South Africa Branden Grace replaced Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts at the top of the leaderboard after the second round of the Volvo Golf Champions.

It was an excellent day for South African golf fans in general as every one of the local players in the field finished the day under par.

Colsaerts wasn’t quite as fortunate as he surrendered his overnight four-shot lead after struggling to a 76 – 12 more shots than he needed to finish his first round.

Grace, last man into The European Tour's winners-only event thanks to his victory at the Joburg Open last week, shot 66 to reach 12 under par and create his own four-shot lead halfway through the tournament.

Lee Slattery(65) and Thomas Aiken (70) share second on 8-under.

José María Olazábal almost won a car, lipping out for a hole-in-one at the short 17th, but Europe's Ryder Cup Captain – at 596th in the Official World Golf Ranking the lowest-ranked player in the 35-strong field – was happy enough with a 68 to be in fourth spot on his own.

Only last month 23 year old Grace was at The European Tour Qualifying School in Spain, but he came through that six-day ordeal in joint tenth place and has been flying ever since.

"I'm just really enjoying it out there," he said after grabbing eight birdies.

"It's probably my favourite course in the world and coming back here is a fabulous feeling – especially playing well."

Slattery feared he would be at Qualifying School as well – in his case for the ninth time – until he won the Bankia Madrid Masters in October.

"Winning certainly gives you belief," said the 33 year old Englishman after picking up an amazing ten birdies just as Colsaerts had done in the opening round.

"That's probably my best round out there, one I'm going to remember for the rest of my life.