Rory McIlroy continued to struggle as his slim hopes of a Players Championship defence slipped away after a scrappy level-par round left him in the bottom half of the field.
Two of his three bogeys came after finding water off the ninth and 12th tees, the second cutting short his momentum after successive birdies threatened to kickstart his back nine.
But while the Northern Irishman, who will defend his Masters title next month, was stuck on one over, his Ryder Cup team-mates were flourishing.
Robert MacIntyre’s superb seven-under round of 65 – his best at Sawgrass – had nine birdies, with a brilliant finish of three in succession from the 15th and concluding with a nerveless 10-foot par putt to set the clubhouse lead at seven under.
Leader Ludvig Aberg had not started his round by the time MacIntyre had signed his card but the Scot’s position in the top five at that point gave him hope of a Sunday charge as 40 of the last 41 winners were in the top-six entering the final round.
Still on their front nine, Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Sepp Straka and Tommy Fleetwood were all inside the top 14.
World number one Scottie Scheffler shrugged off his struggles of the first two days with a bogey-free, five-under 67 to lift him to four under for the tournament.
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He rejected the suggestion that the work he had been doing on the range had produced a fix for his erratic driving.
“Did I find anything? I think that would imply that I was lost, which is not the case,” he said.
Spectators were delayed from entering the course in the morning “for operational reasons” after two people were shot and killed on Friday night less than a mile from the tournament’s main parking area and the suspect entered PGA property where he encountered tournament employees during his attempted escape.
