A very nervy swing on the second tee from Viktor Hovland and he's heading right into the sand. His second isn't much better with his ball thudding into the rough around the putting surface.

Talking of breaks, did JJ Spaun put his shoes on a table or something before heading out?

The American nails his approach to the second but as it skips on it clatters the flagstick and runs way back down and then off the green. He'd have been putting for a birdie from eight feet or so.

The damage is just one shot as Adam Scott nudges in a short curler for a bogey on the first green.

Sam Burns has a long birdie putt to make it a two-shot swing, but he just can't connect with it so stays on four under but now leads by two.

Tough start for Adam Scott as he misses the first green to the left of the flag, and leaves him a horror chip from the rough stuff, which he can only bunt out onto the green and leave 30 feet for par.

And his par putt isn't the best either as it's a bit weak and pulls up well short.

A big shout of 'JJ all the way' comes out as JJ Spaun gets his fourth round under way with a bit of a sliced drive down the first that finds the rough.

He's right in the oomska with his second that shoots off left and when you're putting from 33 feet for par at Oakmont, it's far from ideal and he drops a shot.

Viktor Hovland, who absolutely butchered his drive on Saturday and had to take a penalty drop in the cart path, finds the right of the fairway and gets his reward as he knocks his second on to the dance floor.

Two regulation putts and he secures a solid par, a stroke better than yesterday already.

Both Tyrrell Hatton and Carlos Ortiz give themselves a look at erasing that opening bogey with fine approaches to the second green.

But no, they've both missed.

A quiet word from Hatton in the general direction of caddie Hugo Dobson. There will be plenty of chatter today, I'm sure.

We mentioned Cameron Young could go low today, and he's started like he means business as he makes it back-to-back birdies with a three at the third to improve to one over.

He's now in fifth on the leaderboard...

Thriston Lawrence's goose is cooked.

He's backed up a bogey at the first with a miserable double at the second.

Not how he pictured his final round starting.

Adam Scott is challenging for his second major title in what incredibly is his 96th consecutive men's major championship appearance.

Only Jack Nicklaus has managed to make 100 major appearances in a row - with his eye-popping 146 consecutive appearances never likely to be beaten.

Scott's run started back at the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2001 - when Saturday's playing partner Viktor Hovland was aged just three!

For context, Tiger Woods' best ever consecutive streak of majors was 46, while Phil Mickelson's best is 61 in a row.

The Australian would love to celebrate the landmark with a win!

Oh, Tyrrell.

Hatton nudges his first putt around three feet past and pushes his par effort - it didn't even touch the hole!

He looks disgusted.

It's a bogey for Carlos Ortiz, too. Not what they needed.

Tyrrell Hatton doesn't take advantage of a fine drive down the opening hole. From 176 yards, he leaves himself a 30-footer for a birdie.

He'll take two putts from there.

Carlos Ortiz comes up short and the Mexican is suddenly struggling for par.

Not often this happens but all of the top 10 on the leaderboard after the third round ranked outside the 10 top in the world rankings.

Viktor Hovland, who is 14th is the highest player in contention. The last time all of the players who were among the top 10 at that stage of a US Open were outsude the top 10 in the world was in 1998 at The Olympic Club.

Lee Janzen, who won that year, was 42nd in the world at the time and a certain Adam Scott is currently 42nd in the world!

Surely a complete coincidence.

The Australian, who won the Masters in 2013, would break the record for the longest time between a player's first and second major championship victories, if he were to triumph this year.

The current mark is shared by Julius Boros (1952-1963) and Ben Crenshaw (1984-1995) - both went 11 years between their first and second majors.

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Viktor Hovland still isn't at ease with his game, as a few wild drives showed yesterday, but he's "buzzing" to have the chance to win the US Open - if he can just solve that final piece of the puzzle in cutting out those bad swings.

"I'm really, really happy to have a chance to win a major championship," he told Sky Sports after his round, before heading out to the range to work on a few things.

And on those bad drives, he added: "I just have to figure that out, but at the end of the day, to have the chance to win tomorrow is just absolutely amazing.

"I'm buzzing for that but we've just got to keep grinding and hopefully we can get it done."

Look, it's never over until it's over at the US Open, but a really poor double bogey for Scottie Scheffler is surely the end of his slim hopes of doing something special.

He found the famous Church Pews bunker off the tee, escaped then hit an approach to 30 feet, but then his Achilles heel struck as he took three to get down from there to eventually sign for a six.

Tyrrell Hatton doesn't miss many fairways and he sends a beauty down the opening hole...and narrowly avoids one of the numerous divots about 310 yards down there!

That'll do nicely for the Englishman.

Carlos Ortiz is well placed, too.

Disappointing start for Thriston Lawrence who finds a bunker off the first tee and ends up dropping back a shot.

He's stuck around this week but six behind the lead is a long way around here.

Viktor Hovland was 65th on strokes gained off the tee in the third round and was out putting in the work on the range long after everyone else had turned in for the night on Saturday.

The Norwegian was seen smashing balls as the sun set in Pittsburgh but will it pay off today as the world number 14 attempts to land an elusive first major title?

The 27-year-old's work ethic certainly can't be faulted and he seems up for the task ahead.

"Just feel like I've matured a lot more, just seen a lot more stuff happening. I know kind of what it takes to win a major championship, so I know the shots to try to hit and what shots not to try to hit," he said on Saturday.

"Feel like I'm way better equipped, just need to get that driver sorted, and I've got the game to do it. So it's like I'm super proud that I'm that close, but it's kind of frustrating that the driver is still just kind of holding me back a little bit.

"If you would have asked me start of the week if I had a chance to win on Sunday I would have been extremely happy with that, three shots behind. A lot of things can happen out here. That could go away on one hole. But I don't expect Sam [Burns] or JJ [Spaun] to mess it up out there. They're solid players. But I just need to figure out my driving, put the ball in play and I'm feeling really good about my game."

Cameron Young starts his final round with a par at the first - he's just inside the top 10 and seven shots off the lead to start the day, but is that too far back?

After all, he has form for a flying major finish as he shot a Sunday 65 at St Andrews to come runner-up behind Cameron Smith in the 2022 Open Championship.

And he's fourth in putting so far this week, so if he gets on a roll...

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It's a closing par and a three-under round of 67 for Rory McIlroy. Six birdies and three bogeys. Not bad around Oakmont - it's the best round out there so far today.

A week to forget for the Northern Irishman. He carded a bogey-free two-under front nine on Thursday, but little else went right after that.

He's committed to playing in next week's Travelers Championship, so today's outing should give him some positive swing thoughts to take into the last of this year's PGA Tour signature events.

In terms of major competition, all roads lead back to home soil with next month's Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

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Tyrrell Hatton's best major finish in 40 starts is a tie for fifth at the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon.

He's given himself a great chance of bettering that tonight and, who knows, if he picks up a few early birdies, nobody will dare tell him he can't win this thing.

Hatton hit 13 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens yesterday, but his hopes were dampened a bit by a double bogey on 15.

But if he can replicate his tee-to-green accuracy, he will certainly have enough birdie opportunities to give the leaders something to think about.

The Englishman is out with fellow LIV Golf player Carlos Ortiz. The Mexican bogeyed the last hole yesterday for a 67. Before this week, he'd missed seven cuts in nine major starts, so this is a new stage for him.

With only four players under par after 54 holes, we've got use to this course beating golfers up this week.

But it's definitely mellowed over the weekend.

At the time of writing, six holes are playing under par, so there are birdies out there.

And plenty of them are on the back nine, so strap in for fireworks when the leaders reach there.

(Provided they survive 15, 16 and 18 that is...)