SPANISH OPEN: NOT MANY golfers hug their caddie halfway through an event, but for former Ryder Cup star Ignacio Garrido it was perfectly understandable.
"Probably the best I've ever played - this is a dream," said Garrido yesterday after following up a first-round 66 with a course-record 63 to lead the Spanish Open in Seville by four shots.
"I think for any player the most important tournament after the majors is your own national championship."
Now he has a golden opportunity to join a list of winners that includes his father, Antonio, in 1972 - just 19 days after Ignacio was born.
Swede Martin Erlandsson lies second, while last week's winner, Darren Clarke, is 12 behind on three under, Colin Montgomerie only just survived the cut on one under and former British Open champion John Daly crashed out at one over.
While Clarke had four birdies in a three-under 69 that could have been better, Peter Lawrie remained the best placed of the Irish. The Dubliner sprinkled three bogeys among five birdies to lie on six under par and tied for 13th.
Amazingly, 36-year-old Garrido had missed the cut on six of his previous seven starts and he has been very much a fringe figure since beating current Masters champion Trevor Immelman in a play-off for the European Tour's flagship PGA Championship in 2003.
The five-year Tour exemption that Wentworth triumph earned him runs out at the end of this season. He is 125th on the money list and only the top 115 keep their cards. But total happiness is just two rounds away.
"I thought I could not play any better than yesterday, but obviously I could," he added after his nine-birdie display. Only once in his Tour career has he scored lower.
"We play a very tough sport. It can go fantastic and next day you don't know what you are doing, but despite my recent results I knew the game was there."
Garrido, second to Seve Ballesteros in 1995 after being the joint halfway leader, and a runner-up again to Jarmo Sandelin nine years ago, was seven clear of the field when he signed his card at lunchtime.
First-round leader Erlandsson was among the later starters, though, and he added a 68 to his 65.
Clarke improved three shots on his opening 72, but said: "I'm making too many mistakes."
Daly, also playing next week's Italian Open, had three birdies and then an eagle in his last eight holes, but that came after he had slumped to five over and it was too little, too late.
So Daly's two-week trip to Europe started with yet another missed cut. And a little bit more controversy.
On Wednesday he had said that former coach Butch Harmon had apologised to him for making comments about the player's drinking that had led to the cancelling of some sponsorship deals.
Daly stated that Harmon "didn't have his facts straight", but Harmon has now come back to say he did not apologise.
"I said to him, 'John, I'm sorry you lost your contracts, but I haven't done anything to you. You did it to yourself and you continue to do it to yourself'," Harmon said in the US.
"He asked if I would go on the record with a retraction and I said 'No'. This is just another strange chapter in the John Daly saga - he takes no responsibility for anything."
