Christiaan Bezuidenhout played himself into contention on Friday with a three-under-par 68 in the second round of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.

At four-under-par through the halfway mark, Bezuidenhout was in a share of seventh, just four strokes off the lead. Up front, the surprise first-round leader, Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela, had a two-stroke advantage through 36 holes at eight-under after his second round of one-under-par 70.

But for a bogey on the 17th – right in the middle of the notorious ‘Green Mile’, the closing three holes at Quail Hollow – Bezuidenhout could have been even closer to the top of the leaderboard. He left his chip on the par-three second-last hole nearly seven metres short of the flag, and two-putted from there.

However, his four birdies before that, on four, five, 10 and 15, had set him up for a weekend that could bring him his best result in a major championship. He has made just one cut in five attempts at the PGA Championship, and missed the last three, so this is already a major step in the right direction.

He was joined in a share of seventh by countryman Garrick Higgo, who had a second successive two-under-par 69 as he confirmed that he has returned to the kind of form South African fans had come to expect of him after his stellar introduction to action on the international stage.

Thriston Lawrence, Daniel van Tonder, Dean Burmester and Erik van Rooyen all missed the cut.