Charl Schwartzel will take a one-shot lead into the weekend after firing an excellent bogey-free 63 on day two of the South African Open.
The 2011 Masters champion is looking for a first win since 2016 and made six birdies and a spectacular eagle over the Bushwillow Course at Randpark Golf Club to get to 12 under.
Zambian Madalitso Muthiya was at 11 under, a shot clear of 2010 Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, fellow South African Zander Lombard and America's Kurt Kitayama.
Birdies at the first and fifth helped Schwartzel turn in 33 and he was edging into contention after further gains on the 11th, 12th and 14th.
A long putt on the 16th had him within one of the lead and despite having to lay up on the 17th after a poor tee-shot, he spun his third into the cup on the par five for an eagle.
The South African has six top fives without a victory at his home open and was refusing to get carried away after seeing some recent good form fail to yield a victory.
“I still can’t figure out why I’m not getting the performances I need, even after that round,” he told europeantour.com.
“I’ve had a few tournaments where I’ve played well like this, so I’m not going to talk too much yet.
“There’s lots of golf to play. All I know is I’m playing well. I’m driving the ball well and I haven’t been doing that consistently.”
Muthiya carded a 68 on the Firethorn Course, a score matched by Lombard on the Bushwillow. Kitayama registered a 69 on the Bushwillow, with Oosthuizen battling to a 70 on the Firethorn.
For Gavin Moynihan a second round 69 was an improvement on his opening 75 but still a long way off what he needed to make the cut as he finished at two over par while Neil O’Briain also improved to a 69 but also missed the cut at three over.
England's Matt Wallace was playing alongside Oosthuizen and he signed for a 69 to sit at eight under.
Collated second round scores in the European Tour South African Open hosted by the City of Johannesburg, Randpark GC, Johannesburg, South Africa (Britain unless stated, Irish in bold, par 71):
Bushwillow Course
130 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 67 63
132 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 63 69, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 64 68
137 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 69 68, Shaun Norris (Rsa) 70 67, Robert Macintyre 70 67, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 70 67, Romain Langasque (Fra) 69 68, Ewan Ferguson 69 68
138 Duane Keun (Rsa) 71 67, Alex Haindl (Rsa) 69 69, Max Schmitt (Ger) 66 72, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 68 70, Daniel Greene (Rsa) 70 68, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 67, Jake Roos (Rsa) 66 72, Wilco Nienaber (a) (Rsa) 69 69, Callum Mowat (Rsa) 71 67
139 Jacques Blaauw (Rsa) 70 69, Steven Brown 71 68, Neil Schietekat (Rsa) 72 67, Keith Horne (Rsa) 71 68, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 73 66, CJ Du Plessis (Rsa) 70 69, Alexander Knappe (Ger) 73 66, Jack Harrison 68 71, Matias Calderon (Chi) 68 71
140 Michael G Palmer (Rsa) 70 70, Laurie Canter 72 68, David Gleeson (Aus) 75 65, Deon Germishuys (a) (Rsa) 70 70, Yurav Premlall (a) (Rsa) 73 67, John Catlin (USA) 70 70
141 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 69, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 72 69, Rourke Van Der Spuy (Rsa) 73 68, Keenan Davidse (Rsa) 73 68, Steve Surry 71 70, Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa) 70 71
142 Merrick Bremner (Rsa) 68 74, Jaco Ahlers (Rsa) 71 71, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 71 71, David Borda (Spa) 70 72, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 71
143 Yubin Jung (Rsa) 70 73, Malcolm Kokocinski (Swe) 75 68, (a) Louis Albertse (Rsa) 73 70, Yan-wei Liu (Chn) 71 72, Jared Harvey (Rsa) 72 71, Viraj Madappa (Ind) 75 68, Nick Cullen (Aus) 75 68, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 71 72, MJ Viljoen (Rsa) 72 71, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 72 71, Luke Jerling (Rsa) 75 68, Vaughn Groenewald (Rsa) 69 74, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 70 73, Scott Gregory 74 69
144 Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita) 74 70, (a) Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 69 75, Jack Singh Brar 74 70, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 73 71, Heinrich Bruiners (Rsa) 71 73, Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 75 69, Christiaan Basson (Rsa) 73 71, Lionel Weber (Fra) 76 68, Colin Nel (Rsa) 71 73, Herman Loubser (a) (Rsa) 74 70, Oliver Farr 74 70
145 Ockie Strydom (Rsa) 71 74, (a) Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Spa) 70 75, Espen Kofstad (Nor) 75 70, Connor Syme 73 72, Max Orrin 73 72, Steven Lecuyer (Can) 72 73, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 73 72, Neil O'Briain (Irl) 76 69
146 Dean O’riley (Rsa) 74 72, Chase Koepka (USA) 76 70, Hyo-won Park (Kor) 75 71, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 70 76, Philip Eriksson (Swe) 75 71, Minkyu Kim (Kor) 72 74
