Kristoffer Reitan retained his lead at the halfway stage of the 2026 Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player as Adrien Saddier mounted a strong challenge.
Reitan followed his spectacular opening 63 with a three-under-par 69 to reach 12 under par for the tournament, one shot clear of Saddier who eagled the second to kick-start a round of 67.
Saddier's fellow Frenchman Julien Guerrier shared third place on nine under with Christiaan Bezuidenhout - the leading South African, two shots ahead of Garrick Higgo and Daniel van Tonder.
Reitan picked up where he had left off on Thursday with an opening birdie and added two more in succession with a chip-in from a bunker at the fifth and a 32-foot putt at the sixth, but soon came under pressure at the summit as Saddier launched a stunning pin-high approach from a fairway bunker at the par-five second and then birdied the third, sixth and ninth.
After gains for both players at the tenth, a chip-in for Saddier at the 14th took him level at the top.
The pair were four clear of the field at that stage and though they each dropped a couple of shots on the closing stretch, Reitan birdied the last to keep himself on top.
Reitan said: “Pleased about that, happy with the bounce that I got and happy to keep the momentum up a little bit with that birdie on the last. Not a great feeling to make those back-to-back bogeys so it’s good to bounce back with a birdie on the last."
On his round overall, he said: “Pretty happy, to be honest. Started off pretty well in my opinion but struggling with the approach shots, is how I quickly review it, which give you a little bit of trouble.
“Some good short game, which saved me a few times, and towards the end I could feel how difficult it was once the approach shots weren’t really co-operating.
“Tough course but happy to finish off strong with a birdie at the last and it’s a good overall score so, happy.”
Saddier did not make his first bogey of the week until his 34th hole and he said of Friday's round: “Yeah, it was a nice day, pretty hot start. Just a pity about the finish but overall a good day, yeah.
“The second shot on two, it was quite lucky because I didn’t expect to reach the green, to be honest, I was playing to just land 10 short of the green and have an easy chip, and it went pretty hard up the face.
“Nice result, nice three – bit lucky but we’ll take it!
"My long game’s pretty solid – I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of the greens. As the greens are pretty small you’ve got a lot of birdie chances then, so I just have to keep going the next two days.”
Guerrier birdied the second and though he gave that shot back at the fifth, he made five more birdies the rest of the way - including the final two holes to move alongside Bezuidenhout, who fired a 65 containing eight birdies and a single bogey.
Guerrier, who tied for sixth in this tournament last year, said: “Very happy about my day, my iron game was much better than yesterday.
“I like it when it’s a difficult course. I made two good rounds, last year I played well and I played well (here) also in the past."
Higgo and Van Tonder were tied with South Korea's Junghwan Lee and England's Andy Sullivan on seven under with another South African, Jayden Schaper, a shot further back.
