Sergio Garcia moved into a one shot advantage over joint overnight leader Keith Horne and Rhys Davies on the second morning of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.
World Number 13 Garcia picked up three shots over the opening four holes of his second circuit around The National Course at Abu Dhabi Golf Club to move onto nine under par overall midway through his second round.
South African Horne, who finished second last week in Johannesburg, picked up an early birdie to improve to eight under with Davies reaching the turn in two under par after carding two birdies over his opening three holes on another ideal scoring morning in the desert.
Ian Poulter, the second member of the first round leading trio, remained at seven under, while back-to-back double bogeys saw the final member, Richard Bland, plummet down the leaderboard to four under despite starting the day with a birdie.
Rory McIlroy joined Poulter at seven under par after posting an early birdie, but it could have been so much better for the World Number Ten after he missed three makeable birdie putts all inside six feet at the 14th, 15th and 18th after starting on the back nine.
Former champion and last year's runner-up Martin Kaymer improved to six under alongside Richard Finch, The 3 Irish Open champion Shane Lowry and Argentina's Rafa Echenique.
