The unpublished story on Zach Johnson's bogey-free round at the PGA Saturday

Because of reasons completely beyond my control, my story of Zach Johnson's third-round 70 at the PGA Championship Saturday did not make it into Sunday's Gazette. So, here it is:

CHASKA, Minn. -- Of the 80 players who competed at the PGA Championship Saturday, here's the complete list of players who had a bogey-free third round:

Zach Johnson.

The Cedar Rapids native's golf game was on, to understate matters. He may not have torched Hazeltine National with his 2-under-par 70 on a day when seven players shot between 67 and 69, but he certainly stayed on top of it.

“It was one those days when if I got in trouble, I pretty much did a good job of getting myself out of trouble,” Johnson said.

But there wasn't much trouble to escape. Johnson stuck primarily to a diet of fairways and greens. That's always good, but it can really make you healthy at a major championship.

Johnson began the day tied for 48th. His round lifted him to a tie for 23rd at 1-over 217 entering today's final round, nine shots behind leader Tiger Woods and three shots out of the top 10.

He is slated to tee off in today's concluding round at 11:57 a.m., paired with Ben Crane.

After parring every hole on the front nine Saturday, Johnson cashed in his splendid approach shot on 10 with a 2-foot birdie putt.

Two holes later, he hit his only severely errant tee shot of the day. It landed left of some deep rough and with a semi-decent lie on flatter grass. Johnson muscled a fairway wood to a greenside bunker on the par-4, pitched to within 3 feet of the cup, and saved par.

“That (tee shot) was a blessing in disguise,” Johnson said. “I figured out my drive after that and striped it. Sometimes you need a minor error.”

No more such miscues followed, and Johnson kept rattling off pars.

“I putted really well,” he said. “Aside from probably a 7-footer (a birdie miss) on 2 and a 5-footer (for birdie) on 11 - misreads - I putted really, really, really, really well. It was a good day.”

Johnson closed the round the same way he finished Friday's second round, with a nice putt that dropped. But this time, it was for birdie instead of par. An 8-footer gave him a reason to pump his fist at the many fans of his who were in the bleachers and lining the gallery ropes at the 18th green.

“It's big,” he said of that putt. “Yesterday I had a nice par putt (at 18) that kind of led into today.

“I feel good with my putter. I made a couple of minor adjustments at the beginning of the week. I'm hitting putts solid, which obviously is important out here.”

With another good round today, Johnson can post his second-best showing in his 23 appearances in major tourneys. He won the 2007 Masters. His next-best outing in a major was a tie for 17th at the 2005 PGA.

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