As PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit leader Brad Kennedy took a stranglehold of the lead on the back of an albatross at the par-5 15th, Smylie and Oh positioned themselves to make a Sunday charge with superb rounds of their own.

Kennedy’s 62 was the only round better than the 8-under 63 rattled off by Smylie while Oh’s pre-tournament expectations are being met after she followed up a 6-under 65 on Friday with a 4-under 67 to sit alongside Smylie and three others at 8-under par, six shots back of Kennedy.

Already a prolific winner within the amateur ranks, the left-handed Smylie shot 62 in the final round of the Keperra Bowl last October to win by 13 shots and has every intention to give it a red-hot crack on Sunday.

“I’ve been in these kinds of situations before. Whether it’s an amateur tournament or a professional tournament I still treat it the exact same, nothing changes,” said Smylie, who was 6-over through 14 holes of his opening round.

“Whether it’s an amateur or professional tournament, still have the mindset of telling myself, Just one more. Just one more. That’s all I said to myself today. I didn’t really take my foot off the gas which is what you need to do in order for you to go low.

“You can’t back off so just kept applying pressure and the putts were dropping.”

Smylie had nine birdies and a lone bogey when he three-putted the 18th hole on Saturday but credited a par save on the fifth hole for generating momentum early in his round.

“The first two days I made bogey on five, one of them from three-putting and another from not getting up and down,” Smylie recalled.

“I made an eight-foot par putt on five today which kept me at 1-under and I felt like that was really, really big, to make that. The last thing you want is to be looking at 5s for that hole for the last three days.

“Personally I reckon I could have been 3-under through four. I missed putts on three and four from 10 feet that pretty much horseshoed. They just went around the hole so I could have got off to a faster start.

“I three-putted the last which was a bit unfortunate but other than that it was a near-perfect round.”

A regular on the LPGA Tour since 2016 with more than $US2 million in career earnings, Oh entered the event that pits men and women against each other as the most credentialled female player in the field.

A 2-over 73 in the opening round put her on the back foot but she is now positioned to push for her first win since taking the 2015 Australian Ladies Masters in just her second start as a professional.

“I don’t remember much from the first 12 holes, I just remember coming in I was really focused,” Oh said of her lone professional win to date. And obviously nervous but I was really sharp and focused. Let’s hope I have the nerves in the right place tomorrow.

“I’m just going to have to go out there and make as many birdies as I can.

“It’s always good to play in contention and play for something. You get to learn from the nerves, it should be really good.

“I just really enjoy competing so it’s nice to be able to come here and play decent.”

Another young player to put themselves in contention for what would be an extraordinary win is 19-year-old West Australian amateur Kirsten Rudgeley.

From the same home club as Major champion Hannah Green at Mount Lawley Golf Club in Perth, Rudgeley made the most of kinder conditions to fire a bogey-free 7-under 64 highlighted by an eagle at the par-5 ninth to squeeze inside the top 10.

In the opening round of the Junior Players Series Spring Valley’s Aryan Sharma holds a one-stroke advantage from Colorado University-bound Jack Holland, the pair the only players under par with rounds of 68 and 69 respectively.