Matt Wallace has backed up his excellent start to the Italian Open with a second superb round to strengthen his position at the top of the leaderboard.

The 27-year-old was in a six-way share for top spot overnight after firing a seven-under-par opening round of 64 and he kicked on impressively this morning at Golf Club Milano, shooting a 65 to move to 13-under alongside Australia’s Marcus Fraser and four shots clear of the field at the time of writing.

It can be difficult to string back-to-back low rounds together, but the Moor Park professional told Sky Sports with a smile: “Good golf, that normally takes care of it. When I won in Portugal I backed up a 10-under with a seven-under, so I have done it before. But good golf today and it is perfect weather out there for us to shoot low.”

Having finished with back-to-back birdies yesterday, this year’s Open de Portugal champion carried on from where he left by making a four on the par five first and a three at the par four second to quickly move to nine-under.

Wallace was under-par on all three par fives in his first round. He repeated that trick today but went one shot better, making an eagle three at nine before again picking up a birdie at 14. And like yesterday, he also made a three at the par four 15th to sit atop the leaderboard alongside Fraser, who fired a stunning nine-under 62.

The Pinner-based professional started this week 130th in the Race to Dubai rankings but such is the level of prize money on offer at the Italian Open – it is the fifth of the European Tour’s premium category Rolex Series events – Wallace knows a high finish could be sufficient to qualify him for the final three tournaments of the year. These culminate in the DP World Tour Championship for which the top-60 in the Race to Dubai standings are eligible.

Asked what new goals he’d set himself after graduating to the European Tour by winning the Open de Portugal in May, last year’s six-time Alps Tour winner replied: “I really wanted to try and push for the last three events, but it was difficult with having less events. But we’re here this week and that’s still my goal, to try to do that. If I can keep going the way I’m playing and hopefully I can push on and try to secure that spot there.”

Moor Park club-mate Callum Shinkwin has already qualified for the end-of-season finale, largely as a result of finishing second in the previous Rolex Series event, the Scottish Open, but is set to miss the cut at one-under.

The Bushey professional shot a one-under 70 for his opening 18 holes, but had to settle for a level-par 71 after an up-and-down second round saw him make five birdies but also five bogeys to leave him in a share of 92nd currently.