The laconic Norris can often start a round with one putting grip. And usually finish it with another. Conventional, reverse, claw ... he uses them all. Sometimes from hole to hole.

"I was switching between three different grips with my putting ... I've had the yips for a couple of years," Norris laughed after the second round of the Fiji International. "I can switch three times in a round if it's bad. It's interesting.

"[On Friday] I yipped all but about eight putts. It was quite amazing ... I switched back to backhand [after nine holes] because it was bit ordinary, but I'm trying to go to conventional handed.

"I want to putt conventional handed, but if I can tense I change. I yipped about 3 putts into the hole from six foot or less ... just a day that worked well.

"[Mini golf is] just a way of having a bit of fun off the course. You can stay in your room and get bored and think too much about what's happening on the golf course. They had terrible putters at the hotel so I pulled my own out of the bag to use."

Wondering what grip he will employ on the green is not so difficult when the 44-year-old chipped in not once - but twice - during his wild four-under 68 on Friday at the Vijay Singh-designed Natadola Bay on Friday.

The second came on the 18th hole - "hardest shot of the day which would have rolled back to my feet if I left it short" - shooting him into a four-way tie at the top of the leaderboard at seven-under with Scott Hend, Kiwi Daniel Pearce and Malaysia's Gavin Green.

Yet all anyone wanted to talk about was his putting yips.

Norris has just quit 18 months of work in the pro shop at The Grange Golf Club, the result of a tired body which no longer favours being on his feet all day. Funnily enough, his body has given him much more trouble.

Norris had a couple of near death experiences playing in Queensland during his journeyman career - one the result of a sickening bicycle crash at Coolum a decade ago which doctors warned would have killed him if his nose had been driven a centimetre further back into his skull. That was followed by a meningitis scare in 2013.

His nose and jaw problems, in particular, will never go away.

"I broke my jaw in 14 places so it's always going to be a problem," Norris said. "I've always got jaw problems, but [I'm] here to talk about it which is a good thing."

And he might have much more talking to do if he can somehow stake a claim for the $250,000 first prize purse on Fiji's Coral Coast, which would be a life-changing result for the world No.1227, whose last significant win came in the 2010 Victorian Open.

"I might only have a few years left at 44 and I've been whinging a bit about losing distance," Norris said. "The boys are picking on me so [I] need to get fitter and hit it longer. [But] it's good fun, always good to be in contention. My goal is a top 10 at the end of the week."