The performance took the 18-year-old to equal fifth on the leaderboard at 137, seven under par, and four strokes behind Caboolture’s Nisbet (133).

Higginbottom’s 67 was the second-best round on day two, highlighted by eagles on the par-five ninth and 16th holes.

Nisbet followed his opening round of 65 with 68 yesterday to remain one shot ahead of Germany’s Marcel Schneider (66-68), who won the Australian Amateur last week, and Nathan Holman (66-68) from Woodlands.

Toronto’s Callan O’Reilly is the leading Hunter hopeful in fourth place at eight under after he followed his round of 67 on Thursday with 69.

Higginbottom said last night that he was confident he could chase down the leaders if he could produce his best golf over the weekend.

‘‘They’re in good form as Schneider won the Aussie Amateur and Nisbet was second, so they’ll be tough to beat,’’ Higginbottom said.

‘‘But we’ll see what happens.

‘‘If I go out there and hole a few putts I should be all right.

‘‘If I said to myself I’d be seven under at the halfway mark, I’d be happy with myself.’’

The perfect scoring conditions of the opening two days are expected to deteriorate slightly today and tomorrow, but Higginbottom does not expect that to favour himself and O’Reilly, who have more experience on the seaside course. ‘‘Rain and wind will definitely make the conditions more difficult, but I still believe there will be low scores out there,’’ he said. ‘‘Everything is soft so you can attack the pins.

‘‘All the top players have played the course a few times and it’s not a difficult course with knowing where to hit it, so being local won’t help too much.’’

Lakes member Theodore Coroneo shot the round of the day, a seven-under 65.

The faultless display included seven birdies on the second, fourth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 16th and 17th holes, but the Sydneysider is still six strokes off the lead.

Belmont local Chris Smith is 138, six under par, after rounds of 68-70, Scone’s Nathan Waters is 140 (72-68) and Belmont’s Daniel Buyers is 141 (73-68).