Ockie Strydom carded a five-under-par 67 on Friday to move to the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Sunshine Tour’s Vodacom Origins of Golf event at St Francis Links.

Strydom started quietly enough from the first hole, making just a single birdie on the third hole on the front nine to turn on one-under 35. He made a bogey on the 11^th after the turn to slip back to level-par for the round, but he then embarked on something of a birdie-spree, with five in a row from the 12^th catapulting him to the top of the leaderboard ahead of the final round of the 54-hole tournament.

He led by one from Dylan Naidoo, who also had a five-under-par 67. His, however, was bogey-free. He had three birdies on the front nine and two on the back, and, at 10-under, he was one ahead of Doug McGuigan. McGuigan’s second-round five-under had eight birdies and three bogeys, and he was one clear of Hennie O’Kennedy and Keenan Davidse. There were nine players on five-under-par in a share of sixth.

Strydom has had a mixed season on the Sunshine Tour so far, with four top-10s in his 10 tournaments. That’s impressive enough, but two missed cuts recently are uncharacteristic. He had a runner-up finish – the 15^th of his career on the Sunshine Tour, incredibly – in the Lombard Insurance Classic in May, so a win at St Francis Links would be a sweet one for his second title on the circuit.