Stewart Cink surged into a three-way tie for the Portugal Invitational lead on Saturday with an 8-under-par 64 that included a pair of eagles.
Cink eagled the par-5 third and par-4 12th holes at The Els Club Vilamoura in Algarve, Portugal, moving to 13 under through two rounds.
The eight-time winner on the PGA Tour Champions enters Sunday’s final round level with Padraig Harrington of Ireland (65 on Saturday) and Slovakia’s Rory Sabatini (66).
First-round leader Zach Johnson slipped into solo fourth place at 12-under after an eventful round of 68 with four birdies, one eagle and two bogeys.
Tim O’Neal surged into a tie for fifth place at 10-under with a bogey-free 66 to join Sweden’s Mikael Lundberg (68). They are one stroke ahead of South Korea’s Y.E. Yang (67) and Australia’s Cameron Percy (67).
Cink started fast and was 6 under through five holes en route to the lowest round of the day.
“Well, it’s weird to come off a round like that with that kind of score and be a little dejected because I shot minus-8, but I was 6-under par like 3 1/2 hours ago for the day,” Cink said. “I settled back into normalcy after that.
“The start was just like laser focused. I mean, it was almost perfect shot after perfect shot for the first really six holes. I didn’t birdie the sixth hole, but, you know, par-3, including an eagle from short range and another almost eagle on the par-5. Just really kind of fun. Then came back down to earth a little bit and got, like I said, a little bit more normal. All in all, a really good day.”
Cink, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup standings, is looking for his fifth victory on the tour this season.
Harrington began his bogey-free, 7-under round with an eagle at the par-5 opening hole. He capped the round with his fifth birdie at No. 18.
“I’m obviously very happy to have birdied the last,” Harrington said. “Hit a very nice second shot, hit a very nice putt. In golf you get some great breaks. Mikael Lundberg putted it pretty much on the same line before me. I thought the putt had a little bit of break and Michael’s broke a lot … (otherwise) I would never have holed mine. You get good breaks like that at times in golf and it’s nice I took advantage of it.”
Sabbatini eagled the par-5 third hole but squandered his chance for the outright lead with a bogey at the par-3 17th.
“All things considered, I think that score today with the wind, the greens were getting a little firmer, faster at the end there, I’m pretty excited about it,” Sabbatini said.
This is the first PGA Tour Champions event ever held in Portugal.
