A freakish bounce off a tree helped Matt Fitzpatrick jump to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway mark of the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links.

The 2022 US Open champion fired an eight-under par second round 63 to move to 14-under for the tournament, one shot clear of Ryder Cup teammate Viktor Hovland.

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Harris English is four shots off the lead, while Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg and Patrick Cantlay round out the top five, five back shots back.

Fitzpatrick put on a masterclass on the greens, having only taken 44 putts across his opening two rounds of the US$20 million signature event.

The 31-year-old Englishman won this tournament three years ago, and the famous Harbour Town was clearly looking after one of its former champions with the lucky break on the par 3 14th.

Matt Fitzpatrick reacts on the 18th hole during the second round at the RBC Heritage.Source: AP

Fitzpatrick pulled his tee shot left of the green and looked set for a challenge to save par.

But his ball ricocheted off a tree and darted across the front of the green.

For a brief second it appeared that Fitzpatrick’s ball may end up in the water, but it pulled up on the fringe.

He then wowed the gallery with his red-hot putter, draining the more than 10 metre birdie chance to push further ahead of his rivals.

“Yeah, didn’t quite do what we anticipated,” he said.

“Felt like the shot I hit wasn’t great but it wasn’t that bad, and then yeah, it’s obviously nice to get those breaks. You need those in golf. It’s not always going to go your way for 72 holes. Nice to get the break and then nice to take advantage of it.”

Perhaps Harbour Town’s golf gods were looking after a player with a long history with the venue.

Post-round, Fitzpatrick spoke about how his family used to travel to South Carolina and the tournament for holidays when he was a child.

“Yeah, we just used to come — we probably came three or four times, I think, when I was younger,” Fitzpatrick said.

“A couple of times came to watch the tournament. I don’t think it was the Heritage — I don’t think it was the RBC Heritage at this point; I think it was maybe Verizon one year.

“Yeah, just really, really good memories. I remember I think I ended up getting a golf ball from Boo Weekley.

“Yeah, I just remember I stood around the putting green and hoping by chance I could get on to the putting green somehow but obviously it was never going to happen.”

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Asked in response why a family from Yorkshire in England’s north would come to the state on the south-east coast of the United States for a holiday, Fitzpatrick replied: “I played nine holes with Keegan the other day, and he asked me that.”

“I’m pretty sure my dad was — it was the early days of the internet,” he continued. “So I think he just literally, it was like Googled tennis, golf, good weather basically, and Florida was a fortune at that time, so here was a great spot. Golf was really great price. Obviously it’s a lovely area.”

Fitzpatrick shared low round of the day honours with Akshay Bhatia.

The left-hander’s 63 was ten shots better than his opening round to jump into the top 20 at six-under par overall.

Bhatia’s superb turnaround remarkably included 11 birdies with a double bogey at the par 3 seventh and a bogey at the par 5 15th the only blemishes on his scorecard.

Karl Vilips hits from the third tee during the first round at the RBC Heritage.Source: AP

Second year PGA Tour player Karl Vilips is the best of the Australians at five-under par for the tournament.

The 24-year-old shot an impressive four-under par 67 in the second round to climb into the top 30.

Meanwhile, Min Woo Lee shot a one-under 70 for the second straight day and Jason Day fell to even par overall with a 72.