GLENEAGLES, August 26, 2011 (AFP) - Spain's Ignacio Garrido opened up a one-shot lead at the midway point of the Johnnie Walker Championship on Friday after a late surge up the leaderboard.
Garrido, one of the last to tee off, carded five birdies against two bogies for a three under par 69 and eight under for the tournament following an opening 67.
Italy's Lorenzo Gagli, Thomas Bjorn of Denmark, Ireland's Peter Lawrie and Englishmen Kenneth Ferrie and Mark Foster formed a five-strong chasing pack one shot adrift of Garrido.
"It’s always a great feeling," Garrido said. "That’s what we work for. There’s still a lot to be done but tomorrow I would rather be in this position than a few shots further back.
"It was a difficult start. It’s not an easy course; it doesn’t give you that many birdies straightaway. We got probably the worst part of the day when we started. We had an hour of rain in probably the toughest holes."
Gagli finished his first round of 69 in the morning after being one of 51 players unable to complete their round on Thursday due to bad light.
He returned to shoot a four under par 68.
Bjorn, Lawrie and Ferrie all went round in three under on Friday while Foster added a 71 to his first day 66.
Spain's Pablo Larrazabal and England’s James Morrison are one shot further adrift after carding 68 and 69 respectively.
Leading and selected second round scores in the European Tour Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles on Friday (GBR/IRL unless stated, par 72):
136 - Ignacio Garrido (ESP) 67-69
137 - Thomas Bjorn (DEN) 68-69, Mark Foster 66-71, Peter Lawrie 68-69, Kenneth Ferrie 68-69, Lorenzo Gagli (ITA) 69-68
138 - Pablo Larrazabal (ESP) 70-68, James Morrison 69-69
139 - Anthony Kang (USA) 73-66, Magnus A Carlsson (SWE) 67-72, Marc Warren 70-69, Oliver Wilson 70-69, Richard McEvoy 69-70, Victor Dubuisson (FRA) 69-70, Raphael Jacquelin (FRA) 69-70
140 - Bernd Wiesberger (AUT) 69-71, Thongchai Jaidee (THA) 71-69
141 - Richie Ramsay 69-72, Anders Hansen (DEN) 71-70, Jaco Van Zyl (RSA) 68-73, James Byrne 70-71, Simon Dyson 70-71, Gary Boyd 70-71, Thomas Norret (DEN) 69-72, Joel Sjoholm (SWE) 70-71, Gareth Wright 70-71, Alastair Forsyth 70-71
142 - Carlos Del Moral (ESP) 72-70, Chris Wood 69-73, Hennie Otto (RSA) 70-72, Damien McGrane 69-73, Robert Coles 69-73, Stuart Manley 71-71, Felipe Aguilar (CHI) 68-74, Romain Wattel (FRA) 70-72, Stephen Gallacher 74-68, Jamie Donaldson 70-72, Bradley Dredge 71-71
Selected:
143 - Noh Seung-yul (KOR) 72-71, Colin Montgomerie 70-73, George Coetzee (RSA) 77-66
144 - Edoardo Molinari (ITA) 74-70, Christian Cevaer (FRA) 71-73, Andrew Dodt (AUS) 72-72, Paul Lawrie 72-72
Missed cut:
145 - Shiv Kapur (IND) 72-73
146 - Brett Rumford (AUS) 71-75
147 - Wade Ormsby (AUS) 70-77
148 - Jeev Milkha Singh (IND) 75-73, Jose-Maria Olazabal (ESP) 74-74, Jbe Kruger (RSA) 76-72
149 - Matthew Zions (AUS) 74-75, Mark Brown (NZL) 75-74, Marcus Fraser (AUS) 72-77, Peter O'Malley (AUS) 74-75
150 - Keith Horne (RSA) 74-76
152 - Marcus Both (AUS) 76-76
154 - Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 75-79, Paul McGinley 74-80
157 - Shaun Norris (RSA) 78-79
WD: 81 Rick Kulacz (AUS) 77