Aussies Jordan Zunic and Josh Younger are in position to play their way into the Final Stage of Asian Tour Qualifying School at the halfway mark of First Stage in Thailand.

The pair are among 11 Australians currently in action across the two qualifying sites, Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia regular Nick Voke the best of the four Kiwis through two rounds.

Zunic and Younger are both playing in Section F at Phoenix Gold Golf Bangkok in Thailand’s capital while Queenslanders Sam Howse and Jake McLeod are both inside the top 60 heading into Round 3 in Section F being played at the Grand Prix Golf Club’s Composite Course in Kanchanaburi.

Zunic opened with a fine 4-under 66 in Round 1 but dropped to 2-under for the week with a 2-over 72 in Round 2. Younger went the other way on day two to join Zunic in a tie for 19th, the Victorian posting a 2-under 68 on the back of an even-par 70 in Round 1.

There are currently 17 Australians already exempt into the five-round Final Stage starting January 16 with a further 40 places being held for qualifiers from the final two First Stage tournaments.

Elsewhere this week, the withdrawal of Aaron Baddeley leaves Cam Davis as the sole Australian representative at the PGA TOUR’s Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu while Kiwis Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier make their first appearances for 2024 at the DP World Tour’s inaugural Dubai Invitational.

Asian Tour Qualifying School Section E Grand Prix Golf Club (Composite Cse), Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Round 2 scores T9 Nick Voke (NZ) 67-67—134 T13 Kevin Chun (NZ) 68-67—135 T45 Brian Lee (NZ) 72-67—139 T52 Sam Howse (a) 71-69—140 T56 Jake McLeod 69-72—141 T60 Will Florimo 72-70—142 T77 Stefan Tuionetoa 70-75—145 T88 Scott Adams (NZ) 75-74—149 T88 Grant Lewis 76-73—149 T88 Daniel Park 77-72—149 100 Darshan Shivalkar (a) 80-81—161

Round 3 draw AEDT 11:30am Peter Badawy, Stefan Tuionetoa, Phuripon Namkang 12pm* Scott Adams (NZ), Grant Lewis (a), Daniel Park 12:20pm Will Florimo, Anshul Patel, Othman Raouzi 12:30pm Wanxi Sun (a), Clayton Tribus, Jake McLeod 12:40pm* Darshan Shivalkar (a), Zhao Zeyu 4:10pm Bongsub Kim, Kevin Chun (NZ), Gaurav Singh 4:30pm Nick Voke (NZ), Papito Gonzalez, Joachim Altonen 4:40pm* Junghyun Um, Jean Bekirian, Brian Lee (NZ) 4:50pm* Chunghoon Ha, Oscar Zetterwall, Sam Howse (a)

Qualifying School Section F Phoenix Gold Golf Bangkok (South & West Cse), Bangkok, Thailand

Round 1 scores T19 Jordan Zunic 66-72—138 T19 Josh Younger 70-68—138 T36 Doeun An 67-73—140 T84 Zach Maxwell 76-71—147

Round 3 draw AEDT 11am Zach Maxwell, Abhinav Lohan, Chen Wei-sheng 3:30pm Yash Majmudar, Josh Younger, Shaurya Binu 3:40pm Jordan Zunic, Sangpil Yoon, Liu Yen-Hung 3:45pm* Robbie Busher, Doeun An, Harshjeet Singh Sethie

Round 1 tee times AEDT

PGA TOUR Sony Open Waialae Country Club, Honolulu, Hawaii 10am Cam Davis, David Lingmerth, Justin Suh

Defending champion: Si Woo Kim Past Aussie winners: Bruce Crampton (1969), Brett Ogle (1994), Cameron Smith (2020) TV times: 4am-2:30pm Friday, Saturday; 7:30am-2:30pm Sunday; Live 5am-12pm Monday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.

DP World Tour Dubai Invitational Dubai Creek Resort, Dubai, UAE 4:14pm* Rory McIlroy, Ryan Fox (NZ) 5:03pm Daniel Hillier (NZ), Tom McKibbin

Defending champion: Inaugural event Past Aussie winners: Nil TV times: Live 6:30pm-11:30pm Thursday, Friday; Live 7pm-11:30pm Saturday; Live 7:30pm-11:30pm Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.