ASH, England -- Ross Fisher birdied the last hole for a 68 to take a one-shot lead over Graeme McDowell after Friday's second round of the European Open.

McDowell earlier completed a 67 on the par-72 London Club course. Fisher and McDowell are 13 under and 12 under, respectively, with Sergio Garcia another three strokes behind following a day's best 64.

Soren Hansen is fourth on 8under after a 67, and six players are on 7 under including Colin Montgomerie (67), Ian Poulter (67) and Paul McGinley (68).

Fisher shot a course-record 63 Thursday and did not expect to match it.

"I didn't feel completely confident with my game," the Englishman said. "I was not quite as sharp and I missed a few fairways and a few putts."

The halfway cut fell at 1-under 143 and the big casualty was Darren Clarke, who shot 76 and then was disqualified for signing the wrong score on the last hole -- a 4 when he had made a 5. But on 2 over, Clarke was missing the cut anyway.

McDowell, two behind Fisher overnight, was pleased with another good round.

"There was no wind and I just tried to keep my foot on the pedal," McDowell said. "Twelve under is a great place to be going into the weekend. I'd take that anytime. I'm controlling my swing and controlling most aspects of my game. The key is I'm holing putts."

McDowell did miss a birdie putt of six feet on the last hole but he made most of the others that he faced.

Garcia, who shot 71 Thursday, was in a bunker and picked up his only bogey at the fourth after a perfect drive. He three-putted the fifth and missed the green from the middle of the fairway at six. But the Spaniard finished eagle-birdie with putts of 9 and 18 feet.

McGinley liked his recovery Friday, even though it left him five strokes off the lead.

"You can't win tournaments making mistakes like I did yesterday. I gave away three shots at the end of the round," he said.

Montgomerie is the defending champion and was second in Paris last week, his best result in a year.

"To maintain that momentum was very important and I managed to do that," Montgomerie said. "But if I hole some putts, I have half a chance."

Garcia loves his golf, but he loves his tennis, too, and it was a great day for him on both fronts on Friday. First he burst into contention with his lowest round of the year, then it was off to Wimbledon -- for the third time this week -- to see Rafael Nadal power his way to another final showdown with Roger Federer.

This could be some summer for Spanish sports fans, of course.

Thanks to Fernando Torres, the Euro 2008 soccer title is already in the bag; Nadal has already won another French Open; and in two weeks' time Garcia hopes to make up for the huge disappointment of last July by capturing the British Open at Royal Birkdale.

Without Tiger Woods in the field, he has as good a chance as anyone.

"When you see a friend of yours doing well it makes you happy and you want to do well too," said the world No. 8, who has a growing friendship with Nadal and used to date women's tennis world No. 1 Martina Hingis. "It's always nice to talk to a friend and ask him how things went. It's been fun -- we've been sending messages to each other and congratulating each other.

"I hit with him last year in Mallorca. It was awesome, great," he explained. "Actually, he was quite impressed with my tennis -- he thought I was going to be a little bit worse -- and I was very impressed with his golf when he played the pro-am."

This is Garcia's last outing before the Open. He opted for the European Open rather than next week's Scottish Open because there is more of a links feel to the course.

"I'm trying to make sure that I get myself comfortable and some of the shots I've been hitting this week I'm going to be using at the Open," he stated. "You don't want to find your swing going into a major. I'll just get some good practice at home and just try to get myself as ready as possible."

Montgomerie and Poulter, having matched each other with opening 70s, both improved three shots on that Friday to be 7 under, the same as Paul McGinley, for whom a top-5 finish on Sunday could secure him an Open spot.

For Clarke, that objective has gone. His only way to Birkdale now is to be in the top five at the Scottish Open.

Reignng British Open champion Padraig Harrington had a 70, but at 2 under like Justin Rose appears out of the running.

It was Harrington who had marked a 4 down on Clarke's card, but the error was not as costly as the one that cost Harrington his place in the 2000 Benson and Hedges International. He was leading with a round to go when it was discovered he had not signed his first-round scorecard.

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