PHILADELPHIA — Course setup, more specifically the pin locations, has been all the rage this week at Aronimink Golf Club.

Rory McIlroy, the reigning Masters champion and arguably the most famous golfer going right now, went so far as calling the bunched leaderboard after two rounds Friday “a sign of not a great setup.”

They threw another setup wrinkle into the mix for Saturday’s third round, moving the tee box on the par-4 13th hole ahead 91 yards, making it a drivable, 292-yard hole. McIlroy still had six holes to play — an eternity in a golf tournament — before getting to what would be the easiest birdie hole of the day when he stepped onto the sixth tee box having made birdie on No. 5 to get to even par for the tournament.

McIlroy teed his golf ball on the left side of the box and lashed a driver down the right side of the 397-yard hole. The wind, McIlroy said, was blowing toward the players earlier in the week. Saturday brought a helping wind.

The ball landed in front of a bunker complex that guards the front-right side of the green and hopped forward with pace on a fairway that had dried out. It rolled all the way to the front of the green, officially 369 yards away from the No. 2 player in the world.

“I wasn’t trying to hit it on the green,” McIlroy said. “I was just trying to get it up there somewhere around the green. I knew, if I hit it good, I could get it close to front edge. It was a perfect line.”

McIlroy’s two-putt birdie from 60 feet put him in red figures for the first time all tournament, and by the time he got to the 13th hole, hit his tee shot into the front-left bunker, pitched to five feet, rolled a left-to-right putt in the center of the cup for his sixth birdie of the day, the six-time major champion from Northern Ireland was back in contention to win his seventh. McIlroy made a bogey on the par-3 17th and finished with a 4-under 66. He’s 3-under for the tournament and three back of the lead.

“I made, I guess, a couple of mistakes the last three holes,” he said. “I feel like I still did enough to think I have a chance going into tomorrow.”

He did plenty on a perfect day for golf. There were lower scores to be had Saturday, but late-afternoon wind gusts and firmer conditions made sure the field — McIlroy teed off more than three hours ahead of the leaders — didn’t have a chance to pull away.

Alex Smalley, the co-leader after three rounds, is atop the field at 6-under, two shots ahead of a group of five golfers at 4-under that includes Jon Rahm. McIlroy is among three golfers at 3-under. Eleven golfers are within three shots of the lead and more than 40 are at even par or better, within six shots of the top of the board.

McIlroy said he started watching "The Dark Knight" Friday and would try to finish it Saturday night to try to take his mind off of Sunday, when the two-time PGA Championship winner will be lurking behind the leaders Sunday like some sort of Batman.

He was a popular hero around the grounds Saturday. He teed off with Brooks Koepka at 11 a.m., a pairing straight out of a 2019 golf fantasy. And while a few “USA” chants broke out throughout McIlroy’s walk Saturday, the Philadelphia-area crowd loved McIlroy getting back in the mix.

“I feel like I get a lot of support anywhere I go, and I’m very fortunate and very grateful for that,” McIlroy said.

He likely will hear more of it Sunday.

McIlroy is among some heavy hitters in the pack. Rahm and Ludvig Åberg are at 4-under. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed are at 3-under with McIlroy. Justin Rose is 2-under with Monmouth County’s Chris Gotterup and Hideki Matsuyama. Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler and Koepka are 1-under.

McIlroy started the tournament with a 4-over 74, seven back of the lead. He thought back to the 2025 Masters.

“I was seven back after the first day, and I was two ahead going into the final day,” he said. “So there’s a lot of golf and a lot of things can happen during the course of a golf tournament. I’ve progressively just got a little bit closer to the lead each day.

“We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what the guys do this afternoon. But I’ve climbed my way out of that hole a little bit. I’m proud of myself for doing that, but there’s one more day left, and I feel like I’m ... depending on what the guys do ... close enough to the lead.”

There were still three hours of play as McIlroy spoke, but the words aged well. He’s more than close enough for Sunday.

Game on.

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