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Sergio Garcia of Spain plays his shot on the 1st hole during the Second round of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. OSAMA FAISAL/AP/Press Association Images
as it stands

Garcia, Kaymer and Fraser among Qatar leaders

Another five players are a further stroke back on seven under, while world number four Justin Rose is tied for 20th.

SPAIN’S SERGIO GARCIA has carded a bogey-free 66 at the Qatar Masters to join overnight leader Ricardo Santos and two others in the lead.

Garcia, Germany’s Martin Kaymer and Marcus Fraser of Australia all scored bogey-free rounds on Thursday to move up alongside Portugal’s Santos at nine under at the top of the leaderboard.

Having started the day 23 positions behind Santos, Garcia managed three birdies on the front and back nine respectively to produce a six-under round and take a share of the lead at the halfway point of the European Tour event in Doha.

Starting on the back nine at four under, Fraser scored par on every hole from the 10th to the 18th but opened up on the front nine, scoring successive birdies on two occasions to complete a five-under 67.

Kaymer also started on the 10th hole at Doha Golf Club, birdying the 13th, 17th, 18th, fifth and eighth on his way to the top of the leaderboard, while Santos had a mixed day and finished with a two-under 70.

The 30-year-old Portuguese player birdied three of the first four holes but bogeys on the seventh, 11th and 15th saw him fail to build any momentum.

Santos, Kaymer, Fraser and Garcia are one shot ahead of five players tied for fifth.

South Africa’s George Coetzee and Felipe Aguilar of Chile were the biggest movers of the quintet, both scoring five-under 67s to reach eight under alongside Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark, New Zealand’s Michael Campbell and England’s Gary Lockerbie.

Another five players are a further stroke back on seven under, while world number four Justin Rose is tied for 20th on five under and the world’s fifth-ranked player Louis Oosthuizen is on four under, tied for 31st.

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