Jordan Zunic credits his surprise spot at the top of the Australian PGA Championship leaderboard to reading a book by fellow tour pro Nick O'Hern.
In a self-described slump, the 25-year-old acted on girlfriend and caddy Olivia Marlow's advice and started reading O'Hern's Tour Mentality: Inside the Mind of a Tour Pro.
He loved it and made sure to let O'Hern know. He met the man himself for a practice round on Tuesday.
And on Thursday Zunic chipped in for eagle on the last to finish with a first round of 66 and a share of the lead, with his new mentor eight shots back at two-over.
Zunic shares the lead with Japan Golf Tour regular Adam Bland, who is coached by Adam Scott's mentor, Matt Ballard.
Masters champion Sergio Garcia, newly crowned Greg Norman Medal winner Marc Leishman and Peter Senior, who won his first Australian PGA title two years before Zunic was born, are among five men one shot further back.
A winner of the 2015 New Zealand Open, Zunic has missed the cut in his last two events and said O'Hern's influence had been massive in his sudden change of fortunes.
"What an awesome bloke. He just gave me such an insight on how to think better," he said.
"I was being really tough on myself, putting a lot of pressure on myself, and he just made things so simple for me."
The NSW talent says he won't pile the pressure on now despite his good start and the calibre of names breathing down his neck.
"Sometimes I think my generation, we think we expect things to happen straight away, which can kill us a little bit with having expectations a little bit too high," he said.
"For me, I'm just going to go back to basics, get my mindset where it needs to be, and if I keep doing that I think I'm going to shoot a lot more rounds like I did today."
