Sensational Smith takes lead on   Queensland Gold Coast

Tournament: Australian PGA Championship Race to Dubai: Tournament 2 of 48 events Venue: RACV Royal Pines Resort Prize fund: A$1,500,000 Hashtag: #AusPGA

This image of Cameron Smith is displayed by courtesy of Getty Images Round Two report Defending champion Cameron Smith carded a brilliant 65 on day two of the Australian PGA Championship to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at RACV Royal Pines Resort, Queensland. The home favourite is looking to become the first player to successfully defend the title since Robert Allenby in 2001 and he is nine under at the top of a leaderboard dominated by Australians. Marc Leishman and Jake McLeod led the chasing pack, one shot clear of countrymen Matt Jager, Dimitrios Papadatos and Christopher Wood. Smith made seven birdies in his first ten holes and while McLeod opened up a two-shot lead on the back nine, a late stumble handed the initiative back to Smith. McLeod leads the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit and a win this week could secure him his European Tour playing privileges, while Leishman is looking for a first top tier win on home soil. American Harold Varner III - the 2016 champion - was at six under, a shot clear of India's Gaganjeet Bhullar, England's Andrew Johnston, and Australians David Bransdon, Paul Hayden and Anthony Quayle. Player Quotes Cameron Smith: “It was good. I thought I struck it nicely yesterday and the putts weren't quite going in. I just didn't quite have the speed yesterday. I did a little bit of extra work this morning on the green and it paid off. I was actually getting putts to the hole today, which is nice. “I knew I had to get off to a good start to kind of transfer the momentum kind of thing over. You know, got off to a great start, had a pretty crappy bogey there on whatever hole it is, four or whatever. Just a couple of errors in a row. From then on in, it was just really solid golf. “Not really, just got to go out there and let the clubs do the talking really. I'm not going to do anything extra; just go out there, same game plan as today and hopefully the putts drop again.” Marc Leishman: “Happy with the position at the moment. Lot of golf to play and the course is only getting tougher. It's starting to speed up, which is good. The sun's out, it's warm, it's only going to dry it even more. Me and Foxy (Ryan Fox) were saying it's one of those courses where if you're hitting good shots, you can make a lot of birdies, but if you're just a little bit off, it's pretty brutal. I did hit a lot of good shots and a couple of bad ones, but they didn't cause me too much damage luckily. “Like I said earlier in the week, we adjust every week. It is quite a big adjustment coming up here to completely different grass, the bermuda, and it's fairly grainy this year. They're perfect, though.  They're dead smooth, just a little slower than we're used to.  “Hopefully we all play well and fight it out, and I would love to be there at the end and hopefully in front. There's a lot of golf to go, it's only halfway done, not even halfway done. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. As long as I'm playing good and feeling good on the greens more importantly, which is good. Jake McLeod: “It's good. Hopefully I can be in the last group with Cam, which would be a good round. We haven't played a round in a long time either, so it would be nice to have a game and see where I'm at against one of the best players in the world.   “It's a bit of an up and down day and it was sort of a lot of good and a lot of bad. It was just one of those days, but the good was a bit better, so it was nice to have a couple under today.” Round Two Scores par 144 (2x72) players from Australia unless stated otherwise 135 C Smith 70 65 136 J McLeod 66 70, M Leishman 68 68 137 D Papadatos  67 70, M Jager 66 71, C Wood 71 66 138 H Varner Iii (USA) 69 69 139 A Quayle 70 69, D Bransdon 71 68, P Hayden 72 67, A Johnston (Eng) 70 69, G Bhullar (India) 69 70 140 R Allenby 70 70, O Farr (Wales) 71 69, M Goggin 68 72 141 B Eccles 70 71, J Scrivener 68 73, J Eom (S Korea) 67 74, A Cockerill (Canada) 72 69, S Brazel 70 71 142 D McKenzie 73 69, R Gibson 72 70, M Millar 72 70, F Droop 73 69, J Zunic (Aus) 70 72, P Senior  72 70, N Flanagan 69 73, D Klein 68 74, D Huizing (Netherlands) 73 69, D Jordan 69 73, P Cooke 73 69, D Fox 73 69, N Taylor (Canada) 74 68, M Wright  72 70, J Felton 69 73, T Murray (Eng) 69 73, A Wilkin 73 69, T Merritt (USA) 71 71, H Endycott 70 72, G Paddison (NZ) 70 72 143 J Thomson (Eng) 72 71, M Stieger  74 69, J Geary (NZ) 72 71, B Becker 70 73, S Allan 70 73, C Ross (Sco) 71 72, M Griffin 72 71, R Pampling 74 69, R Paratore (Ita) 73 70, R Gouveia (Portugal) 69 74, B Proverbs 71 72, A Connelly (Canada) 72 71, S Hawkes 70 73, A Edge 73 70, T Pilkadaris 69 74 144 R McGowan (Eng) 71 73, A Knappe (Ger) 70 74, S Crocker (USA) 73 71, J Norris  70 74, J Morrison (Eng) 69 75, H Joannes (Belgium) 72 72, Z Murray  70 74, M Brown (NZ) 71 73, J Munro 73 71, T Stewart  70 74, R Evans (Eng) 72 72, D Gale  70 74, D Beck  73 71, A Hall  70 74, M McCardle  76 68, R Fox (NZ) 69 75 145 J Lee 73 72, C John 70 75, C Luck 69 76, R Sondjaja 72 73, B Clementson 75 70, W Ormsby 72 73, N Green 73 72, D Lawson  76 69, M Nixon (Eng) 72 73, A Pike 72 73, A Burdett 73 72, H Sturehed (Swe) 72 73, S Jeffress 69 76, A Townsend  73 72, G Green (Malaysia) 71 74, A Bland 70 75 146 R Green  71 75, J Nitties 74 72, D Smail (NZ) 75 71, G Ogilvy 73 73, J Younger 74 72, R Lynch 73 73, Y Yuan (China) 70 76, A Otaegui (Spn) 68 78, M Kim (S Korea) 72 74, P O'Malley 73 73, D Williamson  71 75, A Price 69 77, K Muir (NZ) 73 73, B Moules 70 76, D Stewart (Sco) 73 73, 147 C Davis  75 72, J Mullaney 77 70, M Hendry (NZ) 74 73, S Laycock  73 74, J Higginbottom  73 74, G Chalmers 73 74, J Marchesani  74 73 148 S Lee (Fiji) 73 75, D Nisbet 75 73, K Pratt 74 74, R Chisnall (NZ) 70 78, P Maddy (Eng) 70 78, M Brown  73 75, T Macdonald 71 77, H Ellis (Eng) 74 74, T Hart  75 73, S Hend 76 72, Z Chen (China) 73 75, R Macintyre (Sco) 74 74, A Blyth 70 78 149 D Boote (Wales) 72 77, L Herbert  80 69, R Kulacz 75 74, D Gavins (Eng) 73 76, J Senior (Eng) 71 78, E Ferguson (Sco) 76 73, N Cullen 76 73, A Marchesani  76 73 150 M Lisk 75 75, M Hoey (NIre) 78 72, J Senden 72 78, M Perry (NZ) 77 73, 151 C Duke 75 76, D Pearce (NZ) 74 77, C Sharvin (NIre) 78 73 152 D Brandt-Richards 76 76, D Cooke (USA) 73 79, M Iten (Switz) 74 78, R Bourke 74 78, J Wilson 77 75, B Rankin  75 77 153 M Fraser 80 73, A Stephens 77 76, M Guyatt  76 77, C Syme (Sco) 77 76 154 G Twyman (Eng) 77 77, C Rawson (NZ) 76 78, C Crawford 76 78, J Anstiss (NZ) 76 78, P Wilson 74 80 155 R Dawson (Ire) 80 75 157 C Berardo (Fra) 80 77 168 A Murdaca 84 84 ** T Moses  82 WD,