Hannah Green is on track to add a second dual-gender title to her collection after snaring the Australian Open halfway lead in Melbourne.
Green burst from a star-studded pack to claim a two-stroke advantage over the field with a sublime 6-under-par 66 in the second round at Victoria Golf Club.
With five birdies and a brilliant eagle on the par-four 15th hole, Green surged to 11-under for the championship to seize control.
The 2019 Women's US PGA champion enjoys a two-stroke buffer over South Korea's former world number one Jiyai Shin, who posted a second-straight 68 playing alongside Green.
Another former world number one, Shin's compatriot So Yeon Ryu, South Africa's reigning British Open champion Ashleigh Buhai and Australia's first-round leader Grace Kim are two shots further back in a tie for third.
Ryu and Buhai played their rounds at nearby Kingston Heath — the tournament's co-host course — while Kim took to the fairways at Victoria.
Green's fellow West Australian major winner Minjee Lee is sixth at 5-under with a second-round 70 at Kingston Heath.
But it is Green that everyone must catch.
In February, the 25-year-old became the first woman to win a 72-hole mixed-gender tournament on any of the world's leading golf tours after romping to a four-stroke victory in the TPS Murray River at Cobram Barooga Golf Club.
A mixed-gender competition is when women and men compete against each other.
Revelling sharing the fairways with the men, Green also won the dual-gender Victorian Open the previous week and shapes as the player to beat on the Melbourne sand belt over the weekend.
Green could have been even further ahead had she converted a five-foot eagle putt at the last after almost holing out for two on the par-five 18th hole.
AAP
