FARO (Portugal), April 20: Swede Fredrik Jacobson regained the Algarve Portuguese Open lead on Saturday when he benefited from a back-nine collapse by long-time front-runner Greg Owen of Britain.

Owen took a three-shot lead into the third round, with Jacobson, who had led after the first round, four behind due to a late double-bogey on Friday.

But as Englishman Owen dropped five strokes coming home for a four-over-par 76, Jacobson’s steady 71 took him a stroke in front on five-under-par 211.

Jacobson leads Owen and fellow Englishman Brian Davis by a shot, with the overnight second-placed man Marcel Siem of Germany and South Africa’s Richard Sterne four off the pace.

Owen looked confident when he birdied the fourth hole to increase his overnight lead to four strokes but then he capitulated as the course bared its fangs, hitting right on to the out of bounds boundary line on 12 but finding to his relief his ball was in bounds by the narrowest of margins.

He still ran up his second bogey of the back nine though, and when he drove out of the course on the 14th, upset by milling crowds preventing him playing a shot, it cost him a double-bogey.

When he missed a two-foot putt on 15, Jacobson, who broke the course record by two shots on Thursday with a 64, was back in front.

Charl Schwartzel suffered a final hole double-bogey to lie five strokes off the lead.

Leading third round scores (Britain unless stated, a-denotes amateur):

211 — Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden) 64, 76, 71.

212 — Brian Davis 70, 71, 71; Greg Owen 66, 70, 76.

215 — Richard Sterne (South Africa) 73, 73, 69; Marcel Siem (Germany) 71, 68, 76.

216 — Phillip Price 73, 71, 72; Jamie Donaldson 72, 71, 73; Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 72, 70, 74; Bradley Dredge 69, 73, 74; Carlos Rodiles (Spain) 69, 71, 76.

217 — Maarten Lafeber (Netherlands) 73, 73, 71; David Lynn 71, 72, 74; Andrew Coltart 71, 71, 75.

218 — Mikael Lundberg (Sweden) 75, 71, 72; Matthew Blackey 74, 71, 73; Steve Webster 72, 73, 73; Ben Mason 75, 69, 74.

219 — James Kingston (South Africa) 72, 75, 72; Patrik Sjoland (Sweden) 73, 73, 73; Fredrik Andersson (Sweden) 73, 73, 73; Robert Karlsson (Sweden) 73, 73, 73; Jose Manuel Lara (Spain) 73, 72, 74; Gustavo Rojas (Argentina) 70, 75, 74; Jonathan Lomas 72, 72, 75; David Carter 72, 72, 75.

220 — Miguel Angel Martin (Spain) 73, 75, 72; a-Richard Walker 73, 73, 74; Kenneth Ferrie 74, 72, 74; Mikko Ilonen (Finland) 73, 72, 75; Alastair Forsyth 72, 72, 76; Andrew Raitt 74, 70, 76; Rolf Muntz (Netherlands) 72, 70, 78.

CINK STILL IN FRONT

HILTON HEAD (South Carolina): Stewart Cink shot a two-under 69 to retain his lead after the third round of The Heritage on Saturday.

Cink, seeking to end a three-year winless drought that began after winning this event in 2000, is on 12-under 201.

Jeff Sluman, who lost here in a three-man playoff in 1999, made the day’s biggest move with a seven-under 64 and is on 11-under 201.

Woody Austin (65) and Kenny Perry (67) are on 10-under 203, while four-time Heritage winner Davis Love III (69) and 2004 US Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton (71) lead a quartet of players on nine-under.

Cink, 29, who was nine-under through the first two rounds on the front nine, went out in even-par 36. He then birdied the par-four 10th and 11th holes, before a bogey at the 12th.

He birdied the par-four 16th to reclaim his lead.

Cink, who has played on a Presidents and Ryder Cup team, has two top-10 finishes in his last three starts.

Sluman turned in a bogey-free round and made his push late in the afternoon with birdies at holes 12 through 15, which included sinking a 33-foot putt on the difficult par-three 14th to briefly claim a share of the lead with Cink.

Leading third round scores (US unless stated):

201 — Stewart Cink 67, 65, 69.

202 — Jeff Sluman 68, 70, 64.

203 — Woody Austin 68, 70, 65; Kenny Perry 67, 69, 67.

204 — Steve Flesch 68, 69, 67; Davis Love III 66, 69, 69; Chad Campbell 67, 67, 70; Hal Sutton 67, 66, 71.

205 — Chris Riley 69, 70, 66; Doug Barron 71, 67, 67; Peter Jacobsen 69, 69, 67; Tom Pernice Jr 67, 70, 68; Matt Gogel 69, 67, 69; Jim Furyk 70, 66, 69; Ernie Els (South Africa) 69, 66, 70; Geoff Ogilvy (Australia) 68, 67, 70; Nick Price (Zimbabwe) 68, 66, 71.

206 — Rod Pampling (Australia) 67, 72, 67; David Gossett 71, 67, 68; Paul Goydos 69, 69, 68; Tim Clark (South Africa) 68, 69, 69; Glen Hnatiuk (Canada) 69, 68, 69; Corey Pavin 69, 68, 69; John Senden (Australia) 66, 71, 69.

207 — Bob Estes 69, 72, 66; Cliff Kresge 70, 70, 67; Rocco Mediate 67, 70, 70; Mark Calcavecchia 69, 66, 72.—Reuters