Donald sparkles as Sergio struggles

Luke Donald marched into a five-stroke lead with a brilliant back nine 31 in the Madrid Masters second round today – as playing partner Sergio Garcia battled to avoid his first missed cut on European soil for nearly six years.

Joint overnight pacesetter with Welsh pair Rhys Davies and Jamie Donaldson, Donald birdied five of his first seven holes to reach 12 under par.

It was a great response to losing the BMW PGA Championship by one on Sunday after double-bogeying the penultimate hole – and the gulf between him and the rest would have gone to six if he had not missed a five-foot chance at the 388-yard 18th, his ninth.

Garcia’s last missed cut in Europe was the 2004 Open at Royal Troon, but he was in severe danger of crashing out after starting his round with a double bogey seven.

Already down in 80th place after an opening level par 72, the former world number two – he is now down at 32nd in the rankings after almost 18 months without a top three finish – hit the perfect drive down the long 10th.

But his second shot sailed out to the right and did not come close to carrying the lake.

Garcia, clearly deflated, took a penalty drop and hit an equally poor fourth stroke which did at least make it over the water, but was way wide of the green.

And from there he took three more and slumped to 115th place on two over. Only the leading 65 and ties make it through to the weekend.

He came back with birdies on the 11th and 13th, bogeyed the next two, but picked up a third shot on the long 16th and remained one over with eight to play. By then he stood joint 98th.

Davies and Donaldson were among the later starters and would not have liked the fact that the wind had begun to gather strength, while Dubliner Paul McGinley was joined in fourth place by Graeme McDowell – helped by pitching in for eagle from 113 yards on the 10th.