Locked together at four-under, American Will Zalatoris (67) and England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick (68) will be the final group in Sunday’s final round at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts following a day in which the leading name on the leaderboard changed seven times.

World No.1 Scottie Scheffler surged to six-under before Brookline bit back and defending champion Jon Rahm let a one-shot lead slip with a double-bogey at the closing par-4 18th hole to assume the role of hunter rather than hunted.

As cooler conditions and strengthening winds sent scores spiralling south on day three, Lee birdied his final two holes to surge from a tie for 54th at the start of the day to a share of 17th by the time the final group holed out.

One-over at the turn, Lee kick-started his third round with a curling chip-in at the par-4 10th but dropped back to one-over with a bogey at 15.

A customary 314-yard bomb left Lee just 50 yards into the 379-yard par-4 17th, his wedge to 10 feet setting up his second birdie of the day.

Ranked first in Strokes Gained: Short Game for the week, Lee hit his approach shot from 152 yards to 15 feet at 18 and drained the putt to get into red numbers for the first time in his round.

One of only seven players to break 70, Lee’s two-over total puts him in excellent position to add to his tie for 14th on debut at The Masters and potentially earn exemption into the 2023 US Open at the Los Angeles Country Club.

As his name continued to climb up the leaderboard throughout the afternoon, the 23-year-old took to Twitter to offer two fans tickets to the final round, with only one cheeky stipulation.

Adam Scott had six bogeys and four birdies in his third round of two-over 72. He turned in one-over and then holed a putt from 27 feet to start his back nine with a birdie.

He got up-and-down from 27 yards short of the green for birdie at the 622-yard par-5 14th and then hit his approach to 17 to five feet to be four-over for the championship and in a tie for 33rd.

Bogeys at 16 and 18 saw Marc Leishman (73) join Scott at four-over while Todd Sinnott (74) dropped three shots in his final two holes to be six-over and tied for 45th in his major championship debut.

US Open Round 3 scores
T17        Min Woo Lee     73-70-69—212
T33        Adam Scott        69-73-72—214
T33        Marc Leishman 70-71-73—214
T45        Todd Sinnott      71-71-74—216
MC        Cameron Smith 72-74—146
MC        Lucas Herbert    74-79—153
MC        Jed Morgan       82-74—156

US Open Round 4 tee times AEST
12.17am             Todd Sinnott, Patrick Reed
1.28am Marc Leishman, Mackenzie Hughes
1.39am             Adam Scott, Richard Bland
3.12am Min Woo Lee, Sebastián Muñoz
4.45am Matt Fitzpatrick, Will Zalatoris