrors to the history books, Andrew Johnston stepped up and hit what he thought was a perfect 8-iron to the par-3 16th green.

Two days earlier he had been the one handing out the pies and beers and the Australian PGA Championship’s party hole in a pre-tournament promotion; now, while ever the Australian PGA Championship is played at RACV Royal Pines Resort, the man they call ‘Beef’ will feature prominently on the highlight reel.

When his tee shot drifted just right of the pin cut on the right side of the green Johnston’s ball trickled down into a collection area that turns amateurs into a quivering mess.

Now ranked 200 in the world, Johnston is quickly adjusting to the grain of the Royal Pines greens and sent an already boisterous Volkswagen Marquee over the edge when he chipped in for birdie.

“You couldn’t pick a better hole to do it really,” said Johnston, who returned to the 16th and the Oakley Gold Coast Beach Club to mingle with fans after his round.

“As it bounced, it hit and it was just going in, it disappeared. It was just a perfect hole to do it on, it was great.

“It was probably the best shot I’ve hit the two days off the tee there. I didn’t think there was no way I was going to hit an 8-iron long.

“As it was in the air, it was good, but to see it disappear over the back, I looked at it and I was like, Oh, shit, really, to be honest.

“Luckily it was going into the grain a bit and I knew it was going to stop fairly quick if I played it right, and it went in.”

As playing partner Cameron Smith plundered birdies left, right and centre, Johnston made 10 straight pars to start his round and said that staying patient was key as he eagled the par-5 12th and made birdies at 15 and 16.

“For me, I was playing OK and watching him make birdies and I had to really try and stay patient out there, watching him go to 4, 5, 6, 7,” he said.

“I was like, all right, just be patient and keep going. Luckily I found a few coming in.

“I hit a good tee shot there (on 12), then had a pretty good number and hit a lovely 3-iron in there.

“I was like, I can’t remember the last time I had an eagle, it was ages ago. We were laughing about it.”

Johnston will now play alongside David Bransdon in the fifth-last group at 11.32 AEST on Saturday, but not before a night of beef, beer and boxing at Nineteen at The Star.

“Steak and boxing, perfect,” said Johnston, referencing the Jeff Horn-Anthony Mundine fight happening an hour up the road at Suncorp Stadium.

“You know I’m going to have a beer with that as well.

“Perfect, what an evening.”

The champ flexed his muscle but the contenders are lining up for a shot at the title after a drama-filled second day of the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

A birdie blitz on the front-9 put defending champion Cameron Smith in position to better Jordan Zunic’s course record of 64 set 12 months earlier but it was a mature show of restraint that enabled him to shoot 7-under 65 and take a one stroke lead into the third round on Saturday.

Smith’s former Queensland junior teammate Jake McLeod seemed destined to own sole possession of the lead at the halfway mark when he made a putt from six feet for eagle at the par-5 12th but a wayward tee shot on his penultimate hole that was deemed out of bounds saw him finish one shot behind Smith and level with Marc Leishman at 8-under par.

Australian Open runner-up Dimitrios Papadatos is one shot further back in a tie for fourth along with Round 1 co-leader Matt Jager and Queenslander Christopher Wood who made a late charge up the leaderboard with a superb 6-under 66 propelled by four birdies on the front-9 and three more on the back.

International guests Harold Varner III and Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston thrilled the large Gold Coast galleries with spectacular hole-outs at the par-4 8th and par-3 16th respectively, Johnston lifting the roof of the Volkswagen Marquee with his chip in from left of the 16th green.

But while the overseas raiders and his World Cup teammate Leishman prepare to mount their charge, the current holder of the Joe Kirkwood Cup is the one best placed to triumph on Sunday.

“I had no idea about the course record, to be honest. I was just trying to do my best,” Smith said.

“I decided I wanted to get to 10 (under). That was kind of my goal before Friday’s end, so one off, not too bad.

“7-under, you can never complain about 7-under.”

As Leishman, Papadatos, McLeod and Varner all found trouble on the easiest hole on the course by being aggressive, Smith tempered his hot hand early with judicious shot selection on his inward half.

Refusing to be tempted by tucked pins on 13, 14 and 16 in particular, Smith avoided any disasters and displayed the type of course management that makes him a rising star in world golf.

“I kind of got caught up in that yesterday with those last two holes,” Smith said of his bogey-bogey finish on Thursday.

“It’s very easy when you’re playing good to go at the pins. They’re not that long a shot and you know you can hit them but if you miss it on the wrong side you’re absolutely done.

