Alex Fitzpatrick in pole position at Quail Hollow, Cam Young lurking two behind

The Englishman carded a seven under 64 around the iconic course on Saturday, enough to take him to 14 under for the tournament, one ahead of Norway's Kristoffer Reitan, but Young stole the headlines after his 63 threatened the course record.

Fitzpatrick, the younger brother of 2022 US Open winner Matt, dropped just one shot on the par four 16th on his way to sneaking the lead. The 27-year-old is motivated by his brother's success.

"I feel like he's been and done everything that I want to do in the game, whether that's Ryder Cup and win majors," said Alex.

"So having him being around and me being there for all of that, I felt like I got a really good sense of what it takes and what the atmosphere is like."

Meanwhile, Young was buoyed by an eagle on the par 5 seventh, then a run of three birdies from 14-16 took him to nine under and Rory McIlroy's course record of 61 was under threat. Unfortunately for the American, his birdie putt on the 17th pulled up short, then an errant drive on the last resulted in a bogey.

Nonetheless, the superlative round brought Smith right into contention for Sunday silverware.

"I know [the record was] 10 under and I knew I was at nine," said Young, who is two off the pace.

"But that wasn't my thought. I was just trying to hit it somewhere right of the hole on 17 and hit a couple good shots on 18. Unfortunately had one of my few bad swings of the day on 18.

"I'm playing great. There is not a ton going on in my head, which I think is a very good thing. There is all kinds of stuff, but it's nothing complicated. I'm thinking about shots and I'm thinking about my execution and that's mainly where my head is at."

Further down the leaderboard, Sunjjae Im and Nicolai Hojgaard are on ten under, while stars Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Thomas and JJ Spaun are locked on nine under.