The Spaniard has won five of his 13 European Tour titles in his home country – including the last staging at Real Club Valderrama in 2011 – and a third-round 68 moved him to eight-under on Saturday.
The 37-year-old was handed honorary life membership of the European Tour in recognition of his Masters tournament win in April on Friday night, and less than 24 hours later he was once again delighting a bumper home crowd.
England’s Daniel Brooks entered the week knowing he needed a top-eight finish to have a chance of keeping his playing privileges for next season, and he fired a brilliant 64 to sit in second, a shot clear of Dutchman Joost Luiten.
Welshman Jamie Donaldson and Scotland’s Scott Jamieson were then at five-under, two shots clear of Australian Wade Ormsby.
They may have to produce something special to deny Garcia a third win of the season, however, as he looks to close the gap on leader Tommy Fleetwood in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex.
‘It was pretty solid,’ he said. ‘I’m going to go out there tomorrow and try to post another under-par round and see what happens. Good rounds are possible there, but they have to be spot on.
‘It’s still a long way tomorrow to come, so we can’t get too much ahead of ourselves.’
Luiten began the day with a one-shot lead at six-under, but Garcia soon leapfrogged him as he put his approach to five feet on the second and then hit a smart tee-shot into the par-three third.
Brooks’ round was already well under way, and after turning in 30 with birdies on the second, third, fifth, eighth and ninth, he made it three in a row on the tenth to get to six-under.
A tap-in on the par-five 11th then had him in a share of top spot, and a Luiten birdie on the fourth had him back in the lead as Garcia got in bunker trouble on the fifth, and then dropped another shot on the sixth.
Brooks then put his tee-shot on the par-three 15th to tap-in range, and when Luiten dropped a shot on the seventh, the 30 year old had a two-shot lead.
Brooks bogeyed the next after putting his tee-shot into the trees, but bounced back with a birdie on the 17th as Garcia made a strong recovery.
He played a beautiful bunker shot to birdie the eighth and then made another gain from the fringe on the 11th, and with Brooks closing with a bogey after a poor chip, the lead was shared.
A ten-footer on the 14th moved Garcia to eight-under but he bogeyed the next after a poor tee-shot, and when Jamieson holed a bunker shot on the 15th to get into red numbers for the day, he was just a shot off the lead.
That was soon two as Garcia got on to the green at the par-five 17th in two and took the same number of putts to get back to eight-under.
Luiten had birdies on the 11th and 17th and bogeys on the ninth and 12th in his last 11 holes, while Jamieson bogeyed the last.
South Africa’s Justin Walters had a third-round 71 to add to his opening two 71 and 74 to lie in a tie for 39th, while Zander Lombard is two shots behind him on 218 after rounds of 75, 71 and 72.
Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images
