Two late blemishes have dragged Chris Wood back to the pack, but he still holds the New Zealand Open lead entering the weekend in Queenstown.
The Queenslander didn't slow down after his Remarkables Course record 10 under to open the tournament, blazing to 15 under late in his second round on the Coronet Course at the picturesque Millbrook Resort on Friday.
But a bogey on the par-3 sixth and double bogey on the eighth, when his ball found the penalty area off the green, dropped Wood back to 12 under.
A two-under 69 still arms the 2021 Victorian PGA Championship winner with a one-stroke lead over Shae Wools-Cobb (64), while Scott Hend (64) and his playing partner John Lyras (62) also made up ground.
Hend is third at 10 under while Lyras is equal-fourth with Kiwi amateur Kazuma Kobori (67), Korean Jaewoong Eom (66) and Japan's Terumichi Kakazu (66).
Asian Tour co-sanctioning and quadruple Australasian Order of Merit points are on offer, severely raising the stakes at the $A1.52 million event.
"Bit disappointing to drop three shots in the last four holes but not complaining too much," Wood said.
"If I can keep some bogeys off the scorecard I'm probably going to have three or four birdies a round minimum."
Sixty-eight players finished inside the cut-line of four under with TPS Hunter Valley champion Brett Coletta, former NZ Open champs Dimi Papadatos and Matthew Griffin and WA Open champion Deyen Lawson among the big names to miss out.
Like Wood, Wools-Cobb played the Coronet Course on Friday morning and gave up shots at both six and eight.
And similarly to the leader he's also found early-year form, tied second at TPS Murray River and tied for seventh at TPS Hunter Valley last week.
"The last four weeks has given me a lot of confidence, the way I've been playing," Wools-Cobb said.
"I'm just going to ride that into the weekend.
"Key today was the hot start. I was hitting it pretty close early on and I was four-under through five; it just felt easy after that."
Lyras eagled his first hole then made three birdies and a second eagle in the space of six holes after the turn to get within one of Wood's course record.
"We just enjoyed each other's company," Hend said of their 16-under total.
"It wasn't a hassle playing with each other so that leads to, usually, better scoring."
Elvis Smylie (five under, tied 37th) recovered impressively when a stray ball bounced over the green and struck his foot as he was lining up a birdie putt, stepping away and then draining it on his way to a two-under 69.
The final two rounds of the NZ Open will both be played on the Coronet Course.
