Jason Day knows that steady-as-she-goes won’t cut it if he hopes to push into medal contention over the final two days of the men’s Olympic golf competition at Le Golf National.

At 5-under through two rounds, Day continues to lead the way for the Australian team, while Min Woo Lee showed tremendous spirit with one of the rounds of the day in Round 2 to make significant inroads on the leaderboard.

Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Xander Schauffele (66), Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (68) and Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood (64) are tied for the lead at 11-under, two clear of Spain’s Jon Rahm (66).

Day six strokes back in a tie for 13th after a round of 3-under 68 that could have been a number of strokes better.

For the second straight day, the Queenslander opened with a birdie at the par-4 first and backed it up with a second birdie at the par-5 third.

After a run of seven consecutive pars, he picked up shots at the par-3 11th and par-4 13th, his only stumble a bogey after finding the water with his tee shot at the par-3 16th.

Admitting that he gave up shots by not making birdie at the par-5 ninth and 14th holes on Friday, Day knows that little needs to change to be hunting a medal come Sunday.

“It would have been nice to be able to capitalise on the par-5s a little bit more,” said Day, who can expect massive crowds again in Round 3 having been drawn to play with Northern Ireland superstar Rory McIlroy and Canadian Corey Conners.

“There’s only three of them, so just poor drives on 9 and 14. Other than that, it was nice work today.

“You’re trying to push, you know what I mean. You want to pick up a medal.

“I’m currently six back so we have some work to do over the weekend.”

Given the disappointment of his opening round it was an admirable performance from Lee in Round 2.

Only four players returned a scorecard better than the West Australian’s 6-under 65, elevating him 24 spots and into a tie for 34th at 1-under par.

It was a somewhat nervy start when his tee shot on one found the rough to the right of the fairway and his second came up short and right of the green.

The 26-year-old showed wonderful touch to get up-and-down and save par and then hit a laser-like iron to set up birdie at the par-3 second.

It would be the first of three straight – he narrowly missed making eagle on three – to ignite a run that he needs to maintain to bring the leading groups closer into view.

“The medal count is a long way away, I feel like these guys are good,” Lee said of the 10-shot gap between he and the leaders.

“They are probably not going to slow down so I would need to play even better than today.

“It just shows that I can shoot a low score, which is needed.

“Two more rounds like this would be very pleasing.”

After draining putts of around 30 feet for birdie at both two and four, Min Woo almost didn’t need the putter at all at the par-3 16th.

Taking dead aim, the West Australian brought the enormous galleries to their feet when his tee shot rattled the bottom of the flag before rolling back some eight feet.

He duly converted that chance to get to 5-under on his round and then made a final birdie on 17 for an 11-shot turnaround on the previous day.

“That was a good shot. It looked so pure,” Lee said of his near hole-in-one.

“It was a good club for a pitching wedge. I hit it really good and it was into the wind so it obviously ended up being a good shot.

“I thought it looked very close to dunking. It hit the pin a foot up. It was close.”

Lee tees off in Round 3 at 10:22am local time Saturday (6:22pm AEST) with Day getting his round underway at 11:44am (7:44pm AEST).

Tony Webeck is on site at Le Golf National as media liaison for the Australian team.