Dustin Johnson will be seeking to turn the 54-hole lead into a major win for the first time in four attempts when he takes a one-stroke lead over Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Champ into the final round of the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park.

As Shane Lowry improved marginally thanks to a strong finish, climbing from 44th to 34th on one-under after a 69, Rory McIlroy’s hopes of a third-day charge withered with an erratic, one-over 71 that saw him fall from 31st to 43rd on level par.

Bar some record-setting final round performances, neither man will add their major haul today as five shots cover the top 20 on the leaderboard, headed by the gunslinging cool of Johnson, who made one bogey and a double-bogey but still forced his way into the lead by reeling off eight birdies in a 65.

Johnson is ranked 21st for strokes gained from the tee and 23rd from tee to green, but he’s first for strokes gained putting as he bids to add to that 2016 US Open Championship victory.

He has the slimmest of leads on nine-under-par over Scheffler and Champ, two inexperienced young guns and with another youngster in Collin Morikawa just two behind alongside Paul Casey and Brooks Koepka, a thrilling finish beckons.

Bryson DeChambeau made a 95 footer for a birdie on the 18th to get to within three shots and join a seven-man chasing posse in six-under that features Tony Finau, Justin Rose, Jason Day, Daniel Berger and Tommy Fleetwood.

Johnson is playing well but also well aware he could get trampled in the stampede if he doesn’t hit more fairways.

"I putted really well,” he said. "That was key. But I hit a lot of good shots to give myself some good looks because the flags are tucked. The greens are firm and fast. So I did hit a lot of quality iron shots. 

"Tomorrow I think I definitely need to hit some more fairways, because it's really tough playing this golf course from the rough.”

But while all the talk before the season’s first major was on the importance of hitting fairways, the player who hits it best from tee to green will likely lift the Wanamaker Trophy tonight

Casey leads that statistical category by a hair from Matthew Wolff, who is four shots off the pace, with Berger, Champ, Day and Finau all in the top 10.

As for Koepka, who is seeking a third consecutive PGA Championship title, the Floridian believes that hitting fairways is his No 1 goal as he relentlessly chasing a fifth major win in 11 starts that would see him separate himself from McIlroy in the major stakes.

“I'm playing good so I like my chances,” he said. "Just put the ball in the fairway a few more times and not in the semi. That would be all right, just not short-side myself. If I can do that tomorrow and not short-side myself, I'll have a good chance.”

Just three players into top 10 have won a Major before - 2016 US Open winner Johnson, 2013 US Open winner Rose and 2015 PGA champion Day. 

That only gives Koepka more confidence he can get his fifth today.

Asked if the second major his harder to win, Koepka said: “Well, if you look at the top of the leaderboard, I'd say yes.”:

Twelve months ago it was Johnson who was chasing Koepka in the final round of the PGA and the defending champion was quick to remind us who has more majors.

"I mean, I like my chances,” he said. "When I've been in this position before, I've capitalised. I don't know, he's only won one. I'm playing good. I don't know, we'll see.”

Johnson might have as many major wins as Koepka but suffered too many self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the foot, amassing four runner-up finishes, two of them last year, the Masters and the PGA. 

He also has another 12 Top-10s and some of those loses have been painful. 

In 2010 he led the US Open with a round to go and shot 82 at Pebble Beach to finish eighth behind Graeme McDowell. 

Later that year he birdied 16th and 17th to take a one-shot lead with one hole to play in the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, but bogeyed the final hole and was then penalised two shots for grounding his club in a waste bunker and fell into a tie for fifth place.

In 2011 at Sandwich, he played with Darren Clarke in the final round and was two shots off  the lead when he hit a two-iron out of bounds from the tee on the par-five 14th hole to make double-bogey seven and give Clarke a four-stroke cushion with four holes to play.

He led going into the final round of the 2015 US Open but three-putted the last at Chambers Bay to finish second to Jordan Spieth.

He also co-lead with Koepka going into the final round of the 2018 US Open at Shinnecock Hills and could make a putt, finishing third to the Floridian as Fleetwood nipped into second with a 63.

