US Open: Luke Donald keen to forget poor finish to third round
Luke Donald preferred to focus on the positives of his third-round 71 rather than reflect on a poor finish.
Last Updated: 16/06/13 9:13am
The Englishman held the outright lead on two under after backing up some exquisite iron play with birdie putts to match at the eighth and 10th holes.
But he failed to convert further precision approaches to 12 and 16, and his famed bunker play could not prevent his second bogey of the day at the penultimate hole.
Donald found the middle of the fairway at the brutal 530-yard par-four 18th, but he blocked his approach and found an impossible lie, from where he hacked over the green and took three more to get down.
Donald will go into the final round two shots off the lead on one over after signing for a 71, but he admitted his score should have been far lower.
"I should have done better," said the 35-year-old, who has yet to record a top-10 finish at the US Open.
"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 two back.
"When you look at Phil, he started winning majors around 34 or 35 so I think that I have some time on my side, luckily, in this game.
"Of course that's my goal. I got to number one in the world and I've won a great amount of tournaments around the world, but I would dearly love to win one of these."