After struggling through day one at The Metropolitan course in Melbourne in the afternoon and registering a five-over 77 to sit 10 shots off the lead, he needed a dramatic turnaround.

Teeing off in one of the earliest groups away on day two, the Bathurst player would have been hoping to take advantage of still conditions and fight his way back towards par.

Aside from a positive start that saw him claw back to four-over by the time he had completed four holes, that fight-back didn’t happen.

From there, seven bogeys blighted his round and even with all his vast experience in two-and-a-half decades playing Australia’s biggest tournaments, he couldn’t halt the slide.

In stark contrast, amateur Todd Sinott was making waves at the top of the leaderboard, and mid-way through the afternoon he had climbed into a share of the lead at six-under with Michael Wright.

Wright surged onwards and upwards, and with two holes to play sat alone at the top of the standings at nine-under, with world number two Adam Scott back in contention at four-under after his underwhelming first round.

That wouldn’t have mattered to O’Malley.

Following a birdie at four, he handed that shot straight back at five.

A couple of pars briefly steadied him, but consecutive dropped shots at eight and nine had him on the precipice of an early exit from the tournament.

At seven-over, something had to kickstart him, and at the short par three 11th a good tee shot and putt brought him back to six-over, and gave him a faint semblance of hope.

By that point the cut was being projected at two-over, so the momentum had to continue.

It didn’t.

Straight away at the 12th he went back to seven-over, and with six holes to play he would have known that his presence at the tournament was probably going to be limited to just the first two rounds.

As he had done on day one, he struggled on the way to the clubhouse, though this time he was playing the two halves of the course in sequential order.

He dropped further shots at the 15th and 16th, and finished off a forgettable couple of days with another bogey at the 18th.