Thriston Lawrence couldn’t buy a birdie on the front nine on Friday on his way to a level-par 71 in the second round of the DP World Tour’s Soudal Open at Rinkven International Golf Club in Antwerp, Belgium.

He managed to make two on the back nine, but they were counter-balanced by two bogeys in a row on 14 and 15, and he reached the halfway mark of the tournament at five-under-par in a share of ninth.

He was six strokes behind the leader, Ewen Ferguson of Scotland, who carded a bogey-free second round of seven-under 64 to move to 11-under and a three-stroke lead over England’s Marco Penge. There were six players on seven-under in a share of third, and then a two-stroke gap to Lawrence and six others on five-under in ninth.

Ferguson, the 28-year-old Scot, carded seven birdies as he completed a second successive bogey-free round. “I was in control of my ball today and when I was out of position I just got back in position and I was chipping really well, so I was always getting it up and down and that kept momentum going,” he said. “I quite enjoy when a par is a good score. I find it tough sometimes when you just need to make birdies and there’s a lot of pressure on to make birdies. So when it’s quite tough like that to grind out pars, I feel comfortable with that because that’s how I was brought up playing and in Scotland par is a brilliant score.”

Three other South Africans made the cut to join Lawrence for some weekend action: Thomas Aiken signed for a two-under 69 to move to three-under through 36 holes and a share of 21st; Robin Williams had a fine four-under-par 67 to get to a share of 37th on two-under; and Casey Jarvis made a two-under 69 to join Williams in 37th.

Brandon Stone, Jayden Schaper, Wilco Nienaber, Ryan van Velzen, Richard Sterne, Jacques Kruyswijk, Zander Lombard, Ockie Strydom, Deon Germishuys and Dylan Naidoo all missed the cut. Louis de Jager retired from the tournament.