Pablo Larrazabal saw his two-shot lead quickly disappear in the early stages of the second round at the Andalucia Valderrama Masters in Sotogrande.
The Spaniard fired a faultless 66 on Thursday to move clear at the top of the leaderboard, but he suffered a slip-up on his third hole on Friday morning as a double bogey five sent him back to three under for the tournament.
That put him alongside Damien McGrane, who had also started his second round, and US Open champion Graeme McDowell - one of the later starters on day two.
While Larrazabal got off to a sticky start, fellow countryman Miguel Angel Jimenez made solid progress, with back-to-back birdies at three and four taking him to three under before a bogey at five stunted his progress slightly.
At two under, he was in a tie for fourth with Shiv Kapur and Gareth Maybin, who had yet to begin their second rounds, and Holland’s Robert-Jan Derksen.
Sergio Garcia - who carded a first round 70 - also birdied the third, but he then ran up a double bogey six at the fifth to slip back to level par.
Sweden’s Peter Hedblom, meanwhile, recorded three birdies and two bogeys in a front nine of 34, putting him into a group of five players at one under.
Niclas Fasth and Shane Lowry each picked up two shots early on to get back to level par, with Jamie Donaldson, Peter Hanson and Richard Green also moving up to the same score following rounds of 72 on day one.
