The 56-year-old Els fired a five-under-par 67 on Saturday at The Country Club of Virginia in Richmond on Saturday to build a two-stroke lead at 11 under in the Dominion Energy Charity Classic.
For the second day in a row, he produced a bogey-free round.
"Well, that's never a goal of mine, to keep a clean scorecard, it just happened that way," Els said. "But it's nice, means I'm playing solid."
South Korea's Y.E. Yang and Germany's Bernhard Langer also posted 67s to stay within two strokes of Els. South Africa's Retief Goosen (68) and first-round co-leader Justin Leonard (70) are another shot behind.
Sitting 25th in the Schwab Cup season points standings, Greg Chalmers posted a 69 to be the leading Australian, tied sixth, five shots behind Els.
A host of Chalmers' countrymen were also in the thick of the action as they seek to be among the top 54 in the standings who will move on to the second of the three playoffs tournaments.
Ninth in the standings, joint first-round leader Steve Allan (72) slipped to tied 10th for the tournament at six under, Richard Green (69) and Cameron Percy (70) were tied 13th on five under, with Mark Hensby (70), Michael Wright (71) and Scott Hend (67) all in the tied for 18th at four under.
Langer, who has two Dominion Energy titles on his resume, will play with Els in Sunday's final group after shrugging off a triple-bogey 6 at No. 14 to finish with four straight birdies.
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