Canberra's Matt Millar is targeting a top-five finish at the Australian Masters but admits he would be ''talking a bit of rubbish'' if he said he could topple defending champion Adam Scott.
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Millar is in a tie for ninth at Royal Melbourne after finishing the second round at three under par.
He's six shots behind leader Scott and conceded the US Masters champion would be almost impossible to catch at the weekend.
''Some of the shots he's hitting at the moment are phenomenal,'' Millar said.
''I'd be talking a bit of rubbish if I said that I could give him a six-shot start and chase him down, he's in great form.
''I just want to go out there and play as well as I can and if I do that there's no reason why I can't be in the top few.''
Millar, 37, finished his second round with 17 pars and one birdie.
A bad back ruined Millar's Australian Masters tournament last year, but he still managed to finish in a tie for 10th.
Now injury-free, Millar hopes the confidence he gained from the Australian PGA last week will help him rise up the leaderboard in Melbourne.
Millar finished the Australian PGA tied for 31st, but his last round of 67 was the equal best of the day. He will scale back his commitments next year to spend more time with his family and work at the Gold Creek Country Club.
Meanwhile, Scott's celebrated homecoming is proving to be a window to the future.
Following on from Jack Wilson's run at the world No.2 in last week's PGA Championship, another prodigy who grew up idolising Scott will throw down the gauntlet to his hero, this time in the final rounds of the Australian Masters. And like Wilson, young Victorian Nathan Holman is not short on confidence.
The 22-year-old showed on day two he will have the talent to compete with Scott when they pair up in the final group for Saturday's third round - not to mention a bag of local knowledge about the Royal Melbourne course, from which he lives only 10 minutes away.
Holman blazed in an equal tournament-best 65 in the second round on Friday to launch from three under overnight to the top of the field at nine under, where he will be joined by Scott.
The US Masters champion backed up his four-under 67 on Thursday with a bogey-free five-under 66 on Friday as conditions at Royal Melbourne cleared up.
It was an otherwise quiet day for the tournament's headline acts, with veteran Vijay Singh bouncing back from an indifferent round on Thursday to go into the weekend at three under, while Brendon De Jonge will start one shot further ahead at four under.
Meanwhile, Marc Leishman (even par) and Geoff Ogilvy (+1) will need stunning rounds on Saturday if they are to be a factor when the yellow jacket is awarded on Sunday.
