Garrido leads Jimenez by three in Spain

Garrido completed 54 holes at 15-under-par 201. He will be paired with countryman Miguel Angel Jimenez in Sunday's final round.

Marco Ruiz (69), Mark Foster (68) and Soren Hansen (675) are tied for third at minus-11.

Garrido started the day four strokes clear of first-round leader Martin Erlandsson. Both players parred the first five holes before matching birdies on the par-five fifth.

The 36-year-old Garrido continued his steady play as he reeled off seven straight pars from the sixth at the Real Club de Golf de Sevilla.

At the par-five 13th, Garrido found the right trees off the tee. He was forced to play backwards to the 12th fairway. His third came up short and left of the green.

Garrido chunked his first chip, then pitched to eight feet. He managed to make his bogey-saving putt from there as his lead dropped to three.

The Spaniard recovered that lost stroke with his third birdie in three days at the par-five 16th. After a par on 17, Garrido three-putted for bogey at the last to finish three clear of Jimenez.

"It's good to shoot good scores. The difficult thing is to keep them and maintain your lead," stated Garrido, who has won once in six tries with the 54-hole lead. "I think I did well enough to keep my lead and hopefully I'll do the same tomorrow."

If Garrido can hang on to win the title, he would be the first Spaniard to win the crown since Sergio Garcia in 2002. Garrido would also be the fourth Spaniard to win this event joining his father Antonio, Seve Ballesteros and Garcia.

Jimenez flew up the leaderboard with a hot front nine. After sinking a birdie putt on four, he converted back-to-back birdies from the sixth to move to 10- under.

He birdied the ninth to keep his run going. Jimenez parred three straight to start the back nine. He sank a birdie effort on the par-five 13th before parring the final five holes.

"I played solid from tee to green," Jimenez stated. "The conditions were fantastic, so I wanted to keep going and get as close as possible for tomorrow."

Peter Lawrie carded a four-under 68 Saturday, but dropped from a tie for third into a share of sixth at 10-under-par 206. He stands alongside Peter Fowler (70), Carlos Rodiles (70), Andrew McLardy (69) and Erlandsson (73).

Amateur Danny Willett fired the low round of the day by three strokes with his eight-under 64. He is tied for 11th at minus-nine with Alfredo Garcia-Heredia and Jose Manuel Lara.