Jeju, South Korea: Marcus Fraser of Australia maintained his lead in the weather-shortened Ballantine's Championship when he shot a 2-under 70 in a windy second round on Saturday.
Fraser improved to a 9-under 135 total to be one shot clear of defending champion Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (67), Tano Goya of Argentina (70), and Gareth Maybin of Northern Ireland (68).
Thongchai and Goya finished their second rounds on Friday.
Maybin moved into a tie for second on Saturday after posting his second consecutive 68.
Organizers reduced the tournament to 54 holes after fog disrupted play for more than six hours on Thursday.
Conditions on Saturday, however, were extremely windy on the Korean resort island of Jeju.
Fraser, who didn't play on Friday but practiced, almost completed two flawless rounds until he bogeyed his second-to-last hole on Saturday, the par-4 8th at Pinx Golf Club.
"I felt like I played just as well as I did on Thursday. But it was just very tough conditions out there," he said.
Fraser's lone win on the European Tour was back in 2003 at the Russian Open.
Ernie Els shot a solid 69 to stay in the hunt two strokes back of Fraser. Els is going for his third win worldwide this year. He is tied with Ted Oh of South Korea and Brett Rumford of Australia at 7 under.
"My round could have been a lot better," Els said. "I missed a lot of putts out there but I played pretty solidly."
European Tour rookie Rhys Davies of Wales was in the hunt for the lead for most of the round before a triple bogey on the par-5 16th dropped him to the middle of the standings.
Anthony Kim of the United States began the round with four birdies in his first six holes. But he faltered over the rest of the round, which included three double bogeys, on his way to a 74 and seven shots off the pace.
"I started out very well, but unfortunately couldn't get anything going the rest of the day," Kim said. "I'm starting to hit the ball better. If I can roll a couple of putts in (Sunday), I should be OK."
Hometown favorite Y.E. Yang failed to make the cut after shooting 6 over in his first two rounds. He played 35 of the 36 holes on Friday.
The U.S. PGA champion was coming off a win at the Volvo China Open last week and hoping to impress family and friends.
The final round of the tournament, co-sanctioned by the European Tour, Asian Tour and Korea PGA, will be on Sunday.
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