U.S. Open 2014: Leaderboard, live coverage, results and more from Saturday’s round at Pinehurst

Martin Kaymer continued his domination of the 114th U.S. Open field on Saturday, holding on in brutal scoring conditions to take a six-shot lead at the 54-hole mark. He did not have the same game as the prior two days, and no one was coming close to that 65 score with the way the course was setup in the third round anyways. But even without his top form, Kaymer still held on, mitigating the bad shots off the tee and with his irons by repeatedly converting up on the green with his putter.

The five-shot lead is one of the bigger 54-hole margins in U.S. Open history, and as such, Kaymer is a ridiculous 1/3 favorite with 18 holes to play. He’s in such a good position to win his second major championship, that Bovada decided to go ahead and make a separate “non-Kaymer odds to win” division. It seems there’s been a “B Flight” of players all week, and a birdie on the 18th to get Kaymer back in front by five only added to that notion at the end of another day.

Although his lead was cut by a stroke on Saturday, Martin Kaymer remains in control at the U.S. Open. He’ll begin the final round with a five-stroke lead and will be back in the final pairing. His group would have already received a lot of attention, but with Rickie Fowler joining him in the final round, that will only increase.

Fowler, one of the biggest fan-favorites on tour, played his way into a tie for second place with a 3-under round of 67 on Saturday. He might need a similar round on Sunday if he’s going to make a serious run at Kaymer, who sits at 8-under. Kaymer wasn’t nearly as good in the third round as he was in the first two, yet he was still able to mitigate damage, get up-and-down at crucial times and come away with a solid round. The two will be the last group off the tee in the final round, with a scheduled tee time of 3:35 p.m. ET.

Martin Kaymer is just 18 holes away from becoming the first German to ever win the U.S. Open. After setting a U.S. Open record with back-to-back 65s in the first two rounds, Kaymer came back to the field just a bit in the third round at Pinehurst, finishing 8-under overall and five shots clear.

Kaymer did not have the same form that overwhelmed the field and the course in the first two rounds, but he held it together up on the green to keep some distance on all the chasers. He got a little loose with iron shots late on Friday and was even shakier in the third round, sending several drives off the course and misfiring on approach more than we had seen. He missed more fairways on Saturday (four) than he did in the first two rounds combined. But he was always able to mitigate the damage and avoid the total implosion that seemed necessary in order to get the rest of the field back into it.

Things were going so well for Kevin Na, who had closed Martin Kaymer’s lead to just four shots as the final pairings made their way through the back nine at Pinehurst. That may sound like a significant margin, but it’s the slimmest lead Kaymer’s held since Thursday.

Unfortunately for Na, his time as solo second and four shots back was fleeting. He’s been a trendy pick to contend this week because his short game is so strong. That’s a huge advantage at this Donald Ross Pinehurst No. 2 layout, where so many balls roll off the repellant turtleback greens. Na had been steady chipping those balls up to the hole, getting up-and-down. But that came undone at the 15th, and Na rocketed one right through the green, and then flubbed his pitch coming back from the other side.

It’s been a battle for Martin Kaymer on the front nine of the third round at the U.S. Open, but he’s still left the door firmly shut for any of the chasers deep down the leaderboard in the “B group” this week at Pinehurst. The course is an entirely different test on Saturday, with stronger wind coming out of the north for the first time. The pin placements are almost extreme, and the greens have dried out considerably to repel almost everything off their Donald Ross deisgned turtleback shape.

An even-par round of 70 might be the best score of the day, and Kaymer went out in just 1-over and is still clear by five shots. The course average at the moment is 75, and there was no way he was going to approach those two opening rounds of 65. But he started to leak a little oil on Friday, hitting some loose iron shots that maybe gave the field a sliver of hope. He’s certainly not had the same game as the first two days, but managed to keep it together while everyone else tries to hold on for life on a brutalizing Pinehurst.

We’re all waiting on a Martin Kaymer meltdown to make this U.S. Open moderately interesting on the weekend, and a wild drive on his fourth hole of the day put him in one of the worst lies you can get at a U.S. Open. Kaymer sent one well off the Pinehurst fairway, his ball rattling around in the trees, and coming to rest in what looked to be the pinestraw.

But when Kaymer, and the NBC cameras, arrived at his ball, they found a ghastly lie. Kaymer’s ball came to rest in some wash-out hardpan, and firmly up against a wall of the pinestraw.

With dry conditions and challenging pin placements, Pinehurst No. 2 is playing extremely difficult on Saturday. Phil Mickelson battled his way to a solid round of 2-over 72 and while that was more than three strokes below the scoring average for the day, it didn’t help him make up any ground on the leaderboard.

Mickelson managed only one birdie on the round and ran into trouble late with a pair of late bogeys to drop him to 5-over for the tournament and 14 strokes off Martin Kaymer’s lead. Despite being 2-over on the day, Mickelson’s round was actually one of the better rounds of the third round thus far with many players struggling to stay even close to even par. Mickelson, however, likely needed a better than solid round to play his way into contention.

Pinehurst No. 2 is playing so firm, fast, and difficult, that players are now actually performing great feats of athleticism to mark their ball before it starts rolling off the Donald Ross turtleback greens.

Rory has hit some good shots today, and isn’t playing particularly bad, but he’s 3-over through his first five holes and caught some really tough breaks on these greens.

The golf course is humiliating a great majority of the field on Saturday at the U.S. Open, but that doesn’t foreclose quick individual moments of brilliance (and maybe a little bit of good fortune).

