Harrison Endycott is looking forward to playing alongside fellow Australian and second-round leader Haydn Barron in the final group on Moving Day after surging into contention at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.
Following an opening 68, Endycott struggled to get his second round going but eventually carded his first birdie at the eighth before picking up another shot at the tenth from six feet.
An impressive iron to four feet set up his third birdie at the 12th to help him climb alongside overnight joint-leader Zander Lombard at six under.
The 27-year-old then found the green with his tee-shot at the short par-four 16th and two-putted to become Barron's closest rival. He had a brilliant chance to cut the gap to one, but slid his birdie putt by at the last.
Endycott was later joined by Japan's Rikuya Hoshino at seven under, two shots behind Barron, and will play alongside his compatriot to finish off the third-round action at Doha Golf Club on Saturday.
"I haven't seen Haydn in years! I've spoken to him briefly this week," he said. "He's been playing well, I've been noticing a lot of the Aussies and I watch all of these guys and they are fun to play with.
"It will be good to shoot the old memories, as they say, so it should be fun."
Endycott's positive start in Qatar comes on the back of a tied for 16th finish at last week's Bahrain Championship presented by Bapco Energies after back-to-back starts on the PGA TOUR in California.
And the Australian believes he has reaped the rewards from the repetition of tournament golf over the last four weeks.
He said: "I just hit it where I needed to hit it. It felt slow the round today. I couldn't get the ball quite where I wanted it to get it to. It was really tricky to knock it in close so you kinda had to hang in there.
"It felt a bit scrappy on the front nine and then found a bit of rhythm, kept momentum going and disappointed to hit a really poor drive at the last and not make birdie but I feel I'm in a good spot going into the weekend.
"When you are playing week after week after week, the repetition and scoring gets better. I feel like my scoring around here is better than it was last week.
"It's week four for me on the road so it's like grinding out those rounds and at this point of the schedule, it feels a bit easier than week one after a five-week stretch (off the course).
"Last week definitely helped, it was nice to (play) similar playing conditions to this week as well, be able to get those reps in and hopefully make some putts on the way in."
