There were 13 millimetres of rain overnight, leaving the course a little damper for the second round and more birdies on offer.

Wood was out of the gates with two birdies in his first three holes, with an bogey at the par-3 second in between.

That blemish would be the only one on Wood’s scorecard for the day as he closed the front nine with back-to-back birdies at the consecutive par-5s to turn in 34.

“I think the front nine is definitely the more scoring nine, helps with the three par-5s,” Wood said. “If you can sort of turn between three and four-under definitely sets up a good round on the back nine.”

The Queenslander proved that theory correct, Wood making three more birdies to sign for a six-under 66 and the lead alone at nine-under-par through 36 holes. First round co-leader Lachlan Barker his nearest pursuer two shots adrift.

Wood’s good play came on the back of a putter that has been working well on the tricky Royal Port Moresby greens after a semi-break from golf following the 2022-23 ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia season where he recorded three top-10s.

“Played well today. Hit it better than yesterday, especially off the tee, gave myself more chances from the fairway. The putter remained pretty good,” Wood said.

“The greens are obviously a bit tricky, you’ve just got to accept that you’re going to miss some short ones and hit a lot of good putts and they’re not going to go in as well.”

After blistering the front nine on day one, Barker found things a trickier on Friday with three birdies mixed with two bogeys.

It appeared that a similar story was going to unfold on the back side, when the South Australian added a bogey at the par-4 14th. The 24-year-old immediately bouncing back with two consecutive birdies to record a two-under 70 to sit second alone on seven-under.

“Little bit of a different round to yesterday, didn’t quite have it with my long game. But I holed a few very crucial putts towards the end of my round,” Barker said. “Forward progress, that’s what I look at, another round in red figures.

“I know a low one is out there. Nearly had a really low one yesterday, so excited about that, the prospect of going low on the weekend.”

The low scores are indeed proving to be available, with Ryan Peake and Cooper Geddes tying for the low round of the day, the pair firing matching seven-under-par 65s.

For Peake, that took him into a tie for third with Peter Martin and Liam Georgiadis at six-under. The West Australian’s interesting day including a chip-in eagle at the 15th, his local caddie reading greens and a fortunate bounce of sponsor signage at the 18th hole that led to a par.

“Mixed it up a little today, got the caddie reading the greens. Couple of them I was scratching my head, but I back him and they go in,” Peake said.

For Geddes, the second round marked a 10 shot improvement over the first and a bogey-free day to sit in a four-way tie for seventh at four-under with Jack Munro alone in sixth one shot better.

“Pretty good. I just plodded away today, knocked a few birdies in and holed a few putts. That was it,” Geddes said.

“One of my mates Zach told me to dry and dribble the putts in because that way it will have a chance of catching a lip and that’s what I did today and a few more went in.”

The cut fell at 16-over-par, with 59 players making the weekend.