Jbe’ Kruger rode his continued good form on Friday to take the second round clubhouse lead of the R2.65-million Vodacom Championship with a six-under-par 66.

It was his second consecutive good round, following his opening 65, and he had a two-stroke lead over first-round leader Branden Grace, Tjaart van der Walt and Anton Haig.

“I’m just holding tight for the ride,” said Kruger, who won his maiden title on the Sunshine Tour last year in the Zambia Open.

“I hit the ball a lot better today than I did yesterday which helped. I missed maybe two greens today, while I missed five or six yesterday,” he added.

His 66 was one of the best rounds of the morning, matched by Van der Walt and Haig in the leading group.

Van der Walt started his round on the back nine, and he came home in a superb 30, with an eagle three on the fourth and four consecutive birdies to wrap things up.

“A light comes on for me,” he said. “I just gave myself a talking to and played nicely coming home. “Momentum’s on my side. I hope I can take it into the weekend,” he added.

Grace putted well in his opening 64, but had to wait until his 11^th hole of the day – the second – for his first birdie. “I hit the ball the same as yesterday, but the only difference was the putts didn’t go in,” he said.

“I didn’t feel very comfy on the greens today. I just felt the stroke wasn’t the same and it’s something I’m going to work on now.”

Haig, on the other hand was happy with his putting for the first time in a while. “My putter was terrible the last two weeks, but today I had 28 putts and yesterday, I had about 29,” he said. “When I get the putter going, I really play well.”

Golf Scores (RSA unless specified):

-13 - Jbe' Kruger 65 66

-11 - Tjaart van der Walt 67 66, Branden Grace 64 69, Anton Haig 67 66

-10 - Mark Murless 66 68

-9 - Adilson da Silva (BRA) 69 66

-8 - Michiel Bothma 66 70, Andre Bossert (SUI) 68 68

-7 - Ryan Tipping 67 70

-6 - Jake Roos 69 69, Alex Haindl 72 66

-5 - Andrew Georgiou 69 70, Hendrik Buhrmann 71 68, Darren Blair 66 73

-4 - Andrew Curlewis 71 69, Tyrone Ferreira 70 70, Clinton Whitelaw 70 70, Dewald Smit 70 70

-3 - Matthew Carvell 72 69, Christiaan Basson 71 70, Louis de Jager 67 74, Keith Horne 72 69, Divan van den Heever 66 75, Brandon Pieters 71 70, Kevin Stone 72 69, Don Black 72 69

-2 - Garry Hill 73 69, Heinrich Bruiners 72 70, Dion Fourie 71 71, Merrick Bremner 72 70, Justin Walters 72 70, Chris Swanepoel 71 71

-1 - Francois van Vuuren 75 68, Michael du Toit 71 72, Chris Williams 72 71, Wallie Coetsee 74 69, Andre Cruse 71 72, Charl Coetzee 70 73, Attie Schwartzel 71 72

Par - Ben Hatchwell (CAN) 74 70, Derick Petersen 74 70, Darryn Lloyd 75 69, Trevor Fisher Jnr 70 74, Neil Schietekat 72 72, Oliver Bekker 77 67, Marc Cayeux (ZIM) 71 73, Derik Ferreira 71 73

+1 - Jeff Inglis (ENG) 72 73, Cameron Johnston 71 74, Prinavin Nelson 72 73, Steve van Vuuren 75 70, Neil Cheetham (ENG) 73 72, Morne Buys 72 73

+2 - Rossouw Loubser 74 72

+3 - Bennie van der Merwe 74 73, Tyrone van Aswegen 73 74, Keenan Davidse 72 75, Warrick Druian 74 73

+4 - Anthony Michael 77 71, Mike Curtis (ZIM) 72 76, TC Charamba (ZIM) 76 72

+5 - Steven Ferreira 79 70, Alain Norris 74 75, Reggie Adams 78 71, Bobby Lincoln 77 72

+6 - Johan du Buisson 73 77, Trevor Mahoney 77 73

+7 - Michael Dreyer 73 78, Gerhard Trytsman 70 81, Patrick O'Brien 77 74

+8 - Juan Langeveld 77 75, Jack Kutumane 77 75, Divan du Piesanie 72 80

+9 - Rocky Tlhabanyane 79 74

+15 - Keenan Paulsen 83 76

+20 - Taymen Erasmus 80 84

RTD - Teboho Sefatsa 79 RTD, Titch Moore 74 RTD, Dismas Indiza (KEN) 76 RTD, Ignatius Mketekete (ZIM) 74 RTD