Jordan Spieth birdies six of last eight holes on day three at PGA Championship
Last Updated: 17/08/15 6:48am
Jordan Spieth admitted he was "in the zone" as he stormed into contention for the PGA Championship title with a sensational finish to his third round at Whistling Straits.
The 22-year-old was languishing among the also-rans after following a birdie at the first with a run of nine straight pars as he failed to convert a number of chances on the greens.
But the Masters and US Open champion revived his bid for a third major of the year in spectacular style, reeling off three straight birdies from the 11th before repeating the feat over the final three holes in a scintillating back-nine 30.
Spieth's bogey-free 65 lifted him into outright second place on 13 under par, two adrift of 54-hole leader Jason Day, and he is looking forward to an exciting showdown on Sunday.
"On the back nine, it was nice to get in the zone," said Spieth, who is primed to claim the world No 1 ranking from Rory McIlroy on Monday. "The holes that I didn't birdie on the back nine, 10 I just barely missed, 14 I was short in the heart.
"And then 15 was a great two-putt. So, yeah, I'm very, very pleased to have a chance to win another major.
"I was impatient on the front nine, I felt like I was playing some solid golf but I just wasn't scoring. My score did not reflect the way that I was playing, which has been a little bit of the story this week, minus two stretches of nine holes.
"All in all, it's been really two fantastic nine holes in my mind. And tomorrow, if I can limit the mistakes and hit the fairways like we did it today, we'll be in really good shape."
A Spieth victory would emulate Ben Hogan, who was the first to complete a hat-trick of majors in one year in 1953, while Tiger Woods achieved the feat in 2000.
"Tomorrow it will be drawing on all the positives that we've done, when we did win, why did we win, what was there, and how are we going to make it happen again," said Spieth.