Pretoria professional Desvonde Botes set the Lost City Golf Course alight and will take a considerable lead into the final round of the R500 000 Nashua Golf Challenge on Saturday.

Chasing his 15th Sunshine Tour title, Botes enjoyed a seven-birdie rampage to sign for a seven-under-par 65 and tie fellow Blue Bull Vaughan Groenewald for the low round of the day.

With the 36-hole bar set at 11-under-par 133, Botes leads Nic Henning, who carded a five-under 67.

The 33-year-old Botes was satisfied with his solid round.

"It’s a five-shot lead, but it could have been better. I let a couple go, but I’m not going to worry too much about that,” said Botes, who rallied with birdies at the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, 14th, 16th and 17th.

“It was nice to build up such a lead especially as the conditions were ideal, warm and hardly any wind.”

A proven front-runner, Botes felt that he would have to produce his best form to hold off the chasing pack at the Gary Player, where the final round will be contested on Saturday.

"You can’t fire at the pins at the Gary Player because you will just run into trouble. I will play it like how I was playing on Thursday — just hit fairways and greens," he said. “A shot can get away from you pretty easily but that's going to be a good thing for me. It will keep me on my toes,” he said.

Keith Horne, Chris Williams, Trevor Fisher Jnr and Jean Hugo, the winner last week of the Samsung Royal Swazi Sun Open, all finished their rounds with matching 68s while Divan van den Heever forced his way into group tied for third with a 69.

Joint first round leader McIntyre struggled to a 75 and dropped to one-under-par 143 while defending champion Warren Abery moved carded a second round one-under-par 71 for an aggregate of 144 and a share of 20th.

Sapa