How they stand

1 Johnson, Dustin -5 F -9 69 67 65 201
T2 Scheffler, Scottie -5 F -8 66 71 65 202
T2 Champ, Cameron -3 F -8 71 64 67 202
T4 Morikawa, Collin -5 F -7 69 69 65 203
T4 Casey, Paul -2 F -7 68 67 68 203
T4 Koepka, Brooks -1 F -7 66 68 69 203
T7 DeChambeau, Bryson -4 F -6 68 70 66 204
T7 Finau, Tony -3 F -6 67 70 67 204
T7 Rose, Justin E F -6 66 68 70 204
T7 Day, Jason E F -6 65 69 70 204
T7 Berger, Daniel E F -6 67 67 70 204
T7 Fleetwood, Tommy E F -6 70 64 70 204
T13 Dahmen, Joel -2 F -5 69 68 68 205
T13 Kim, Si Woo -2 F -5 69 68 68 205
T13 Wolff, Matthew -2 F -5 69 68 68 205
T13 Schauffele, Xander -1 F -5 66 70 69 205
T13 Li, Haotong +3 F -5 67 65 73 205
T18 Matsuyama, Hideki -1 F -4 70 67 69 206
T18 Wiesberger, Bernd E F -4 68 68 70 206
T18 Lorenzo-Vera, Mike +2 F -4 66 68 72 206

What they said:

-9 Dustin Johnson (36); Majors 1; PGA Tour Victories 21

Well, those, I was definitely younger. I have been out here awhile now. I've been in contention a lot, and I've got it done a lot of times. Tomorrow, it's no different. I need to be out -- I'm going to have to play good golf if I want to win. It's simple; I've got to hit a lot of 100531-1-1002 2020-08-09 01:18:00 GMT Page 1 of 2 fairways and a lot of greens. If I can do that tomorrow, I'm going to have a good chance coming down the stretch on the back nine.

-8 Scottie Scheffler (24); Korn Ferry Tour Victories 2 

For sure, there's definitely some nerves but just got to try and handle them as best I can and go out and play, and I did a good job of that today just staying in the right frame of mind, hitting good, positive swings and made some nice birdies.

-8 Cameron Champ (25); PGA Tour Victories: 2

I've been really feeding off my driver. That's been the key for me… I really don't mind the wind. Obviously it makes the course just a little bit tougher, but again, like I said, I've been hitting it well. I've been executing the shots. Obviously today, I made a few slip-ups, ones obviously you wish you could get back. Tomorrow, I think I just go about it how I went the last three days, and you know, see where I fare at the end.

-7 Collin Morikawa (23); PGA Tour Victories 2

So yeah, you know, tomorrow is just going to be another day. It's going to be, you know, 18 holes I don't have to focus from hole one. I have got to not get away, not get lazy like I did yesterday afternoon towards the end of my round, because it's going to be a grind tomorrow for sure.

-7 Paul Casey (43); PGA Tour Victories 3; PGA European Tour Victories 14

On having just two bogeys and one double bogey in 54 holes — I feel really, really good about the golf game, so yeah, I've played really well and I think that reflects in the clean scorecards I've been keeping, and I feel really positive going into tomorrow. I feel like I can continue that good play. We'll see what it yields, but I certainly feel I can produce the golf I've been producing up until now.

-7 Brooks Koepka (30); Majors 4; PGA Tour Victories 7; European Tour Victories 6

To be honest with you, on this golf course I feel like anywhere from 4-under has a chance. I think that's realistic. You can get off to 3-, 4-under very quickly through seven, depending on what they do if they move the tee up, it could be four or five, and then if you play 8 and 9 well and birdie 10, I mean, you've got a realistic chance right there. It all depends what the weather does tomorrow, but any of those guys at 4-under I think reasonably have a good chance.

-6 Bryson DeChambeau (26); PGA Tour Victories 6

I'm proud of myself that I've been able to change my body, change everything, and give myself a chance to win tomorrow. That's something that I think is difficult to do when somebody goes and changes themselves, there's usually a little struggle with that. So I really am blessed and proud that I'm able to be healthy and have the ability to compete for a major championship come tomorrow. I'd also say, too, I'm looking forward to the other ones that are coming up because this is going to give me a lot of confidence.

-6 Tony Finau (30); PGA Tour Victories: 1

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-6 Justin Rose (40); Majors 1; PGA Tour Victories 10; European Tour Victories 11

Yeah, worked hard to stay in it and obviously a legitimate chance tomorrow. Going to have that freedom to go out there and play a few groups ahead and just see if I can find my round where I can kind of get it all together. You know, I've sort of had good patches, but I haven't really had a lot confidence in the game yet this week, so I've done a great job of giving myself a look. I'm looking for that one round. I'm looking for my round of the week.

-6 Jason Day (32); Majors 1; PGA Tour Victories 12; European Tour Victories 3

I feel good. I feel great about my game. Overall I feel good about my putting, as well. I feel like that's coming around nicely. Even though it didn't look like I putted that great, I'm getting the lines right, unfortunately just not starting it on the line, and sometimes the speed may be just a little bit out, but overall I feel like I'm hitting good putts, just, unfortunately, they're not going in. Tomorrow is another day, and you can wake up totally different tomorrow and feel great and everything is going to go in, so I'm really positive about how things are progressing.

-6  Daniel Berger (27); PGA Tour Victories 3

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-6 Tommy Fleetwood (29); European Tour Victories 5

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