UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- Louis Oosthuizen was in the trio of disaster for the opening round of the U.S. Open.
The 32-year-old South African shot a 7-over 77. That was the best of the bunch. Tiger Woods shot 80 and Rickie Fowler an 81 on Thursday at Chambers Bay.
Things got worse after the first two holes Friday.
"Being 9-over through 20 holes, it looked like I would have been back [home] in Florida [having missed the cut]," Oosthuizen said. "I didn't give myself much chance."
About 26 hours later, Oosthuizen was tied for fifth at 1-under and in contention for the championship after three rounds. Back-to-back rounds of 66 have him behind only four golfers, who happen to be the co-leaders at 4-under: Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and fellow South African Branden Grace.
"I made a few putts [Friday] and started hitting the ball really well," said Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open Championship winner. "Today, I hit it really close on a lot of holes. This probably could have been a lot lower."
Oosthuizen struggled with his putts at times on the difficult greens, including missing a 4-footer for birdie on No. 18 Saturday.
"It's a challenge to make a lot of putts on these greens," he said. "The greens are so firm now, so you need to work the slopes on the greens to get it close. I did that today."
His chances of winning, statistically speaking, remain an uphill climb. The most recent major winner to shoot 77 or worse in the first round was Sam Parks Jr. in the 1935 U.S. Open.
The difference is players shot much higher scores in those days. Parks won the tournament at 11-over 299. He was never more than six strokes behind. Oosthuizen was 12 back after Thursday and 8 behind entering the third round.
His playing companions were having an unimaginably awful opening round.
"I played as bad as them that first round," Oosthuizen said. "I think we just pulled each other down quite a bit. It's tough when all three players are like that. You don't really get into it."
Somehow, Oosthuizen got things together, while Woods and Fowler kept struggling and didn't come close to making the cut. Oosthuizen shot 6-under during the last 16 holes Friday and is 10-under over his past 34 holes.
"I always want to give myself a chance," Oosthuizen said. "Even if you're playing badly, you want to work on something those last few holes, just to take it into next week. But I started hitting the ball better and better as I went through the second round and hit it really well [Saturday].
"It just shows you to never give up, especially on a golf course like this. If you play well, you can really climb the leaderboard."
Oosthuizen believes he could have climbed a little more, if not for the Chambers Bay greens many golfers have criticized. Oosthuizen is one of them.
"There's no grass on a few of them," Oosthuizen said. "It's just dead. There are a few holes where it doesn't look real good, but it's the same for everyone. I think everyone probably expected it to be a bit better. But you've got to stand out there and try and knock it in."
No one has done a better job of that the past two days than Oosthuizen. Can he contend for victory Sunday?
"If I hit it the way I did [Saturday], I think I've got a pretty good chance of putting a good number out there again," Oosthuizen said. "If I can go out and shoot 1- or 2-under on the front nine and just put yourself out there on the back nine, anything can happen."
Oosthuizen's one major victory came five years ago at St. Andrews, where he lapped the field by seven shots. Chambers Bay is a links course like St. Andrews, where next month's Open Championship will be played.
"It might look like an Open golf course, but it's definitely not," Oosthuizen said of Chambers Bay. "You play quite a bit different golf here, pitching it up, taking more club, running it onto the green. I think ball-striking is keen to really pinpoint where you want to pitch it on the greens. I like shot-making golf courses where you need to use a lot of little different shots."
Oosthuizen found his shot-making talents when a lot of guys never figured out how to play Chambers Bay, including his two big name playing partners Thursday and Friday.
"I think there are a lot of people that want to forget this week and the way they struggled around this golf course," Oosthuizen said. "I was probably one of those on Thursday evening, but I just kept my head down and told myself to really stick it out and try and do something."
Now he has a chance to do something special on Sunday.