Australian 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy became the big-name casualty as fellow drawcards Charl Schwartzel and Victor Dubuisson made their moves on Friday at the Perth International.
Ogilvy entered the $1.75 million tournament as one of the favourites, but he missed the cut by two strokes after producing rounds of 73 and 72.
Schwartzel and Dubuisson had no such troubles making it through to the weekend.
Dubuisson posted a five-under-par 67 on Friday to move to six under, while Schwartzel is well placed to pounce at seven under.
Scotland's Peter Whiteford leads the way at 12-under after posting 66 in each of his first two rounds, with Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen (11 under) and South Korean Sihwan Kim (10 under) rounding out the top three.
"It's win or bust this week," said Whiteford, who needs at least an outright second-place finish to retain his European Tour card.
"I'm very nervous. I'll wear brown trousers tomorrow!
"I don't want to go back to (qualifying) school - nobody does. I need to win. I'm trying to keep my job."
Schwartzel said he was happy to fire a 69 following his shaky start.
"I made a good birdie on the first and it looked like it may be a pretty decent day but then, all of a sudden, I found myself two-over-par," Schwartzel said.
"I would've been happy with anything under par at that stage. So to get it to three-under, I thought it was pretty well done."
Dubuisson threatened to take the lead after producing birdies on five of his first seven holes, but the world No.22 was disappointed he failed to capitalise on a number of good opportunities from that point.
"I thought I could get back in the competition but, unfortunately, on the back nine - nothing. All my putts lipped the hole," Dubuisson said.
"I was like, 'OK, this is not the day'."
Englishman James Morrison was the star of the show on Friday, with his nine-under 63 the best round recorded at Lake Karrinyup since the course was redeveloped in 2007.
Morrison needs to finish in the top two to reach the Race to Dubai finals series.
But the situation is far more dire for Kim, who like Whiteford, needs a top-two finish just to retain his European Tour card.
"Golf is a tough game. Anything can happen out there," Kim said.
"So I don't have too much focus on that."
PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner sits at four under in his first tournament back from a serious neck injury.
Australian world No.82 Steven Bowditch (one under) narrowly avoided the cut, but defending champion Jin Jeong (three over) wasn't able to make it through.
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