Charl Schwartzel was one of the earlier finishers in Friday’s weather-ruined second round of the Joburg Open, but the defending champion now faces an anxious wait to see if he will be exiting the tournament at the halfway stage.

Schwartzel struggled around the East Course for a first-round 72 and then shot a three-under-par 68 on the easier West Course on Friday in what he termed a “mental struggle”.

The Masters champion is therefore on three-under-par overall, in a tie for 56th and on the cut line. But more than half the field still have to complete their second rounds, with a dozen golfers yet to even start when thunderstorms prevented any further play being possible after 1.37pm – ironically exactly the same time as when play was halted on the first day.

Schwartzel does, however, have previous experience of battling around the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club but somehow winning. Last year he was complaining about his swing but still managed to triumph by a whopping four strokes.

“It is a mental struggle when you play like this. It’s pretty easy when things are going your way, but on days like this it becomes a mental battle. I felt I hung in well, I didn’t get down on myself. It would have been easy to lose my temper, but so early in the year, there’s no point. The only way through it is to play, and hopefully I can get into the weekend,” Schwartzel said.

While other major champions have quickly recused themselves from press conferences on days when they have struggled, the ultra-professional Schwartzel was only too happy to front up to the media and explain his struggles. With such impressive character, no wonder he doesn’t buckle under the pressure of being four behind down the closing stretch at Augusta.

The 27-year-old said it was his putting that was proving to be his biggest bugbear.

“It’s always guesswork when you come off a break and competitive golf is always different. But to get straight on to the point, my putting let me down. You’re not going to be doing very well on a course where you should be going for birdies if you have 34 putts. Today I hit 17 greens in regulation but I was just three-under, so it was not my best effort,” Schwartzel said.

The seven-time European Tour winner said it was his putting stroke that was causing him problems.

“In normal competition the greens aren’t so quick as in tournament golf and it feels like I’m hitting everything off-line. I’m not stroking the ball properly and I don’t have that rhythm you get from playing tournament golf week in, week out. And once you hit a few off-line, you start doubting yourself, which makes it worse,” Schwartzel said.

At the moment, Schwartzel is a hefty eight strokes behind leader Robert Rock, but a top-class round like the 61 he shot on Friday last year or the 63 in the first round of the 2010 event will give him a real chance of completing a hat-trick of Joburg Open wins.

“There’s still a long way to go and at least I’m hitting the ball well tee-to-green and giving myself chances. I just need like a 63 to get some momentum going. If I shoot that, I’ll be in with a chance,” Schwartzel said.