Bourdy Leads for a Third Day in Portugal

˝It was a tough day because the wind was different and I didn`t play my game,˝ Bourdy told reporters.

Gregory Bourdy of France kept his grip on the Portuguese Open title on Saturday, adding a three-under 68 to take a four-shot lead on 17-under 196 into Sunday's final round.

Bourdy, 25, who shared the course-record 63 to lead Thursday's first round, retained his momentum with a second-round 65 and then fought back from a nervous start in the third round.

Briton Alastair Forsyth, who won the Madeira Islands Open three weeks ago, is in second place after a 66.

After leading by two shots overnight, Bourdy extended his lead by virtue of an eagle, a 20-foot putt and birdie coming to the turn following an ugly start with a bogey on the fourth.

"It was a tough day because the wind was different and I didn't play my game," Bourdy told reporters.

"Then the eagle and birdie relaxed me, made me confident, and I played my game as I did on Thursday and Friday."

Bourdy said his victory in last year's penultimate event, the Majorca Classic, and a winning experience in South Africa should help his bid for the title.

"I was sharing the lead in Majorca so tomorrow's going to be a new experience. But I have won with a big lead. In the South African PGA Championship on the Sunshine Tour I led by five or six after three rounds and won by five."

Forsyth is hoping for something like three weeks ago when he came from five strokes behind after three rounds to beat South African Hennie Otto in a playoff for the Madeira title.

"That's a comfort having done it not long ago. There are a lot of 63s and 64s going round this week," Forsyth told reporters.

South African Charl Schwartzel (66) and Briton Miles Tunnicliff, the fifth man to shoot an Oitavos Dunes course-record 63 this week, are a further stroke back.

David Howell (67), making a comeback after a worrying time of injury, is in the group on 11-under with overnight second-placed Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (72) of Spain.