Aldrich Potgieter remained positive despite letting his "crazy" three-shot lead slip during the second round of the BMW Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane.
The 20-year-old got off to a stunning start to his second round on Saturday, birdieing his first three holes to take the outright lead at Royal Queensland Golf Club.
He dialled in his tee shot at the par-three fourth to six feet, but could only par the hole which left the door open for three-time winner Cam Smith to move alongside him at seven under.
The young South African, who moved to Perth as a young child, was unfazed though as he picked up further shots at the fifth, seventh and ninth to reach the turn in a blemish-free 30 and sit three clear at ten under.
However, Smith's brilliant 65 coupled with bogeys at the tenth and 18th for Potgieter saw him slip two shots off the pace as the 2022 Open Championship winner and first round leader Elvis Smylie climbed to the summit at ten under with one round to play in the opening DP World Tour event of the 2025 season.
Potgieter won The Amateur Championship in 2022 at the age of 17 at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club and became the youngest ever winner on the Korn Ferry Tour last season when clinching The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic in January.
He earned his PGA TOUR card for the current campaign and is the leading non-Australian on a leaderboard which sees 11 home favourites in the top 16 in the 54-hole tournament.
"I mean this morning I just tried to go at everything and try and put a really high number up," Potgieter said."I know it's three rounds, we're pushed for time, so you don't have that.
"It's not a long-run race anymore. Now it's a sprint. Unfortunately didn't have the back nine that I wanted, but we still got another day and we're up there. So I'm pretty happy.
"It was crazy seeing the leaderboard after five or six holes where I was sitting at, but we just try to do the same thing, keep it out in front of us.
"Obviously the wind switches on this back nine is playing into the wind on every hole, so it's a different golf course. So we just try to take advantage and be careful still at the same time.
"We've done what we wanted to do this year. Obviously there's a lot of world ranking points if you win here and there's a lot of good things that can come from this win.
"But yeah, we're just trying to play the same, try and play golf tournament that we always try and do so, but definitely no pressure to do anything."
