Fred Couples overshot the 18th green and took a bogey-5 Saturday, enabling defending champion Sweden to pull within one shot of the frontrunning United States team after three rounds of the World Cup of Golf.
Couples and teammate Davis Love III both shot 70s for a 54-hole total of 19-under-par 413, but Anders Forsbrand fired a 68 and teammate Per-Ulrik Johansson had a 69, giving Sweden a 414 total and putting the Swedes in position to split the top prize of $240,000 for the winning team."We're still in first place and I definitely like our position," Couples said of the U.S. team which has held the lead since the start over the par-72, 6,955-yard La Moraleja Golf Club.
"We haven't done anything fancy in the last two days, like making a 30-foot-putt or something - and I've made three double bogeys."
Wales, Germany, and Spain were tied for third at 416, one shot ahead of Australia, whose 15-under-par total has been produced solely by Brett Ogle. Teammate Peter O'Malley is at par 216 in the four-round event that ends Sunday.
Ogle, at 201, leads Forsbrand by one shot for low individual honors, which carries a prize of $75,000.
Johansson shot his second straight 69 after an opening 74, taking some of the pressure off Forsbrand. The two won this event last year and the Dunhill Cup at St. Andrews.
"If I can shoot another round in the 60s and Anders keeps going the way he is, we'll win the tournament," said Johansson, a member of Arizona State's 1990 NCAA championship team.
Heinz-Peter Thuel, an obscure 29-year-old German professional who finished 130th on the European money list this season, shot a career-low 65 - the best round of the tournament - putting Germany in contention, as Bernhard Langer carded his second straight 66.
Ian Woosnam has carried Wales, shooting 13-under-par, with teammate Mark Mouland at three under.
Sweden briefly shared the lead with the United States when Forsbrand and Johansson both birdied the 14th hole.
But birdies on the 16th by Love, who is 10-under for the tournament, and Couples, nine-under, gave the Americans a two-shot lead before Couples fluffed a chip shot on the 18th after his approach bounced through the green and into the rough.
In Mount Pleasant, S.C., Don Pooley shot an 8-under-par 64 Saturday to take an eight-stroke lead over Mark McCumber and Bruce Fleisher in the Amoco-Centel Championship.
Pooley had a first-round 65 and then shot a 64 in the second round to take a four-stroke lead.