Adam Scott surges at Australian Open, Purcell in top 20

Adam Scott grabbed a share of the lead at the Australian Open with a sparkling seven-under 63 today as headline act Cameron Smith scraped in above the cut after another messy round on Melbourne's 'Sandbelt'.

Major winner Hannah Green led the women's component of the inaugural dual gender event after firing a six-under 66 at Victoria Golf Club, with South Korea's former world number one Shin Jiyai lurking two shots behind.

With his putter on fire on a sun-drenched afternoon, 2009 champion Scott capped his bogey-free round by curling in an eagle putt from off Victoria's 18th green to trigger a huge roar from the gallery.

The former world number one strutted to the clubhouse two strokes adrift of overnight leader David Micheluzzi, but the unheralded local surrendered the outright lead with bogeys on 16 and 18 at Kingston Heath, the other of the two courses in play.

Scott and Micheluzzi, who shot a second round 71, were tied on an eight-under total of 134, three strokes ahead of American Gunner Wiebe, New Zealand's Josh Geary and Western Australian Haydn Barron.

Irishman Conor Purcell shot 72 to slip back to two under but was still in a share of 16th.

Full Leaderboard

After a bogey-strewn 71 at Kingston Heath on Thursday, Scott said he toned down the aggression."I really felt like I had to .... not take any chances, not push anything. If it was tricky at all, to play safe," he said. "I executed most of the day."

A wayward Smith teed off in the morning and flirted with an early exit as he laboured through a second consecutive one-over round.

His 73 at Kingston Heath on Friday was weighed down by five bogeys, leaving him right on the cut-line at two-over.

With a second cut after Saturday leaving only the top 30 players for Sunday, Smith