Tommy Fleetwood remained on course to extend his stay at the WGC - Dell Technologies Match Play after a solid start on day three at Austin Country Club.
A victory for Fleetwood over Matt Kuchar would take his tally to two points from his three round robin matches with only a Brendan Steele win preventing the Englishman from taking part in a play-off.
Steele led Group 16 on one and half points from his first two matches while his opponent Zach Johnson needed a victory to also finish on two points, which he looked on the way to doing as he was one up through seven.
The Race to Dubai rankings presented by Rolex leader raced into a two up lead after back-to-back birdies at the second and third but Kuchar restored parity following a stray Fleetwood tee shot at the fourth and a gain at the fifth.
A birdie at the sixth put Fleetwood back in front before both players hit pars on the next two to leave the 26 year old in the ascendency with ten holes to play.
Martin Kaymer needed to come out on top in his clash with Webb Simpson and needed Dustin Johnson to slip up against Jimmy Walker in their Group 1 match in order to force a play-off with the World Number One.
The German kept his part of the deal as an opening par was enough to take the first hole before a Simpson bogey at the fourth gave Kaymer a two lead.
Simpson hit an eagle at the sixth to reduce the scores back to one up with 12 holes remaining.
Johnson, however, did not read the script as he stormed into a six up lead through seven.
Patrick Reed was trailing by three holes to 100 per cent man Brooks Koepka after 12 holes in Group 9 with Kevin Kisner one up against Jason Dufner in the other contest in the group.
In the sole match of Group 8, Thongchai Jaidee led two up against Bernd Wiesberger in their dead rubber.
