Nick Faldo yesterday shot a four-over-par 76 to balloon to nine over for his two rounds and miss the cut by six strokes here at the Houghton course in the South African PGA Championship.

"I'll just have to keep working," the six-times major winner said later. "I swung the club badly for 27 holes and half decently for nine, but that was too late. Maybe it's golf's gentle way of reminding me that I haven't been working hard enough."

There were no such problems for Ernie Els, who leads by two shots from his fellow South African Richard Kaplan and Zimbabwe's Mark McNulty, and by three from the first-round leader Nico van Rensburg, who had a two-over 74.

Paul McGinley was the only member of the Irish contingent to survive the halfway cut which came on 147, three over par. The Dubliner shot an excellent 69 to make up for a disappointing opening 77. John McHenry and Eamonn Darcy made their exits after rounds of 77 and 74 respectively.

Els shot a three-under-par 69 to add to his first-round 67 and finish on eight under par. "Yesterday I played some interesting golf with double bogeys and birdies, today I was just boring, three birdies and no drops," he said. "I hit the ball from tee to green really well, birdied three of the par fives, but couldn't make a putt. It was down to the fact that the greens had really firmed up and you had to keep the ball away from trouble spots, so I just tried to get myself in position for the weekend."

He did concede that one of his shots had been reasonably interesting: at the par-three 15th his tee shot ran 35 feet past the hole and nestled in a fringe of long grass; he turned around his Ping Zing 2 putter and hit the ball with the toe to three feet and made par. "I saw Freddie Couples do it once and I thought I'd give it a go. Luckily I hit it nicely."

Kaplan was level with Els at eight under through 15 holes but bogeyed two of the final three to score 70 and finish at six under par. But the 36-year-old is more concerned about Els than the pack, which includes the American Bruce Vaughan on 140 after a 69, and Stephen Leaney of Australia, Francis Quinn Jr of the US, Mark Mouland of Wales, Peter Baker of England and Marc Cayeux of Zimbabwe on 141.

"I don't mind the big galleries," said Kaplan, who will be out last with Els today. "But with them all behind Ernie, I hope the marshals stop them moving when he has putted out."

Van Rensburg's round was nine shots worse than his pace-setting 65 on the first day. He was one of the last to tee off and suffered on greens made slick by a hot sun and a dry wind.

At the ninth, a long par four, he was lucky to have a line to the green after a duck-hook off the tee, but could not get enough club on the ball to reach the putting surface. His chip defied a steep gradient to run 10 feet past the hole and he missed the putt back.

As for Faldo, he said he was not thinking about pulling out of next week's tournament. "I've come 6,000 miles to be here; where am I going to go?" The answer is 1,000 miles further south, to Stellenbosch for next week's South African Open.