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.

England’s Robert Rock is feeling more and more comfortable in South Africa and also with his recent positions at the top of leaderboards around the world.

All of which makes his current position atop the Joburg Open leaderboard – on 11-under-par after a second-round 67 – all the more ominous for the rest of the field in the co-sanctioned European Tour/Sunshine Tour event.

Rock had to complete his last three holes of his weather-interrupted first round from 6.45am and promptly birdied 17 and 18 to complete a marvellous 65 on the tougher East Course. After a short break and some breakfast, the 34-year-old began his second round and almost immediately went into the lead with an eagle on the par-five second hole. Three birdies in a row from the 13th then sealed his position at the top, one shot ahead of South Africans Branden Grace and Jbe’ Kruger.

Rock has been coming to South Africa for the co-sanctioned events for the last eight years and has been steadily improving his results.

“When you start to play the same tournaments at the same venues, you can start planning your shots into the greens because you’re familiar with the putts, you start to remember the lines, and it’s a big help.

“They’re always good courses when you play tournaments in South Africa and that’s what interests me, I prefer that to massive prizefunds,” Rock said.

The Belfry-based golfer has also won more than 2.3 million euro in the last three years, winning the Italian Open last year and then finishing eighth in the lucrative, season-ending Dubai World Championship.

“I played some of my best golf in Dubai to finish eighth in a great field and my game started to turn around last year, especially my iron play. I also started putting well – I can be a bit hit-and-miss with the putting.

“So I hoped I would start this year where I left off last year and it was similar. When I saw I was leading, it did not bother me too much, whereas normally I would be thinking ‘what do I do now?’ But I led basically all the way through in Italy and it feels better to be in that position now,” Rock said.

After a 4.30am wake-up call on Friday, Rock at least knows he’ll be going off at a far more civilised hour when he starts his third round.

“I don’t like those 4.30 alarms, the aim is to play your way out of those. But I guess weather delays are part of the scene this time of the year over here …

“I played really well in the Pro-Am, so I was hopeful. I then had a great round on the harder course to shoot seven-under, but I didn’t play as well today, but managed to get a score.

“My whole game is good – I drove every fairway, bar one; I hit most if not all of the greens and I hit some irons to tap-in length. It’s been a stress-free couple of rounds, what more could I wish for?” Rock said.

Now that he knows how, Rock could go all the way and claim his second European Tour title in seven months.

Brandan Grace was considered one of the nation’s brightest prospects when he turned pro in 2007, but the 23-year-old has just one victory to his name on the Sunshine Tour and has only just regained his card for a second attempt on the European Tour.

But the George-based golfer gave glimpses of his talent on Friday as he fired a five-under-par 66 to move to 10-under-par overall in the Joburg Open, just one stroke behind the current leader, the Englishman Robert Rock.

Earlier in the week, Grace won the Gary Player Trophy for the best stroke average in the 2011 Sunshine Tour season, marking him out as perhaps the most consistent golfer on tour.

Grace is not dissimilar in build to world number one Luke Donald and clearly sings from the same song sheet when it comes to what he wants from his game.

“It’s nice to know that I am consistent, although it is a bit frustrating that I just have the one win. But Luke Donald also doesn’t have the most wins on tour, but he’s really consistent.

“Sooner or later, consistency will pay off and it’s nice to be contending. I think I’m close to winning a big tournament, I feel my game is there,” Grace said on Friday after his round.

Grace is not just daring to dream about adding to his 2010 triumph at the Coca-Cola Championship at Fancourt: His game is on the up and his stats are getting better every year.

“I’ve improved every year on the Order of Merit and last year’s eighth-place finish was my best. It was just my putting and my short game that was holding me back. But my putting has improved, I’m making longer putts these days and I’m more likely to give myself chances in the main events. My game is much better and I’ve just got to keep my head down and go for it,” Grace said.

A relaxed Grace said he was “in the position where I want to be” after two rounds, although almost half the field has been left singing in the rain after play was once again suspended on Friday afternoon, uncannily at 1.37pm – exactly the same time as the weather delay began on the first day.

While the former member of the Ernie Els Foundation lost his European Tour card in 2009, an 11th-place finish at Q-School has provided a ray of hope as he is back on the main tour again this year.

Part of the problem may have been that the younger Grace had trouble with authority and his rapid rise to prominence after winning the Freddie Tait Cup for leading amateur at the 2007 SA Open all perhaps came too quickly.

“The first time I was on the European Tour, it all happened very quickly and, in terms of my golf and mentally, I wasn’t really ready. But my game is in a much better state now and I’ve grown as a player,” he said.

Grace said he will also be more focused this year.

“I’m going to do a lot of things differently. I’m going to concentrate harder, practise more and take nothing for granted. I’m really looking forward to the year.”

Now could just be the time for Grace to deliver on all that undoubted potential.

For two South Africans, their tactic of not thinking about shooting low bore fruit on Thursday as they positioned themselves up with the leaders after the first round of the Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club.

Desvonde Botes produced the round of the day with a fabulous seven-under-par 65 on the tougher East Course to claim second place behind leaders Damian McGrane and Jamie Elson, who both shot 63s on the West Course, which translates to eight-under-par.

George Coetzee went out in the morning and laid a marker with a fine round of six-under-par 65 on the par-71 West Course.

“I played very nicely today, bogey-free and with five birdies and an eagle at the last,” Botes said. “I just tried not to think too much about posting a score. I just concentrated on having fun and hitting every shot as good as possible.”

And the Pretoria-based Coetzee had the same mantra, although for different reasons as he was under pressure to shoot low first up on the easier West Course.

“It’s tough to start on that course because you know you have to come out the blocks quickly and score well. You’re under pressure to shoot low quickly. I just had to tell myself not to worry about the score and not try to force birdies. I had to just keep the ball in play and try and pick up birdies on the par-fives. And it worked because I didn’t have a five on my card,” Coetzee said after his bogey-free round.

Botes took a lot of confidence from his previous tournaments at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington, specifically on the East Course, where he became the youngest ever winner of the SA Amateur title, beating Springbok Barry Sundelson in 1991 and becoming the youngest ever winner at 16 years and five months, 20 days younger than the previous record-holder, Ernie Els.

“As an amateur, I used to shoot rounds of around 65 here, but that’s the first time I’ve done as well as a pro. I won the SA Amateur here in 1991, on the East Course, beating Barry Sundelson, and we play here more or less every year, it’s such a great course.

“I’ve always enjoyed the East Course more, but there are a lot of scoring opportunities on the West Course. I just need to keep my head and make sure I do well tomorrow as well,” Botes said.

For Coetzee, the key on Friday is keeping himself from getting in his own way.

“At the moment, it’s impossible for me to keep out of my own head. I’m going to see the psychologist tomorrow. Last week it bothered me a lot – I’d be on my way to a reasonably good score, but then I’d get in my own way and fall back to an average score,” Coetzee said.

The 25-year-old finished in a tie for 29th on 14-under at the Africa Open, after rounds of 71-68-69-70, which was reasonable but nothing spectacular in the wake of Louis Oosthuizen’s winning score of 27-under, the second-lowest in the history of the European Tour. The record-holder is Els, who won the Johnnie Walker Classic at Lake Karrinyup in 2003 with a score of 29-under-par.

The 37-year-old Botes will be fancying his chances of going very low in the second round as well as he ended the first round in the most spectacular fashion, with a birdie on the 17th and an eagle on the par-five 18th hole.

The momentum is certainly with the tall Hartebeestpoort golfer.