The second round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge was suspended yesterday because of lightning and a waterlogged golf course.

Play was first suspended at 11:49 because of a thunderstorm, and it wasn’t able to resume as the Gary Player Country Club was soaked by consistent rain throughout the afternoon.

The second round will resume today at 07:45, with the third round to follow after its completion.

New Zealander Ryan Fox and England’s Luke Donald are currently tied for the lead on eight under par through three holes of their second rounds. They are two strokes clear of Ross Fisher, Rasmus Højgaard and Guido Migliozzi, who also have yet to complete their second rounds.

Richard Sterne is currently the leading South African on three under par through 11 holes.

David Williams, the tournament director for the DP World Tour, says they have every intention of completing four rounds but are clearly under pressure from the weather.

“We’ll restart at 07:45 everywhere on the golf course and they’ll finish their rounds and then go straight into the third round. In that way, we’re probably going to save at least two hours, and with the forecast on Saturday not looking good we need to grab every means to get as much play complete.

“Hopefully if everything goes right, we might get the third round done on Saturday. A lot of it is up in the air and we’ll have to see what the weather throws at us. If we get through the third round, we’d certainly want to complete four rounds.

“The forecast is not good for the weekend so we’ll be watching it all closely and trying to make any plans we can to keep this tournament the great success that it always is.”