Patrick Reed says "it would mean everything" to him if he can retain his Masters lead on Sunday and clinch his first major victory.
The 27-year-old American will take a three-shot advantage into the final round at Augusta National after carding a five-under 67 in the third round to move to 14 under.
Reed, who led by two shots at the halfway stage, is also seeking a "home" win after going to college just down the road at Augusta State University, but he accepts that he still has plenty of work to do.
"It would mean everything," he said. "It would be my first major and also winning a major that's at home - the place where I went to college - it would mean a lot. But that's 18 holes away, it's a long way away.
"So I just need to focus on really just going out there playing some good golf and just continuing doing what I'm doing. Hit fairways, knock it on the green and let the putter do the work."
Rory McIlroy heads the chasing pack on 11 under and their pairing in the final group will revive memories of their Ryder Cup showdown in 2016 when Reed prevailed one-up.
Reed said: "It's always great, any time you can play in a final group on Sunday and to play with a guy like Rory it's going to be a blast.
"The biggest thing is I need to go out there and make as many birdies as I can and hopefully he doesn't try and run me down."
Reed's 67 included two eagles at the 13th and 15th and if he shoots a sub-70 round to triumph on Sunday he will become the first man to win the Masters with four rounds in the 60s after opening with a 69 and 66.
"It was solid," he said about Saturday's round. "I felt like early on the score was not reflecting how I was hitting the golf ball.
"I was able to turn it around by making some of those putts towards the middle of the round and towards the end.
"All in all, I just felt like it was another solid, steady day and with it raining like this a little bit the golf course softened up, so I knew some guys from behind were going to go out and shoot some low numbers.
"I knew that I had to stay patient and, even though you hear a bunch of roars, I still had those holes coming up to play and I was able to capitalise when I needed to and ride the ship and get in and be able to sleep on another lead."
Reed's fellow American Rickie Fowler is in third place on nine under after shooting a seven-under 65, his first bogey-less round at the Masters, containing an eagle at the second and five birdies.
"I'm definitely very proud," said the 29-year-old. "I knew that we were going to need a good solid round today to at least give us a chance come tomorrow and Patrick's out there playing some very solid golf, so at least we got ourselves closer. But today was big. We gave ourselves a chance for tomorrow.
"The putter felt good. I made the eagle putt on the second and kind of got things going. I made a good birdie putt on five and kind of got things rolling from there.
"I had some putts where I've been in years past and knew the reads and had some new putts that I hadn't had, so did a good job of trusting what I knew and also putts that I needed to get a new read on
"Tee to green we've been playing pretty solid all week. Today was probably the best and I feel like we can still do better.
"We'll get plenty of looks if we continue to do that and the putter has always been good to me. It's been one of the strongest clubs in my bag and it's nice to have a few go in today, so hopefully I'll continue that tomorrow."