Rory McIlroy will begin the final round of the 123rd US Open at Los Angeles Country Club one shot behind joint leaders Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark after carding a third-round 69.
After a bright start that saw McIlroy birdie two of his first three holes, the County Down golfer struggled to make any progress from there with his putter going cold despite some promising approach play.
McIlroy finally ended his streak of pars but in unwelcome fashion, a first three-putt of the week on the 13th dropping him back to eight under.
A birdie followed at the par-five 14th though, with the Holywood man finishing with four pars to sit on nine under as he tries to end his long wait for Major number five.
"I feel pretty good," McIlroy said. "The golf course definitely got a little trickier than the first couple of days.
"I felt like I played smart solid golf. It felt somewhat stress-free, if you can ever call golf at a US Open stress-free, but overall pretty pleased with how today went. I feel like I'm in a good spot going into tomorrow."
Final pairing Fowler and Clark exchanged the lead a number of times as the course firmed up for the later starters with only 19 players finishing the day under par, but it was the local Californian Fowler who looked set to hold the sole lead with one round remaining heading down the last before some late drama.
The day finally received a much-needed spark when Fowler holed from 70 feet for an improbable birdie on the 13th, followed moments later by Clark holing from 12 feet for his first birdie since the third.
Fowler, chasing his first ever Major, followed it up with a beautiful approach to 14, but his birdie attempt hit the side of the hole and rolled away.
Pars were the currency mostly from there, but Clark made a big error on 17, leaking right and taking a drop to fall to nine under with a bogey, but he provided a brilliant birdie response at 18 to move to 10 under and denying McIlroy a spot in the final group.
It looked like that birdie would mean that Clark would trail Fowler by one starting Sunday, but his rival made a rare mistake with the putter to bogey 18 and move back to 10 under.
Scottie Scheffler, meanwhile, holed an incredible eagle at the 17th from 196 yards to get back into contention, the world number one finishing on seven under after a closing birdie.
There was an excellent showing from Padraig Harrington with his 67 moving him to one under and well inside the top 20. Shane Lowry also had a promising 68 to move to level par.
Harrington did it the opposite to most, starting with seven pars before collecting his first birdie on eight to be one under for the easier playing front nine.
Birdies followed at 12 and 15 with the only blemish on his card arriving at the 16th.
Lowry had a frustrating sense of deja vu despite carding his lowest round of the wee.
Lowry followed rounds of 72 and 70 at Los Angeles Country Club with a 68 on Saturday to get back to level par for the tournament, but felt he could have done even better despite the conditions getting more difficult.
"Pleasing but could have been better, like most of my days this year," the former Open champion said after a round containing five birdies and three bogeys.
"I got to four under after nine and was pretty happy with myself and got robbed on 10 with a really slow lip out.
"I was really happy when I woke up this morning and saw the sun up and bit of wind and knowing with the leaders not playing until very late they might get it a bit tougher.
"I thought if I could shoot five under I could really move up the leaderboard but 16 and 17 were just a bit sour for me. Missed a short putt for par on 16, just lost concentration, then hit a great shot into 17 and just hit my putt too hard.
"I feel like mentally I've been pretty good this week; early on today I holed some great par putts. My iron play hasn’t been as good as it normally is so it’s one of those weeks where I’m finding stuff and losing other stuff.
"It’s a funny game for me this year where I’m doing some things well one week and then other things well the next week. I keep saying it will all come together soon, I just hope it’s on the right week."
The par-three 15th had been set up to play just 80 yards in round three, but Lowry revealed he had no intention of trying to attack the flag.
"It’s different, it’s interesting," Lowry said. "I had a game plan to just play it into the slope where the pin was yesterday and hit it to 25 feet.
"There’s nowhere really to hit to. If I had 10 balls there I’d probably hit the green once going at the flag so I’m not going to take that on, especially as I was going OK.
"At this level you just need to be very disciplined in your decisions."
Additional reporting: PA
