After the lowest round of his European Tour career, Welshman Stuart Manley knew that the real test was still to come in Vilamoura today. But the 29-year-old had an early boost when a 10-foot birdie putt on the 358-yard second took him back into the outright lead at the Portugal Masters.

Manley, a team-mate of Oliver Wilson in the 2003 Walker Cup victory at Ganton, is down in 174th place on the Order of Merit after missing 20 out of 30 cuts this season.

With earnings of less than €75,000 for his travels all over the world he still needs to more than triple that if he is to avoid a return to the qualifying school next month.

A top-three finish on Sunday would do that and on seven-under par he led by one from France's Jean-Francois Lucquin, who after a hole-in-one in his opening 67 added birdies at the 12th and 13th.

Order of Merit leader Robert Karlsson, who was three under and joint 17th overnight, was among the later starters.

The Swede was playing with Lee Westwood and Miguel Angel Jimenez, third and fourth on the money list, but they badly needed to step things up after managing only rounds of 72 and 73 respectively yesterday.

So did Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie after they did the same, but Clarke set off again with a birdie to move to one under.