SEVILLE, Spain -- Ignacio Garrido shot a course record 9-under 63 Friday to take a four-stroke lead at the Spanish Open.

John Daly, who shot a 75 in the first round, managed to break par on Friday with a 70, but still missed the cut by two strokes with a 1-over total that left him tied for 93rd place in the first of two straight European Tour events he plans to play.

Garrido had nine birdies at the Real Club de Golf de Sevilla and bettered the previous course record -- set Thursday by Martin Erlandsson -- by two strokes. Garrido has a two-round total of 15-under 129.

"That was probably the best golf of my life. I had lots of fun out there," Garrido said. "We play a very tough sport, so it's important to enjoy the good days. It can go fantastically well one day then not so great the next, so I'm not getting carried away.

"Other than the majors, this is the one tournament all Spaniards want to win," Garrido said. "I've given myself a great chance, but there's still a long way to go."

Erlandsson, who shot 68 on Friday, is second at 11 under. He eagled the fifth hole.

Not many golfers hug their caddie halfway through an event, but for former Ryder Cup star Garrido it was perfectly understandable. Now he has a golden opportunity to join a list of winners that includes his father Antonio in 1972 -- just 19 days after Ignacio was born.

Meanwhile, last week's winner Darren Clarke is 12 behind on 3 under and Colin Montgomerie only just survived the cut on 1 under.

Amazingly, the 36-year-old Garrido had missed the cut in six of his previous seven starts this season and he has been very much a fringe figure since beating current Masters champion Trevor Immelman in a playoff for the European Tour's flagship PGA Championship in 2003.

The five-year European Tour exemption that triumph earned him runs out at the end of this season. He is 125th on the money list and only the top 115 keep their cards, but total happiness is just two rounds away.

"I thought I could not play any better than Thursday, but obviously I could," he added after his nine-birdie display. Only once in his Tour career has he scored lower.

"We play a very tough sport," he explained. "It can go fantastic and next day you don't know what you are doing, but despite my recent results I knew the game was there."

Garrido, second to Seve Ballesteros in 1995 after being the joint halfway leader and a runner-up again to Jarmo Sandelin nine years ago, was seven clear of the field when he signed his card at lunchtime.

Clarke improved three shots on his opening 72, but said: "I'm making too many mistakes," while Montgomerie did not stop to speak at all after two bogeys in his last four holes.

Daly, also playing in next week's Italian Open, had three birdies and then an eagle in his last eight holes, but that came after he had slumped to 5 over and it was too little, too late.

Defending champion Charl Schwartzel, hoping to become the first player since Max Faulkner in 1953 to make a successful defense, also bowed out.

Four players -- England's David Lynn, Spaniard Carlos Rodiles, Paraguayan Marco Ruiz and Australian Peter Fowler -- are tied for third, but they are seven behind Garrido.

Only five weeks away from his 49th birthday, Fowler has a chance to take over from Ireland's Des Smyth as the circuit's oldest champion in this his 493rd event. But only Martin Kaymer in Abu Dhabi in January has held a bigger 36-hole advantage than Garrido on Tour this season.

Daly's two-week trip to the European Tour started with yet another missed cut -- and another contentious comment.

Despite playing his last nine holes in just 32 and closing with an eagle, the former British Open champion's second-round 70 for a 1-over-par total of 145 was not good enough to survive.

Daly, 595th in the world after making it through to the end of just two events in 10 starts this year, then voiced his unhappiness about events on the super-fast 17th hole on the first day.

"I hear they stopped play and syringed the green after we went through -- that's not right," said the American, who had bogeyed it just after Thomas Levet had four-putted.

But Tournament Director Miguel Vidaor was adamant that no such action was taken.

"It's not true. Who's made that up?" he said. "Yes it got very fast and very difficult, but it was by no means unplayable.

"I spoke to the greenkeeping staff after Daly's group had played the hole and asked them if the green could survive to the end of the day. They said it could," he explained. "Afterwards it was given more water than the rest and it was cut only once rather than twice before the second round."

Getting facts right seems to be a running story with Daly at the moment.

On Wednesday he said that former coach Butch Harmon had apologized to him for making comments about the player's drinking that had led to the cancelling of some sponsorship deals.

Daly stated that Harmon "didn't have his facts straight," but Harmon has now come back to say he did not apologize.

"I said to him 'John, I'm sorry you lost your contracts, but I haven't done anything to you. You did it to yourself and you continue to do it to yourself'," Harmon told Yahoo Sports in the United States.

"He asked if I would go on the record with a retraction and I said 'No'. This is just another strange chapter in the John Daly saga. He takes no responsibility for anything."

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