“I just reminded myself that 10-15 feet right of the flag pin high is probably the best shot you can hit. And if you do hit it inside that then you’ve hit a bad shot.”

Playing in the group behind Smith, Leishman could hear the roars in the early morning as the local favourite lit up Royal Pines but after successive rounds of 68 is confident his experience will count for plenty as the intensity rises.

“A lot of golf to play and the course is only getting tougher,” Leishman said of his position through 36 holes.

“It’s starting to speed up, which is good. The sun’s out, it’s warm, it’s only going to dry it even more.

“Hopefully we all play well and fight it out, and I would love to be there at the end and hopefully in front.

“There’s a lot of golf to go, it’s only halfway done.

“Don’t want to get too far ahead of myself but as long as I’m playing good and feeling good on the greens more importantly, which is good.”

Given he very nearly quit three holes into the tournament on Thursday that Johnston made the cut was a feat in itself, the popular Englishman now a legitimate contender trailing by just four shots.

“I’m just going to try and keep doing what I’m doing, just trying to keep my emotions out of it and yeah, just plod around and play golf,” said Johnston, who made back-to-back birdies at 15 and 16 to finish the day at 5-under.

“Just try and keep that feeling what I’ve got. Just play and see what happens, man.

“I was happy that it worked out yesterday. I managed to take that to the range this morning and the swing felt better.

“No destructive shots and managed to put a score together.”

Harold Varner III knows Michael Jordan will be watching.

Dimitrios Papadatos knows his manager, Braith Anasta, would happily take his place in the field at the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

Two of the front-runners through 36 holes each have a sporting superstar in their corner with golf running deep in their veins.

Twelve months ago Varner III received a text from the greatest basketballer of all time with an invitation to represent the Air Jordan brand on the world’s golf courses while Papadatos only linked with Anasta, the former NRL premiership winner who played for both New South Wales and Australia, prior to the Australian Open a fortnight ago.

A good golfer himself who once played in the NSW PGA Championship at Wollongong Golf Club, Anasta strode the fairways of Royal Pines salivating at the prospect of Papadatos playing his way onto the European Tour while Jordan’s support of Varner is coming from a bit further afield.

“I’m sure he knows,” Varner said of Jordan’s awareness of his Australian PGA appearance.

“I haven’t spoken to him. I’ll see him at Christmas. I’m sure he knows; has an idea.”

Sporting the Air Jordan Trainer ST golf shoes, cap and polo shirt on Friday, Varner is one of a number of golf ambassadors for the Air Jordan brand, but hinted as to who wears it best out of he, Luke Donald, Pat Perez and Keegan Bradley.

“I’ll keep that to myself, but you know what I’m thinking,” Varner said after a second straight round of 69.

Proving to have just as good a timing in player management as he did on the football field, Anasta signed Papadatos to his company SEARoo Sports prior to the Australian Open at The Lakes, where his second-place finish earned him a place in the field for next year’s Open at Royal Portrush in Ireland.

“I’m one hundred per cent certain he’ll be going. He’s very keen,” Papadatos said of Anasta’s likely trip to Ireland next July.

“We’ve been speaking to each other for months now, and obviously because of the position I was in, being close to getting a European Tour card, it was a tough decision which management group to go to and how it would benefit me for the future.

“But I’m very happy to sign with Braith. It’s been awesome so far.”

Sponsorship deals with the iconic Coogee Bay Hotel and Bank of Sydney have been secured on Anasta’s watch as Papadatos joined the likes of Aron Price, Matt Stieger and Kiwi Ben Campbell in the SEARoo stable.

“They’ve got a small group of players so it’s a lot easier to get in touch with them and have more communication, get a bit of advice when we need it,” explained Papadatos.

“Also, they’ve helped a lot with getting a few sponsors on board.

“They’ve got some good connections and that’s going to help us out for the next year or so.”

As Varner knows all too well, it’s nice to have friends in high places.

A month after just missing out on a European Tour card, Dimi Papadatos is positioned for a shot at the Australian PGA Championship thanks in part to a “good six” on the par-5 9^th.

Starting the second round at RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast one shot off the lead, Papadatos dropped a shot on the par-3 second but made three birdies in the space of five holes, completing a 2-under par round of 70 to be 7-under and outright leader as the afternoon groups teed off.

Former champion Harold Varner III made a blistering start to his second round with birdies on each of his opening three holes to also get to 7-under but a double-bogey on the second halted his momentum, making a good par save on the ninth for a 69 and 6-under at the halfway mark.

Runner-up at the Australian Open two weeks ago, Papadatos birdied the par-5 ninth hole on Thursday but despite dropping a shot on Friday said he was able to take momentum into his back nine.

