Gonzalez moves ahead by 1 in Scotland
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ricardo Gonzalez fired his second straight 7-under 65 on Friday to grab a 1-stroke lead at the Johnnie Walker Championship.
Gonzalez finished two rounds on the PGA Centenary Course at The Gleneagles Hotel at 14-under-par 130.
"It's a very important week for me because I have not played well at the start of the season," said Gonzalez. "To shoot two rounds of 65 is amazing. I had five weeks rest to recharge my batteries.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bernd Wiesberger, who shared the lead with Gonzalez at the end of the first round, carded a 6-under 66 on Friday to sit in second place at 13-under.
Tommy Fleetwood also shot 65 to move into a share of third place with Mark Foster (67) at 11-under, while Brooks Koepka (66) owns fifth at minus-10.
Two-time winner this season Brett Rumford (69) was joined by Thongchai Jaidee (69) and Fredrik Andersson Hed (67) in sixth place at 9-under 135.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gonzalez was the first of the co-leaders to head out onto the course and he quickly pulled ahead with back-to-back birdies at the second and third. He added another gain at the seventh to make the turn at 10-under.
After tripping to a bogey at the 13th, the Argentine closed his round with five straight gains from the 14th to race to 14-under and grab the clubhouse lead.
"The last two years have been very difficult personally," said Gonzalez, whose mother, father and father-in-law all passed away in the space of the last two years. "If I win I would like to dedicate it to my mother and father, that's my target this week."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wiesberger went out with the afternoon wave and also started hot with three birdies in a four-hole stretch from the second to reach 10-under before giving two of those strokes back with consecutive bogeys at the seventh and eighth.
He got those back with back-to-back gains at the 10th and 11th.
Wiesberger then closed with birdies at the 14th, 17th and 18th to pull within a shot of the lead entering the weekend.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Foster started on the 11th tee and opened his second round with three straight pars before rolling in a birdie at the 14th.
A streak of three straight birdies from the first moved him to 10-under, and he later countered a bogey at the fifth with gains at Nos. 6 and 9 to move into second place.
NOTES: Gonzalez has four wins on the European Tour, but his last came at the 2009 SAS Masters ... Wiesberger and Foster were both part of a five-man playoff won by Thomas Bjorn at this event in 2011 ... Koepka earned a promotion to the European Tour earlier this year with three victories on the European Challenge Tour ... The PGA Centenary Course at The Gleneagles Hotel will host the 2014 Ryder Cup.