While everyone else was busy imploding, including Toru Taniguchi’s 18-over round of 88, Champions Tour ace Kenny Perry delivered the shot of the tournament so far. Perry is the oldest player in the field at 53 years, but he can still hang with the younger guys when it comes to bombing it off the tee and overall length with his irons.

It’s moving day at the U.S. Open but the only real moves being made are tumbles down the leaderboard. After better-than-expected scoring conditions through the first two rounds at Pinehurst No. 2, the course is fighting back in a big way on Saturday. There are only two players under-par at the moment, Victor Dubuisson and Shiv Kapur, who’s miraculously in the red at 2-under though his first 11 holes of the third round.

The oil spills and blowups are all over the board, but none worse that Toru Taniguchi’s disastrous 18-over round of 88. There will be big numbers lurking all over the course, and a steady even-par round of 70 will probably push a player way up the board. The USGA set up some brutal pin placements, and there’s also a stiff breeze for the first time this week, coming out of the North for the first time to confuse the players a bit. And of course there’s the fiery and firming-up turf at this restored venue, with greens running at least 12.5 on the stimpmeter and all the drop-offs around the turtleback greens shooting even good shoots many yards off the green.

So, uh, Pinehurst is playing a little more difficult on Saturday than it did in the first two rounds. Let’s check in with Toru Taniguchi.

Ouch -- five double bogeys and an 18-over mark. That would be one way for Martin Kaymer to come back to the field. He’s not going to implode like that, but he’s certainly not going to be carding a third straight round of 65 with these pin placements, the wind up, and the course firming out. Only one player on the course is in the red, and the movers on “moving day” will be those who can shoot even-par.

Phil Mickelson has arguably the best short game in the world. He’s proven the ability to hit great shots under seemingly impossible circumstances. With extremely dry conditions and a brutal pin setup, Pinehurst No. 2 is playing close to impossible for some. Not even Mickelson could solve the bunker at No. 6 when his solid strike came up only inches short of being perfect, only to end up back at his feet.

Mickelson’s second attempt was much better and he tapped in for a bogey.

Keegan Bradley has, shall we say, a unique pre-shot routine that seems to work for him but inspires satirical riffs and rankles the heck out of some observers.

ESPN’s Paul Azinger, for one, almost can’t look each time the 2011 PGA champion goes into his twitchy little cha-cha, which was on full display Thursday and Friday as Bradley played the first two rounds of the U.S. Open alongside run-away leader Martin Kaymer.

Will the weekend at Pinehurst just be a two-day formality before Martin Kaymer is handed the U.S. Open trophy on Sunday night? Someone will have to make a move, and early on Saturday for there to be any chance of drama over the final 18 holes at Pinehurst No. 2. Kaymer will come to the course with a six-shot lead after posting the lowest 36-hole total in U.S. Open history, back-to-back rounds of 65 for a 130 at the midpoint.

It’s not the ideal way NBC would like to sign off from their longtime coverage of America’s national championship. They were already dealt a bad hand with Tiger Woods, the game’s ultimate moneymaker and TV draw, on the shelf injured. Now after minimal coverage through the first two days while ESPN carried the load, they may be treated to an uneventful weekend where the winner is clear from the start.

It should come as no surprise, but Martin Kaymer is a heavy favorite to win the 114th U.S. Open. The German machine is now 1/2 to win his second major championship, sitting on a six-shot 36-hole lead at Pinehurst No. 2.

That margin matches Rory McIlroy (2011) and Tiger Woods (2000) for the largest lead at this point in a U.S. Open. His two-day total of 130 after back-to-back rounds of 65 is the lowest mark in U.S. Open history, edging that masterpiece by McIlroy at Congressional by a shot. It’s hard to see Kaymer regressing back to the field at this point, and it’s even harder to see anyone chasing him down. If the USGA makes conditions much tougher, as is their wont, that should actually be better for Kaymer. After winning The Players a month ago, we knew we’d hear more from Kaymer again ... just not this soon and in not such a convincing manner.

Martin Kaymer hits the midpoint of the U.S. Open with the lowest score in the 114-year history of America’s national championship. Kaymer backed up that startling opening round 65 with another round of 65 on Friday to get to 10-under. He’s the first player ever -- in any of the major championships -- to start with those two dazzling numbers.

Kaymer held an eight-shot margin on the field for most of the day, but Brendon Todd “closed” it to six shots with a round of 67 in the afternoon draw. That matches the largest 36-hole lead in the U.S. Open, joining Rory McIlroy (2011) and Tiger Woods (2000). He’s just the sixth player to reach double-digits at the U.S. Open, at any point, whether it’s 36 or 72 holes.

Bubba Watson called the crowned Pinehurst No. 2 greens “unfriendly” heading into the U.S. Open and it turns out the entire course wasn’t too kind to the defending Masters champion. At 6-over, Watson finished on the wrong side of the 5-over cut line and is one of the notable names not sticking around for the weekend. Jason Dufner, Hunter Mahan and Luke Donald also missed the cut.

Watson got off to a rough start on Thursday and was never able to recover. He carded five bogeys and a double bogey on his way to an opening round 76. He played better on Friday, shooting an even-par 70, but it wasn’t good enough to make up the ground. Watson bogeyed three of four holes before making the turn, a costly stretch. He never appeared to be overly comfortable with the course setup and struggled to hit fairways.