HAVERFORD — The conditions continue to get firmer and faster at not-so-big but increasingly bad Merion Golf Club. It has led to some amazing jockeying at the top of the leaderboard during an eventful third round of action at the 2013 U.S. Open.

Nobody was able to open more than just the slimmest of leads throughout, but when all of the twists, turns and maneuvering finally concluded, another late surge by fan favorite Phil Mickelson helped him retain the lead with just one round remaining of this nation’s 113th national championship. Mickelson did it while all of the top competitors around him were faltering.

With more runner-up finishes (five) than any player in U.S. Open history, Mickelson can exorcize some demons today, which just happens to be his 43rd birthday. At 1-under 209, ‘Lefty’ is the only player in the field to break par through 36 holes, and his grinding even-par 70 Saturday was enough for a 1-stroke lead over Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan and South African Charl Schwartzel.

“I love being in the thick of it,” Mickelson said. “I’ve had opportunities in years past, and it has been so fun, even though it’s been heartbreaking to come so close a number of times and let it slide. But I feel better equipped than I have ever felt heading into the final round of a U.S. Open. My ball striking is better than it’s ever been. My putting is better than it has been in years, and I feel very comfortable on this golf course. I love it.”

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If it wasn’t already decided, it’s now official: a sub-7,000-yard golf course can, indeed, provide the kind of challenge you commonly see at a U.S. Open. As an example, Mickelson would have to shoot a pie-in-the-sky 64 today just to match David Graham’s winning score from 1981, the last time Merion’s East Course hosted the U.S. Open. Merion has only surrendered a couple 67s all week.

“I think whenever you shoot under par on Saturday at the U.S. Open, you can’t be too disappointed,” Schwartzel said. “There’s a few easy holes out there that you got to take advantage of, which I did. And then you’ve got the hard ones, which are where you come in and finish on. So you’re going to get some and you’re going to give some. So anything under par is fantastic here.”

The co-leader at the start of the day, Mickelson dropped three strokes off the pace at the turn, and he still trailed Mahan, Schwartzel and Luke Donald heading into Merion’s classic, lethal final two-hole stretch. All three of the co-leaders bogeyed the 254-yard, par-3 17th, but Mickelson calmly fired his approach over the ancient quarry, and buried a birdie putt from about 12-feet to vault into the lead. Only four other players managed to card a 2 on 17 all day.

“Well, on the tee I’m just thinking 3,” Mickelson admitted. “I just want to hit the green and make par and see if I could make a putt.

“But the 4-iron I hit, I just stood there and admired it — it was one of the best shots I’ve ever hit. I mean it just was right down the center of the green and I was hoping it would kind of get the right bounces and so forth, and it did. It left me a beautiful uphill putt that I could be aggressive with and I made it. That was fun to do that because that’s just not a hole you expect to get one back.”

Mickelson’s only bogey over the course of the final 13 holes came at the brutish 530-yard, par-4 18th, when his 3-wood approach carried through the green from 274 yards. He didn’t lose any ground to his nearest pursuers, however, as Mahan and Schwartzel also had bogeys and Donald suffered a double bogey when his approach found the thick rough.

“It’s exciting. I feel like my game’s been good for a while and I felt like this course suits me pretty well,” Mahan said.

“I should have done better,” Donald lamented. “It was disappointing. But I’ll take the positives out of today, a really solid 16 holes of golf that I played and I’m only 2 back.”

Thanks to a shaky 6-over 76 by Tiger Woods, we won’t have the ultimate leaderboard for today’s final round — but we do have a terrific array of star power playing at a venue with a storied history of hosting exciting championship finishes. Saturday’s leaderboard was so bunched at the top, no fewer than seven different players had at least a share of the lead at some point during round three. But that isn’t surprising because, as we’ve seen all week, a round at Merion has ebbs and flow, where players tend to surge on some of the easier holes – including Nos. 1, 10 and 13 — and then fall back on the brutes, like the 5th , 17th and 18th.

In all, nine pursuers are within 5 shots of the lead. Semi-retired from the PGA Tour, the 46-year-old Stricker moved into a share of second place thanks to an unspectacular, yet steady, 70 that included a double bogey and crucial birdies at Nos. 10 and 12. He is at even-par 210 along with Schwartzel (69) and Mahan (69). Schwartzel was in front for 10 holes before giving back two shots on the final two holes. Mahan did the same immediately after making four birdies in a seven-hole stretch to get a piece of the lead.

“I’ve got to play smart golf,” said Stricker, when asked what it is going to take to win his first major. “I got to not make any mistakes. I think that’s the biggest thing. And it’s a course where it’s tough to come back from. There’s a lot of good holes, especially coming in at the last five holes, so you have to play smart, you’ve got to take advantage of some of those shorter holes and give yourself some opportunities.”

Donald (71), Justin Rose (71) and second round co-leader Billy Horschel (72) are tied for fifth place at 1-over 211. Jason Day shot a 68 and has sole possession of eighth place at 2-over 212, with Rickie Fowler (67, 3-over 213) and amateur Michael Kim (71, 4-over 214) rounding out the top-10.

Woods birdied the first hole and then fell apart to notch a 76, free-falling to 9-over 219 and into a tie for 31st place. The slide began with three bogeys in four holes and he was never able to turn things around.

“I didn’t make anything today,” he said. “I just couldn’t get a feel for them, some putts were slow, some were fast and I had a tough time getting my speed right.”

As for Mickelson, his love affair with Merion, which began on Thursday when he called it the best U.S. Open set-up he’d ever seen, continues. Could this finally be the time and the course, where Mickelson finally breaks through and wins the one golf tournament he wants to win more than any other?

“I think it’s helped me this week, one, how much I’ve loved the golf course and the setup,” Mickelson explained. “But two, how much I’ve appreciated the fact that there are some birdie holes.

“What I love about Merion is that the discrepancy between the really hard holes and the potential birdie holes and, as a player, that’s what we want because it gives us opportunities to separate ourselves from the guys that aren’t playing their best.”