Spaniards lead into the weekend

Miguel Angel Jimenez offered a good-natured rebuke to his young compatriot Sergio Garcia on Friday for trying to persuade him to rest before the Ryder Cup.

The two Spaniards, both likely to play all five matches for Europe against the U.S., held first and second places after the second round of the European Masters, with Garcia nosing a stroke ahead.

After shooting a six-under-par 65 to surge into the lead on 11-under-par 131, Garcia again said he would be advising Jimenez to withdraw from next week's German Masters.

If Jimenez plays in Cologne, the Ryder Cup will be his sixth consecutive week of playing, something the 24-year-old Garcia feels is too much.

"I don't need people to tell me what to do," said Jimenez who is still well in contention for his fifth win of the year and second in successive weeks.

"I am 40 years old and I think I know what I have to do. I know it's a lot of golf but I'm going to the German Masters and I will recover from playing there before playing in the Ryder Cup.

"I need to keep playing. If I go home to Spain I will not play any golf and that is not good for me the week before the match. I'll have my week off after the Ryder Cup.

The two Spaniards are now likely to have an interesting third round playing together on Saturday.

Garcia took over on top of the leaderboard by using the fade shot he has worked on for nine months to perfect, adding eight more birdies, four in succession to finish his round, to the seven he fired on Thursday.

"I started working on the swing after the World Matchplay (Championship) last year," said Garcia.

"I still hit draws but I definitely feel more confident with the fade because if you miss a fairway you don't miss it by more than two or three yards," he added.

South African Charl Schwartzel and European wild card Luke Donald of Britain shared third place, three strokes off the lead.

Argentina's Eduardo Romero continued to defy Old Father Time at the age of 50 to finish a further stroke back, level with Australian Peter Fowler.

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