He only hoped to make the halfway cut, but now Jordan Zunic dreams of raising the Stonehaven Cup after surging up the Australian Open leaderboard in Sydney.
A member of neighbouring Bonnie Doon, Zunic tore The Lakes apart with a tournament-best 65 on Friday to vault to six under par for the Open, just two behind halfway leader Byeong Hun An.
The 26-year-old's seven-under second round came following a ho-hum 73 opener after only returning home hours before teeing off on Thursday after missing out on securing a 2019 European Tour card.
"As soon as I found out I wasn't making it and I could get home on Thursday morning, I thought I want to come because this is my favourite tournament and we all dream to win our national Open one day," Zunic said.
"My expectations weren't high because my play yesterday was just stay in the tournament because I knew I was going to get tired.
"I got through nine and I started to hit a little bit of a wall yesterday, so I just kept eating lots of food and I just said to myself: 'just hang in there'."
A winner of the Queensland Open earlier this month, as well as the 2015 New Zealand Open, the in-form Sydneysider believes he is ready to go one better than last year's playoff loss to Cameron Smith at the Australian PGA Championship and claim his biggest title yet.
"One hundred percent. I know I'm capable of doing it," Zunic said.
"I've learnt so much over the last few years and I've been fortunate to play on the big stage a few times and then obviously win a few tournaments as well.
"So I definitely think I'm capable."
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