When Scott Strange walked off the The Hills at the end of his second round at the NZ PGA Championship today he didn't expect to still be in the lead when the day was over.
The Australia had fired a sharp seven-under 65 to go to 10-under for the tournament and went in to the clubhouse at lunchtime expecting to see someone shoot lower.
"I think that'll be overtaken this afternoon," Strange said after his round.
"The pins are in pretty accessible spots. You've got 14 - you can put it in a bowl, pitch it on and it comes back. There's a lot of holes like that. There are some quality players teeing off in the afternoon who played well yesterday and if the breeze doesn't blow they should catch that and go past that."
He was wrong.
Kiwi Michael Hendry got to 11-under at one point but dropped two shots on the 14th hole - although he did pull one back later - and Aaron Townsend, one of the co-leaders from round one, continued his strong play but he couldn't go lower than Strange.
The wash-up of it all means Strange, Hendry and Townsend all hold a lead of the tournament in Arrowtown, near Queenstown at 10-under at the halfway point in what has proven to be great scoring conditions during the first two days.
"I thought it was going to be a rough day," Strange said. "I started off on 10 and hit a pretty good shot in but it bounced straight through to the bunker. It's not good in there but I managed to hole that and then hit it close on the next and holed that.
"The whole front nine I pretty much could have birdied or eagled - I played it pretty nice. I shot it in six-under so I was pretty happy with that and then coming on the front nine which was my back nine I played pretty solid again and probably could have done something on most of the holes but seven-under for the day is pretty good."
Hendry, the defending champion, was left to lament a costly double-bogey on the back nine where he put his second shot over the back of the 14th green.
"It's just one of those things. We had the yardage and were comfortable that a nine iron wasn't going to go too far and we thought wedge wasn't going to get over the bunker. We hit nine iron and as it was it was a club too much and it just ended up in a really tough spot. That's just golf," he said.
"It was right up against a tree but I was lucky as well, there was a little irrigation hose sticking out of the ground that it was basically resting against so I managed to get a free drop from there, but it was custard up there."
There's a keen chasing pack behind the leading trio, with Kiwis Gareth Paddison and Michael Long at nine-under, alongside Australian Rohan Blizard in a share of fourth place.
Leigh Deagan is out on his own at eight-under in seventh, while there's a group of five players at seven-under, including New Zealanders Mathew Perry and Josh Geary.
Greg Turner and Mark Brown are both still in the hunt at five-under the card in a share of 18th place but will need to pick up a few shots tomorrow to pull themselves in to contention ahead of the final round.
Notable players to miss the cut, which sat at one-under, were: world No 82 Brendan Jones, veteran Australian Craig Parry, Kiwi David Smail, former New Zealand Open champion Mahal Pearce, Phil Tataurangi and evergreen American Hale Irwin.
The tournament heads in to the pro-arm format tomorrow where two pros and two amateurs are grouped together for the final two rounds.
Irwin's time in the South Island isn't over yet as the three-time US Open Champion will play as a celebrity in the pro-am during the weekend.
