Defending champion Yurav Premlall made his intentions clear during the second round of the Vodacom Origins of Golf played at the Parys Golf & Country Estate by taking a two-shot lead on eight-under-par heading into Sunday’s final round.

South Africa’s Marcus Taylor is in second place on six-under-par with George Coetzee, England’s Joe Long and first round leader Herman Loubser, three strokes back on five-under-par.

Nadia van der Westhuizen is the leading Sunshine Ladies Tour professional on two-over-par.

Premlall started his round on the back nine but after making a bogey on the par-three 12th immediately bounced back with six consecutive birdies.

“The round was good after a slow start. I’ve been putting poorly the past couple of weeks but I stayed patient after doing a lot of work on the putting green, and it clicked today. I went on a nice run and played very solidly,” said Premlall.

Premlall is the Free State/Northern Cape regional defending champion after claiming his first title on the Sunshine Tour during this event in Kathu last year.

“It’s been a year since I last won, so it will be nice to go out and do it again tomorrow. At the end of the day, you have to go out and play golf. For tomorrow the game plan is to get the ball into play and hit as many greens as possible in order to make putts. That formula normally works well, so more of the same tomorrow.”

With play suspended on Saturday afternoon first due to lightning and then due to bad light, the second round will resume tomorrow at 7am with the final round commencing thereafter.