<image="1" align="right" />Aaron Townsend's course record-equalling 64 on Friday will go down as one of the all-time great rounds at Huntingdale.
But it must also rank among the greatest of all turnarounds.
Required to front at the crack of dawn on Friday to complete five holes from his rain-interrupted first round, Townsend made a horrible mess of it.
One-under through his first 13, he finished bogey, bogey, par, bogey, bogey for a confidence-deflating 75.
"I was looking forward to coming out early and playing the holes that I had on, and don't know whether I was still half-asleep or it just didn't happen," Townsend said.
"I just made lots of mental errors, that's all it was."
"Every time I made a decision, I went with the wrong choice; I just picked the wrong club every time."
"I walked off the golf course shaking my head, not knowing what had happened; I was caught in a daze."
With just 25 minutes to prepare before starting his second round, the 27-year-old Novocastrian had no time to mull over his misfortune.
He focused instead on the fundamentals which helped him to achieve a breakthrough victory in the New South Wales Open on the Von Nida Tour earlier this month.
Four hours, nine birdies and just the one bogey later, he had joined Nick O'Hern among several others as the course-record holder, but more importantly, his faith and self-belief had been reaffirmed.
"I had a great day with the putter, hit a lot of good shots and managed to make a few putts," Townsend said.
"I'm just going out there and trusting what I've got and hitting plenty of good shots and just going for it."
"With the win a couple of weeks ago I've got a new-found confidence – I've got a good feel for it at the moment."
At five-under, going into the weekend alongside the likes of tournament favourite and two-time Masters Champion Robert Allenby, Townsend expects to be right in the hunt.
"I'll go out with exactly the same (mindset)," he said.
"I'll play with the same aggressiveness as I showed today – I'll just keep that up."