Here are the reactions from the leading players through 36 holes:

Yuan Yechun (65, 9-under): “It was a great day, honestly. I played great, played smart, stick to the plan. I was fortunate enough that I got a couple of really long putts that dropped through the round.  I made two little mistakes, but really pulled myself together and kept it going. I know the course a lot better and my strategy, the holes change a bit and it really paid off. I’m more used to the wind here now since I played here last year. It’s a little different sometimes because change directions. Just got to really be patient and hit shot by shot here.”

Anthony Quayle (66, 8-under): “I was 1-over through the first couple and then bounced back with a nice birdie on 12, which was my third. Then I actually hit it in the water off the tee on 13. I dropped it 150 metres off the tee and still made par. I hit 2 iron from 245 into about 25 feet and holed that for par. After that it kind of got the round going a little bit. The greens can be a little tricky to read out here. I’ve played out here a bunch so I have a pretty good feeling on them and it just comes back to confidence. Once you start seeing a few going in, you just sit back and let it happen a little bit more. But when you’re missing a few putts, it’s very easy to keep missing them or just get a little bit needy with the putter.  Once they started going in, it was pretty easy.”

Adam Scott (67, 7-under): “It was a good solid round today, which I needed to kind of stay on the pace.  Generally played really good today so I’m pretty happy shooting 67. You should be most times you shoot 67. It was a good morning for scoring, but the pins, you had to really dial it in to get it close.  It was kind of a nice, patient round.  Good solid stuff and eventually I sort of wore the course down.”

Wade Ormsby (69, 7-under): “Three of the last five years I’ve played well around here. It’s a good course, pretty tricky green complexes. If you have seen them a little bit and you know where to hit it, you’ve got a little bit of an advantage. You just can’t hit darts all day, you’ve got to kind of play the golf course, play the pins and whatever else. That’s probably the reason why I’m kind of around the mark this week.

Cameron Smith (65, 5-under): “I kind of knew what I had to do today to get back into it.  I saw ‘Scotty’ and those guys up there posted a score early and we just went out there and didn’t really play aggressive or anything, just kind of did my stuff. Walked away with seven birdies. I just wanted to go out there with the same game plan as yesterday and just try and execute a little bit better, and I did that well.”

Bryce Easton (68, 5-under): “For me, I’m trying to figure out the course. The guys that have played here a few years have got a bit of an up on us really. There’s a lot of firm bounces. You’ve got to kind of play it short and bounce it up. I’m still trying to work some of that out as I go around. And it’s a good field, some top name players out here, especially the Aussies. I feel like it’s been great this week bumping into all the top Australian players that have been over the years, so that adds a really cool vibe to this event.  Gives me a boost and try and compete with them over the weekend.”

Min Woo Lee (72, 4-under): “A few good things and a few bad things but all in all a pretty solid day. I kind of hung in there, which is nice, and hopefully I can make a few more birdies and less mistakes tomorrow. A few putts dropped yesterday and that created a bit of a momentum. Today just seemed like every time I made a birdie, I’d follow it up with a bogey, so there was not much momentum there.”

Ryan Fox (72, 3-under): “I’m pretty happy with where everything’s at. I literally hit one bad shot today, which was the tee shot off 17. And I didn’t hit a great tee shot off 18, but I didn’t miss a start line on my iron shots today. Had I holed a couple of putts, it would have been significantly better and I would be up with Scotty and Cam and Wade at the top. I feel like I’m in a good place, I just need to take advantage on the greens and hopefully I don’t have too many other funny things happen.”

Cameron Champ (70, 3-under): “I played pretty well, I just burned a lot of edges. That’s how it goes sometimes. I’ll just keep firing away. Swing feels a little bit better. Energy-wise I feel a little bit better, so I’m just looking forward to the next two days.”