Sergio Garcia immediately doubled his overnight lead in the early stages of the third round of the Canarias Open de Espana this morning.
Garcia began the day one shot ahead of England’s Greg Owen at El Cortijo Club de Campo after rounds of 67 and 68 left the Spaniard on nine under par.
Owen, who briefly led the Open at Royal Lytham last year and also had an albatross in the third round, had been confident of making the tournament favourite fight all the way for the £176,000 first prize.
But the 30-year-old got off to a poor start as he dropped a shot on the opening hole to drop back to seven under par and two shots behind playing partner Garcia.
The third member of the group, Italian Emanuele Canonica had matched Garcia's opening par to remain seven under and in joint second with Owen.
US Open champion Retief Goosen meanwhile was still struggling at the other end of the leaderboard after making the cut by the skin of his teeth.
Goosen carded two rounds of 73 to be two over par at halfway and dropped another shot on his second hole today to slip 12 shots off the pace.