Day will sleep on edge of contention after third-round 66

Lowry, looking to give Irish golf its 10th major in the past 10 years, came within inches of his sixth birdie of the round on No. 14.

Johnson, who had a birdie on the 15th to get to three under, came close to winning this title past year but three-putted the final hole to hand victory to Jordan Spieth. This might be no less shocking.

Johnson, who because of the rain was forced to play both his first and second rounds on Friday, is used to leading in majors.

Back he came at 7am on Sunday and took full advantage of flawless scoring conditions with birdies at the 15th and 17th holes for a fabulous 65 to strengthen his chances of becoming the Republic of Ireland’s first victor in 116 editions of the season’s second major.

“Who can’t be excited about that?” he said. I will only know the day that it happens. “That’s probably been one of the biggest things, that and not making as many putts”. He began dropping shots and was three behind, along with Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia. He drove to the green at the par-four 17th and two-putted for birdie. He played his first nine holes of Saturday in 4 under par, after a rather desultory 77 on Thursday.

Dustin Johnson is no longer leading, but is still one of the favorites at Oakmont. Shane is five under with four holes left and you reckon he’s going to stay there.

He admitted to being “anxious” when he got to the first tee early Saturday morning after hitting just one putt Friday – a 10-footer for birdie on his final hole. He hit his next tee shot so far left that it went over a counter of lemonade glasses and into a concession stand, the ball settling next to a blue tub filled with bags of ice. He had almost seven hours before he teed off in the final round. Understands it so well that he did it seven times in the last calendar year, including the PGA Championship for his first major title.

Elsewhere, world number one Jason Day, the 2015 PGA Championship victor, is six shots off the lead after carding a 66, which included four birdies in his first five holes.

OAKMONT- After a slow start to the Open, world No. 1 Jason Day appears to have found his game. Now he is eight shots back.

The Offaly native followed up opening rounds of 68 and 70 to pick up three more shots and move clear atop the leaderboard. He was at even-par 210, along with Scott Piercy, who also had a 72.

The world’s 624th ranked golfer is in the final group for the final round of the U.S. Open.

Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa also carded a second-round 65 Saturday to pull even for the tournament and is in a five-way tie for 11th. Day and Johnson are tied for eighth, six strokes behind Lowry.

Dustin Johnson had the 36-hole lead and opened with a birdie to start the third round. He ended it four shots behind. He tapped in for par and headed back in when play was suspended by darkness. “And today, I holed some putts as well, so ‘A-plus.’ At the end, it was a very good day on a very hard course like this”.

Top-ranked Lydia Ko shot a 67 to reach 11 under.