RORY MCILROY heads into the final round of the US Open one shot behind joint leaders Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark.
The Northern Irish star, who has four majors to his name, shot a one-under 69 to move to nine under at the Los Angeles Country Club.
Fowler bogeyed the last to shoot a 70 and join fellow American Clark on 10 under as he chases his first major.
World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is three shots back despite holing from 196 yards for an eagle on the 17th hole.
He also birdied the last and became just the second player after Tiger Woods to win the US Open while sitting at the top of the world rankings.
But his two-under 68 only saw him finish 27th out of the 65-man field on strokes gained putting.
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McIlroy was also below-par but he managed to record a third consecutive round in the 60s.
And if he can improve his putting this afternoon then a nine-year wait for a fifth major championship should end.
He said: “I feel pretty good.
“The golf course definitely got a little trickier than the first couple of days.
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“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 I'm pretty pleased.
“I feel like I'm in a good spot.
“I'm going out there to try to execute a game plan. I feel like the past three days I've done that really well.
“I just need to do that for one more day.”
Clark, who had missed the cut in his last two US Open appearances, had hit the front before stumbling with successive bogeys on the 11th and 12th.
But Fowler's brilliant 70-foot birdie putt on the 13th helped ensure he had the upper hand heading into Sunday.
He said: “I hit a good putt on 18 so really can't go back on it.
“It would be nice for that one to go in but it really doesn't matter, having the lead, being one back, two back. You're going to have to play good golf.
“After going through the last few years, I'm not scared to fail. I've dealt with that. We're just going to go have fun, continue to try to execute, leave it all out there, see where we stand on 18.”
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