Johnson grounded despite impressive 66

Former Masters champion Zach Johnson is keeping a lid on his expectations after a third-round 66 thrust him into contention at the Open.

The 36-year-old, a winner at Augusta in 2007, moved up to five under as he bounced back from Saturday's damaging 74. However, despite his recent good form, coming into the tournament on the back of a win at the John Deere Classic last week - he knows there is plenty of work still to do.

"I don't like expectations. After a good round, you expect to go out there and do it again - especially after I birdied the first hole again yesterday," he said.

"I felt like, okay, let's do it, and it's never that easy. