Pre-tournament favourite Sergio Garcia today made a scrappy start to his bid to capture his first professional title on home soil in the Canarias Open de Espana.
Garcia had compiled a flawless five-under-par 67 yesterday to lie just one shot behind overnight leaders David Gilford and Denmark's Soren Hansen.
The Spaniard had hit all 18 greens in regulation and was unlucky not to have taken the outright lead as several other good birdie chances slipped narrowly wide.
But there was to be no repeat of such accuracy today as he immediately struggled to get to grips with the quirky El Cortijo Club de Campo course.
Starting on the 10th, his drive found heavy rough on the edge of a fairway bunker and he was unable to reach the green with his third, eventually needing to hole a testing six foot putt to save par. The 11th was more straightforward and a 10 foot birdie putt went just wide, but the 12th was to prove more adventurous.
Garcia's drive was fully 20 yards out of bounds, but he did well to salvage a bogey after smashing his second ball to within 25 yards of the green on the 329-yard par four and pitching to three feet.
At four under par he was now two shots off a four-way tie for the lead with England’s Stuart Little and Greg Owen joining Gilford and Hansen at the top of the leaderboard.