Matthew Wolff fires 65, leads U.S. Open heading into final round!

Photo courtesy USGA/Darren Carroll

Matthew Wolff went out and fired a 5-under 65 Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open at Winged Foot to take a two-shot into the final round.

Bryson DeChambeau will be paired with Wolff in the final grouping Sunday, after an even par round left him at 3-under for the tournament.

Louis Oosthuizen turned in a 2-under round to stand 1-under heading into Sunday. Hideki Matsuyama, Xander Schauffele, and Harris English sit at even-par for the tournament and are tied for fourth.

Second round leader Patrick Reed imploded during the back nine on Saturday. He made the turn at 1-under for the round, but then played the back nine in 8-over to fall back to 3-over for the tournament, tied for 11^th.

What makes his round that much more amazing is that Wolff only hit two fairways during his round.

In fact, Wolff has only hit 12 fairways through the first three rounds.

“I think my putting was by far the best it’s felt in the last two or three months,” said Wolff. “I feel like even though I missed the fairway, there was a lot of times I was in that graduated rough that’s a little shorter, and I feel like yesterday the difference was I was in the really long stuff.”

DeChambeau birdied 16 and 17 to pull within a shot of Wolff, but then bogeyed No. 18 to end his round at a 70.

“Well, the round today was a huge battle,” said DeChambeau. “I was proud of the way I persevered out there today. It was difficult. Especially when you’re not hitting it straight in the fairway. For me it felt like I kept myself in it, scrambled really well. Got to do that tomorrow, but I also have to hit some more fairways. I know that. I’m going to work on that tonight and make sure I’m doing that tomorrow.”

Oosthuizen has flown under the radar all week, but that’s all out of the window now. The winner of the 2010 (British) Open, as well as the runner-up in all four majors in 2012, Oosthuizen has been there before.

“Yeah, I mean, I need to play pretty similar to what I did today,” said Oosthuizen of past majors’ experience preparing him for Sunday. “You need to hit fairways. I think everyone out there now, especially on this golf course, knows you need to be patient. A lot can happen even in the last two, three holes, so try and get yourself in a position with three, four, five holes to go and see what you can do.”

As good as Reed played Friday, he was equally bad on the back nine Saturday.

“Well, I got all my bad shots out of the way,” said Reed. “You know, it was just one of those days. I couldn’t find a fairway, and from there trying to guess out of the rough all day, it was just hard. It was brutal.”