Dec 10, 2006 4 min read

ST. JAMES, Barbados (AP) – The United States made seven consecutive birdies to end the front nine, vaulting up the leaderboard. Wales finished its day with five straight, and Scotland strung together four in a row to put itself into contention. Still, they’re all looking up at Sweden and Argentina entering Sunday’s final round of the final World Golf Championships event of the year.

Welcome to a suddenly close-knit World Cup, which seemed destined to be an Argentine runaway at one point before the leaderboard turned into one giant cluster at Sandy Lane. Sweden (63) rallied to finish Saturday 16-under par and with a one-shot lead over Argentina (67), with Scotland (65) another shot back.

After the Scots, it’s a seven-way tie for fourth at 11 under – with Wales (62) and the U.S. (63) making big third-round moves to get into that cluster, along with Italy (64), Mexico (65), Spain (67), South Africa (67) and Germany (68).

“I think it might be a dogfight tomorrow,” said Stewart Cink of the U.S.

If not for Cink, the U.S. – seeking its first World Cup since 2000 – probably wouldn’t be included.

Cink had five of the seven birdies during the Americans’ big run to end the front side, a burst that started when J.J. Henry drove the green at the downwind, 353-yard third hole, two-putting from about 70 feet.

Cink hit a 15-footer from above the hole for birdie at the par-3 fourth, then made a tricky downhill try from about 12 feet at the fifth.

On the par-5 sixth – playing directly into the wind – Henry’s chip from left of the green stopped about 10 feet from the cup. Cink chipped his ball from the right side much closer, before Henry made his putt to get the U.S. to 7 under.

Cink birdied the next three holes, all from 20 feet or less. At the eighth, with wind whipping across the green and making him back off from the putt once, Cink got the ball to just trickle in the right side, and his approach to within 4 feet at the ninth helped move the U.S. to 10 under. He also had the lone American birdie on the back, at the par-5 15th.

“Let me say just one thing: Stewart played phenomenal golf out there today,” Henry said.

The U.S. team struggled to a 2-over 73 in Friday’s alternate-shot round, putting itself in an eight-shot hole entering Saturday.

“Before we even started this morning, I told J.J. it felt like a day where we should just aim at every flag,” Cink said. “And why not? I don’t know really why that was, but we didn’t have a lot to lose.”

Now, they have a lot to chase – the winning team after Sunday’s foursomes round splits $1.4 million.

Sweden’s Carl Petterson had five birdies, four of them on the back side, to help his team into the lead. He and Henrik Stenson have Sweden poised to win its first World Cup title since 1991, nine years before the event was added to the World Golf Championships schedule.

“We were trying to grind,” Petterson said. “We knew we had to shoot low, and on the back nine we really got it going.”

Argentina’s Andres Romero and Angel Cabrera saw their run of 42 straight holes without a bogey end at Saturday’s eighth hole and stalled somewhat from there.

Argentina entered the day three shots ahead of the field and was five shots ahead after four birdies in Saturday’s first seven holes. But after the bogey on the par-3 eighth, Romero and Cabrera had only one more birdie the rest of the way and Sweden took advantage.

“We are close,” Romero said. “One stroke. It’s not very much. We are sure of that.”

Colin Montgomerie nearly holed out his approach at the 14th, with the ball rolling just inches from the cup to set up a birdie – one of four straight over holes 12-15 for Scotland, which has never finished better than second in World Cup play.

“It was important for us to keep in touch and we did,” Montgomerie said. “Nice to get a few birdies on the back nine, which helped and gave us a chance at winning tomorrow.”

Good as the Americans’ round was, it wasn’t even the best of the day.

Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd, the defending champions from Wales, recovered from Friday’s alternate-shot 75 with a 62, closing with five straight birdies to enhance their bid of holding onto the cup.

Still, with so many teams in the title mix, Wales knows a five-shot deficit will be only part of Sunday’s challenge.

“Have to have a brilliant day,” Dredge said.