The flamboyant Poulter is not shy with an opinion or a pair of trousers

"They're going to be dealing with emotions that they've probably never dealt with before."
Tiger Woods, a 12-time major winner, stokes up the pressure on his less experienced opponents ahead of the final round.

"It will take someone pretty special to beat him tomorrow."
Nick Dougherty, who played with Woods on Saturday, says what we were all thinking from the minute the world number one started finding fairways again.

"Tiger or Jim Furyk or Justin Rose, I can't control what they do, and they can't control what I do. Which is the beauty of golf."
Not that Aaron Baddeley was sounding defeatist. Philosophical, yes, but not defeatist.

"What would it mean? It would mean the world. It would mean everything. I'd like to be that guy tomorrow."
Paul Casey makes it fairly clear that he would quite like to be the man to win Europe's first major for eight years.

"It has to happen sooner rather than later. There are so many capable players from Europe. It's a question of who it will be."
Justin Rose would also quite fancy it too but he is hedging his bets a little more than Casey.

"An impossible lie is an impossible lie."
Bubba Watson denies suggestions that his hacks in the rough beside the green at the 9th were rather too hasty for somebody leading the US Open - this is perhaps an implausible lie.

"I need a couple of caddies to keep up with me. I need one in front and one behind."
Mathew Goggin was a man in a hurry on Saturday - out first on his own, the Australian raced around in 74 shots and less than three hours.

"The golf course is the story this week, or the way the USGA sets it up - one of the two.
Masters champion Zach Johnson takes time out from his Oakmont struggles to give us journalists a few pointers.

"Maybe I'm not hitting my irons close enough or straight enough or whatever. I really don't know."
And his multiple-choice answers are the stuff of "quotes of the day" compilers' dreams.

"I played awesome today."
Ian Poulter, no really, gives a modest assessment of his day's work.