ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sergio Garcia had no choice but to defend his integrity, if not his hairdresser.

“I don’t have to lie to anybody,” the young Spanish star says. “I’ve never been a cheater. I’m not going to start being a cheater now.”

So, there you have it. Garcia hasn’t yet cut his hair this year.

Yes, El Nino is holding his own just fine, thank you, in his clash of the coiffures with fellow poster boy Adam Scott. They are locked in a battle of, well, locks, neither man succumbing to the pressure and the, um, shear drama of their mane event. This is one contest where the players are trying to miss the cut.

Then there’s the under card, and so far this week Garcia, 26, holds a more significant advantage over his Australian counterpart -- and much of the rest of the field at the Bay Hill Invitational Presented by MasterCard -- in the business of shaving strokes. With a stick-with-it 69 Friday afternoon at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Garcia lurks just three strokes off the lead at Arnold Palmer’s neatly styled golf salon.

While Scott, the 2004 winner of THE PLAYERS Championship, didn’t qualify for the weekend, Garcia let his hair down, rebounding from an early double bogey to finish 36 holes at 7-under-par 137 amid light but swirling winds. Three shots behind Lucas Glover sitting tied for fifth with Bart Bryant, Garcia equaled his career low opening 36-hole score in this event, which he first produced in 2001, when he posted his best Bay Hill finish, a tie for fourth.

Making his fifth start of the year and coming off some uncustomary performances in his last two events, Garcia is trying to groom his game for an important stretch in the schedule, and so far this week he hasn’t felt the need to pull out his hair, so to speak.

“I’ve still got to improve. I feel like I’m getting better every week, but there are still some things to work on,” he says. “It’s getting there. I had some good weeks and then a couple of other weeks that weren’t that great. But I think that it’s starting to build up.”

On Friday, on the 11th hole, just his second of the day, Garcia stumbled due to indecision because of the swirling wind and drove a 3-wood into the water on the way to a 6. “Bad management there, but I feel like that was really the only shot I missed,” he says.

He bounced back with a birdie at No. 12 and traded a birdie at 15 with a bogey at 17 before he reeled off four birdies in his first seven holes on his second nine. His overall performance points to consistency. His line each day was identical, though on Thursday he shot a 4-under 68 -- without the penalty shot he incurred Friday: 10 of 14 fairways hit, 14 of 18 greens hit in regulation and 28 putts.

“I knew that I was playing well and that I was putting well, and I just had to keep doing the right things,” Garcia said of his bounce-back effort. “I played very solid, maybe got a couple of bad breaks, but I managed to get it around very well.”

The task for the next two days is to do more of the same, nothing fancy, no getting any wild hairs, if you will. Though the rough has been as tangled as Garcia’s unshorn scalp, Bay Hill has been relatively soft and forgiving. El Nino doesn’t figure it will stay that way, however.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how things develop tomorrow and how firm the greens are going to be and if the fairways are going to keep firming up a little bit,” Garcia says. “I think if we get a little bit of wind … the winning score can change very dramatically in a very short period of time.”

In other words, things could get hairy. Then we’ll see sheer drama.