Things got a little tougher for the South Africans on Friday, and, in the end, Darren Fichardt would have been happy with his share of 16th after the second round of the Senior PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.

He carded a one-over-par 73, and it was a double-bogey six on the 14th which handicapped his run at a higher position on the leaderboard of what is only his second tournament at a senior and his first senior major championship outing.

He had made two birdies and a bogey on the front nine, before making that double-drop on 14. He birdied 16 to get one stroke back, but another dropped shot on 17 left him four strokes off the lead.

Vijay Singh, Australia’s Cameron Percy and YE Yang shared the lead at six-under after rounds of 68, 71 and 68 respectively. They were two clear of seven players in a share of fourth on four-under, a group which included Padraig Harrington. Six players were one stroke ahead of Fichardt on three-under, including last week’s first-time senior major winner, Angel Cabrera of Argentina.

With Fichardt on two-under, after a second round of two-over 74, was Keith Horne. He slipped to his second-round total with consecutive bogeys on the 17th and 18th.

Retief Goosen was in 21st on one-under after his level-par 72 in the second round, and Ernie Els was in a share of 22nd on level-par after he battled to a three-over 75.

Adilson Da Silva of Brazil missed the cut after two uncharacteristically poor rounds.