“I hit my second shot and was a bit too aggressive and pulled it into the water,” Papadatos said of his approach to a pin cut on the left side of the green.

“The drop almost rolled back into the hazard and was in a terrible lie so I had to stand on the rocks to play my next shot.

“I chipped the next one into the bunker and then ended up getting up and down.

“It was a good six in the end.”

Varner had similar issues on the hole that is playing almost half a shot easier than its par but made a sand save from the front right trap to make 5 and stay in close proximity to the top of the leaderboard.

“You know, to hit it in the water on 9 and make par and a little bit of luck, that’s the kind of things you need to go your way,” said Varner, the 2016 Australian PGA Champion at Royal Pines.

“It is what it is. I was trying to hit it 20 yards right of that. It’s just a tough tee ball, but hindsight’s 20/20.

“I wish I would have hit driver, either driver or 4 iron, but it is what it is.

“I wasn’t relieved (when the putt went in), it was just more that’s what you have to do playing golf.  When things aren’t going your way, find a way to get them going and do that.

“That’s why I play, so I yelled out something that gets me going.

“I think something good’s going to happen. The last two holes today were really good.

“Just excited to be here and have an opportunity.”

Despite having ideal conditions the best of the morning scores belonged to Canadian Nick Taylor who posted a 4-under par round of 68 to get back to 2-under, the Bermuda grass greens and wicked pin positions keeping a potential birdie blitz at bay.

“The conditions were perfect this morning but there were a couple of tricky pins out there as well that can catch you out really quickly,” said Papadatos, who played the back-9 in 1-under thanks to a birdie at the par-5 12th.

“The greens are a great surface but the grain is very tricky to read. You’ve got to be pretty spot on with that.

“There’s a low score out there. It is tricky but it is definitely doable.

“It’s one of those courses where you have to be playing well the whole round.

“As soon as you hit one bad shot on any of the holes you’ve got a bit of a task ahead of you.”

Either a win on Sunday or top spot on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit would earn Papadatos full status on the European Tour for 2019, status he essentially gave up when he reported a rules infraction at the Challenge Tour Championship in the United Arab Emirates last month.

Refusing to believe karmic forces are now at work – “you make your own luck definitely in this game” – Papadatos was pleased that he had been able to bounce back so quickly.

“I’ve had a few disappointments in my career and I’ve just learnt the longer you worry about it, the worse it gets,” said the 27-year-old who claimed the Portugal Open earlier this year.

“If I get too upset about it, it doesn’t really work out too well for me.

“I think I’m in good position, can’t ask for much more than that going into Saturday.”

American Harold Varner III has targeted a second Joe Kirkwood Cup to propel him to a maiden PGA Tour title after making yet another superb start to the Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

The 2016 champion, Varner has not finished worse than sixth in three previous tilts at one of Australian golf’s most prestigious trophies and is positioned to contend again after an opening round of 3-under 69.

Jake McLeod and Matt Jager took advantage of perfect morning conditions to assume top spot on the leaderboard at 6-under through the first round with Australian Open runner-up Dimitrios Papadatos the best of the afternoon groups at 5-under par, level with Korea’s Jae-woong Eom.

Through 17 holes Varner was in a share of fifth at 4-under par before pulling his second shot into 18 left of the green and failing to get up and down but will have a chance to put pressure on the leaders when he tees off early on Friday morning.

In his past 10 rounds at Royal Pines Varner has shot better than 70 on six occasions and hopes to use a second Australian PGA title to further advance his position on the PGA Tour.

Inside the top 25 in four of his past five starts on his home tour, the 28-year-old said he hoped to use another good week on the Gold Coast as a springboard into 2019.

“I’ve been playing well the last couple of weeks and just trying to hold on to that and keep doing my thing,” said Varner.

“I just didn’t get the momentum off of (his 2016 win) which kind of sucked.

“Hopefully we can win another one and use that momentum to propel me to play a lot better.

“The guys in the States do give me credit for winning out here but obviously it means a lot when it’s your home tour and you want to win out there.”

Caught up in the drama surrounding Aussie John Senden’s snapped club on the ninth tee, Varner brought the fans in the Volkswagen Marquee to their feet at the par-3 16th and enjoyed the atmosphere that is being created, including the resident DJ.

“I’ve heard the song they played before and I was kind of mumbling it while I was reading my putt so it’s pretty awesome,” Varner said.

“It’s a pretty cool environment and that’s how you grow the game I think.

