Charl Schwartzel held a one-shot lead at the turn as a trio of former champions made their moves during the second round of the Alfred Dunhill Championship.
Christiaan Basson had set the target at eight under on day one before play was suspended due to dangerous weather conditions but he was soon reeled in on day two.
Schwartzel, Pablo Martin and Richard Sterne have had their name on the trophy in five of the last seven years at Leopard Creek Country Club and all three of them had impressive starts on Friday to move up the leaderboard.
Schwartzel, champion here in the 2005, 2013 and 2014 seasons, was playing the 18th when play was suspended on Thursday but he returned on Friday morning to claim a birdie and sit two shots behind Basson.
A quick turnaround followed and the 2011 Masters Tournament winner birdied the tenth, 12th and 18th holes in his second round to get to nine under at the turn.
"It's early days, but I'm happy," he said following his first round. "I continued with good form with my long game.
"I gave myself a chance on almost every hole, and a makeable chance. So I was in play, lurking with the chance of shooting a really low score.
"It got a bit quiet for a few holes but I'm happy that I kept hitting good shots and I finally made a few shortish putts. That ticked me on to a good score.
"My long game is really good. Maybe I'm relying on it too much, but it takes a lot of pressure off if you can hit it the way I did.
"But when it's four rounds, you're probably going to have somewhere along the line where you scrap it around a little bit and that's when the whole game needs to click in.
"That's when the short game and the putting needs to stand up and save you and that's how you win tournaments.
"It's pretty tough to play flawlessly all the time, and I expect that. But maybe I can just continue like this and then I'm sure I'll be in the hunt on Sunday."
Sterne was champion here in the 2009 campaign and he too was left stranded overnight before returning to birdie the last and get to four under.
Second-round gains followed on the 12th, 13th, 14th and 18th and he was alongside Basson and a shot off the lead after ten holes as he returns to the European Tour after an injury lay-off.
Martin finished bogey-bogey-bogey in his first round but the 2010 and 2011 champion showed no signs of a hangover with birdies at the second, fourth, ninth, 11th and 13th. A bogey followed on the 14th but the Spaniard was just two shots off the lead with four holes to play.
Matt Ford and Mark Williams were among the later starters along with Basson and they were at five under, one shot clear of Eddie Pepperell who got off to a flying start.
The Englishman followed a birdie on the 12th with an eagle on the 13th before three birdies in four holes from the 15th saw him turn in 31.
Lyle Rowe was also at four under and one under for his round through 14.