147 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 73 74, Fezekile Kana (Rsa) 73 74, Ruan Ger Smidt (Rsa) 72 75, Liam Johnston 76 71, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 78 69, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 78 69, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 73 74, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 74 73, Ross McGowan 71 76, Michael Hoey 75 72
148 Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 75 73
149 Bryce Myburgh (Rsa) 75 74, Keelan Africa (Rsa) 73 76, Jake Higginbottom (Aus) 79 70, Breyten Meyer (Rsa) 73 76
150 Tyrone Ryan (Rsa) 78 72, Makhetha Mazibuko (Rsa) 78 72, Berry Henson (USA) 80 70, Casey O’Toole (USA) 75 75, Wynand Dingle (Rsa) 73 77
151 Bowen Xiao (Chn) 76 75, Marthin Scheepers (Rsa) 78 73, Kyle Barker (Rsa) 78 73, Conway Kunneke (Rsa) 80 71
152 Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor) 78 74, Luke Joy 79 73, Riekus Nortje (Rsa) 75 77, Cameron Moralee (a) (Rsa) 80 72, Altaaf Bux (Rsa) 77 75, Doug McGuigan 78 74, James Kamte (Rsa) 75 77, Morten Orum Madsen (Den) 76 76
153 Jonathan Agren (Swe) 80 73
154 Khalin Joshi (Ind) 74 80
155 (a) Matt Saulez (Rsa) 80 75, Pavit Tangkamolprasert (Tha) 81 74
156 Marc Cayeux (Zim) 80 76
Firethorn Course
131 Madalitso Muthiya (Zam) 63 68
132 Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 62 70
133 Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 66 67, Mark Williams (Zim) 65 68
134 Matt Wallace 65 69, Branden Grace (Rsa) 66 68
135 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 67 68, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 70 65
136 Daniel Van Tonder (Rsa) 69 67, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 66 70, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 67 69
137 (a) Jovan Rebula (Rsa) 67 70, Anton Haig (Rsa) 68 69, Jeff Winther (Den) 68 69, Ernie Els (Rsa) 66 71, Bryce Easton (Rsa) 68 69
138 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 69 69, Anthony Michael (Rsa) 67 71, David Mcintyre (Rsa) 66 72, Matthew Nixon 69 69, Tyrone Ferreira (Rsa) 65 73, Stuart Manley 67 71
139 Andre Nel (Rsa) 71 68, Marc Warren 68 71, Oliver Wilson 73 66, Tom Murray 66 73, Callum Shinkwin 68 71, Joel Girrbach (Swi) 70 69, Henric Sturehed (Swe) 68 71
140 Matthew Jordan 67 73, Chris Paisley 70 70, Jarin Todd (USA) 68 72, Jake Redman (Rsa) 68 72, JJ Senekal (Rsa) 70 70, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 67 73, Austin Connelly (Can) 69 71, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 70
141 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 68 73, Justin Harding (Rsa) 69 72, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 72 69, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 71, Michael Hollick (Rsa) 70 71, Dawie Van Der Walt (Rsa) 69 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 66 75, Lyle Rowe (Rsa) 72 69, Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 68 73, David Lipsky (USA) 69 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 67 74
142 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 67 75, Simon Forsstrom (Swe) 71 71, Justin Walters (Rsa) 70 72, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 72 70, Jaco Prinsloo (Rsa) 73 69, Louis Ger Jager (Rsa) 71 71, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 69 73, Baejong Park (Kor) 71 71
143 Desne Van Den Bergh (Rsa) 71 72, Guido Migliozzi (Spa) 69 74, Jean-Paul Strydom (Rsa) 73 70, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 70 73, Ryan Cairns (Zim) 68 75, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 70 73, Mitch Waite 70 73, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 71 72, Sean Crocker (USA) 71 72, Stephen Ferreira (Por) 70 73
144 Ben Evans 68 76, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 68 76, Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 71 73, George Coetzee (Rsa) 71 73, Daniel Gavins 74 70, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 70 74, Michiel Bothma (Rsa) 70 74, Duncan Stewart 68 76, Andre Ger Decker (Rsa) 72 72, Miguel Angel Carballo (Arg) 71 73, Per Langfors (Swe) 68 76, Rhys West (Rsa) 70 74, Scott Vincent (Zim) 72 72
145 Toto Thimba Jnr (Rsa) 73 72, Clement Sordet (Fra) 72 73, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 70 75, Allister Ger Kock (Rsa) 74 71, Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa) 73 72, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 72 73, Thriston Lawrence (Rsa) 70 75, S Chikkarangappa (Ind) 74 71, Chris Cannon 73 72
146 Rhys Enoch 73 73, Andrew Curlewis (Rsa) 74 72, Derick Petersen (Rsa) 75 71, Grant Forrest 72 74, Paul Peterson (USA) 70 76, Scott Jamieson 76 70, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 72 74, Ryan Evans 72 74, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 72 74
147 Marco Iten (Swi) 76 71, Roberto Lupini (Rsa) 72 75, Ruan Conradie (Rsa) 72 75
148 Ruan Korb (Rsa) 72 76, Franklin Manchest (Rsa) 75 73
149 Joseph Dean 71 78, Francois Coetzee (Rsa) 73 76, Kyle Pilgrim (USA) 76 73, (a) Christo Lamprecht (Rsa) 72 77, Jack Senior 72 77, Musiwalo Nethunzwi (Rsa) 73 76
150 Titch Moore (Rsa) 72 78, Pieter Moolman (Rsa) 74 76
151 Borja Virto (Spa) 75 76
152 Nicholaus Frade (a) (Rsa) 71 81
153 Leon Visser (Rsa) 75 78, Jabulani Mabulani (Rsa) 74 79
154 Wallie Coetsee (Rsa) 73 81, Fredrik From (Swe) 75 79
155 Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 76 79
