Adam Scott and Marc Leishman believe home-ground advantage worked against them at the golf World Cup as the pre-tournament favourites lamented a frustrating Friday at Kingston Heath.
The host nation combined six birdies with two bogeys en route to a four-under 68 in the second-round best-ball.
Scott - a member of Kingston Heath - and regular visitor Leishman were left irritated by a series of missed putts as the Australians fell 10 shots behind runaway leaders Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olesen from Denmark.
"Sometimes it's hard to get (local knowledge) out of your mind; you're trying to play the right shot you think and it's not because of the conditions," said a clearly-disappointed Scott.
"Maybe that works against us, but our best stuff needs to be on the weekend now."
Leishman attributed the lacklustre round to misjudged approach shots.
"It's a little frustrating; you're so used to landing it short on certain holes and bouncing it and up. All of a sudden it's spinning backwards," said Leishman.
"But we're professional golfers and we need to adjust."
Scott and Leishman - world No.7 and No. 54 respectively - started sluggishly with only one birdie in the first four holes. But the pair rallied near the turn with two desperate birdies - from the rough on the par-5 eighth and a 25-metre putt Scott holed from off the ninth green.
"Eight and nine they were both ferrets," Scott joked.
With Saturday's round returning to alternate shot, 2013 World Cup champion Scott insists Kjeldsen and Olesen haven't yet run away with the tournament.
"It's a tough format; it doesn't mean the leaders are going to play any good on the weekend," said Scott.
"Hopefully we can close the gap and I think we've got a chance on Sunday."
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