“I like it when it’s way louder, I don’t like it when it’s only one person moving, so that was pretty cool. That was awesome.”

For Papadatos, a win this week would erase the painful memories of narrowly missing out on his European Tour card this year.

Victory in the European Tour co-sanctioned event brings immediate status while claiming the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit would also provide a 12-month ticket to one of the world’s richest tours for the Australian Open runner-up.

Holing out for eagle on the par-4 17th gave the New South Welshman momentum as he made the turn with four more birdies on the front nine putting him within one shot of the lead heading into the second round.

“I think I was 1 over and that got me to 1 under,” Papadatos said of his eagle at 17.

“The front nine I think with the wind today was playing definitely a bit easier than the back. The back’s a pretty good test, especially the way the wind was going. So it was nice to come home strong.

“When you’re playing well, you want to make the most of it. When you’re playing bad, you’re trying to turn it around.

“So you’re never really relaxed, but it is more enjoyable obviously playing back at home.”

West Australian Jason Scrivener seemed destined to join McLeod and Jager at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the day until bogeys on his final two holes blotted an otherwise flawless round of 4-under 68.

“I’m happy with the way I played, just unfortunately finished with those two bogeys, but other than that it was pretty flawless,” said Scrivener who is in a tie for fifth with Marc Leishman, Spain’s Adrian Otaegui, Mathew Goggin and Queensland’s Doug Klein.

“The game feels like it’s come around the last two months. It feels like I’m getting more and more consistent.

“Just want to give myself chances to win tournaments so we’ll see how we do the next few days.”

First tee nerves are nothing new for Jake McLeod but 12 months working with a psychologist has thrust the young Queenslander to the forefront of Australian golf.

Winner of the AV Jennings New South Wales Open and third at the Australian Open, McLeod took full advantage of idyllic morning conditions at RACV Royal Pines Resort to share top spot on the Australian PGA championship leaderboard with West Australian Matt Jager.

McLeod and Jager both posted rounds of 6-under 66 in the morning half of the draw with Korean Jae-Woong Eom a shot back and Marc Leishman, Mathew Goggin and Spain’s Adrian Otaegui a further shot back at 4-under.

Tied for sixth at the Fiji International and tied for second at the Royal Cup on the Asian Tour, McLeod has risen from 526 in the world 12 months ago to be now ranked 160th on the Official World Golf Rankings.

Leading the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit, the rewards for another good week are significant but the 24-year-old credits his mental approach as a way of conquering any nerves that may kick in.

“I’m always very nervous on the first tee,” said McLeod, who made four birdies in his opening six holes.

“Obviously I was pretty nervous starting off but starting like that settles the nerves.

“I’ve seen a new psychologist six months to a year ago now and just the things we’ve been working on have been really good, so I think that’s definitely helped a lot.

“Just accepting how I’m going to feel, like I can’t change my thoughts and all that sort of stuff.

“I just need to stay really focused on the shot and have a bit of a laugh out there and just stay relaxed.

“And I’m starting to feel more comfortable out on the first tee as well.

“At the Aussie Open I felt really good out there. I think you just sort of forget about that. You’re still nervous, but you forget, so it’s pretty good.”

One shot from the lead after the opening round of the Australian Open, Jager struggled to keep pace over the weekend at The Lakes but carried with him the lessons and confidence from that week into his opening round at Royal Pines.

“I learnt a little bit about where my game was at, but what I took from that was how well I played the back nine every day with the wind and the water there,” said Jager.

“That back nine is pretty daunting but how I played that back nine gave me a lot of confidence.

“I chipped in on the last hole of the tournament on 18 at the Aussie Open and that basically just sealed off a good week for me.

“I felt good about everything from that, learnt from my little mistakes, and just come here and we’ll roll the dice and this has been a good start.”

While McLeod’s round featured six birdies and no bogeys, Jager made eagle twice in the space of four holes to make the turn at 4-under, adding three birdies and a lone bogey at the par-4 8th to close out his round.

Local favourite Cameron Smith was in position to also feature prominently on the Round 1 leaderboard before bogeys on each of his closing two holes saw him sign for a 2-under 70.

“Pretty unfortunate to make a couple mistakes on the last couple of holes there,” Smith said post-round.

“Had a bit of a dicey lie on 8 and wasn’t sure how it was going to come out. Because I was playing good I probably went a little bit more aggressive than I should have, but that’s something that I was willing to risk. It just didn’t quite pay off.

“But the rest of the day was really good. Struck it really well, just didn’t quite have the putter going today.

“Greens are quite different this week and just struggled a bit with the pace.

“All in all, pretty good day.”