Day 1

October 9th 2009, Madrid, Spain: Sergio Garcia continued his bid for a first win of the year at the Madrid Masters as he took a share of the halfway lead with Scotland’s David Drysdale.

And on the day golf was voted back into the Olympics Garcia says he wants to make it not simply to Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but to the two Games after that as well.

Sergio Garcia

Garcia, given the news during his second round at Centro Nacional de Golf, celebrated with a birdie on the same hole and went on to add a 67 to his opening 64.

That put him 13 under par at halfway, but Drysdale is alongside him following a 65.

"If I stay in shape I probably have three chances [to play in the Olympics]," the 29 year old star stated. "I'm thrilled and excited about the possibility. There's still a long way to go, but I'm going to try to stay healthy.

"This is a very special day. We've been fighting for a year now to get it in and it feels good. It's going to be an amazing experience for all of us. I've always watched runners, high jumpers, long jumpers thinking it would be nice to have the chance and now we do.

"Until you are there and part of it you don't know what it feels like. It's like The Ryder Cup - only once you play do you realise how big it is. We have the Majors and The Ryder Cup, but winning an Olympic gold medal would be awesome - and staying at the Olympic village would be a great experience."

The 34 year old Drysdale made his tenth trip to The European Tour Qualifying School last November, but is 50th on The Race to Dubai and will be partnering Alastair Forsyth for Scotland in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup next month.

He finished his second round just as Garcia had done on the opening day - with an eagle.

Italian Emanuele Canonica and Ireland’s Gary Murphy both went round in 65 to join England’s Ross McGowan (66) on 12 under.

A shot further back are two more Englishman - Anthony Wall, playing despite a shoulder injury, and Danny Willett, along with Spain’s Jorge Campillo.

Ireland’s The 3 Irish Open winner Shane Lowry made the move of the day with a 63 which propelled him from a tie for 64th to ninth.

McGowan would have led but for four-putting the 16th for a double bogey six.

Former European Tour winner Canonica is only 262nd on The Race to Dubai standings and no longer in the world's top 1,000, but he was at the Masters Tournament in April - as caddie for José Maria Olazábal.

The Spanish ace also eagled the 18th and for him it was to make the cut right on the limit of four under, as did Luke Donald.

Olazábal's 65 was a ten stroke improvement on the first round, while first round leader Manuel Quiros found it hard to follow up his "unbelievable" opening 62.

That had put him two in front of Garcia, but the World Number 1,076 dropped to tenth with a 73.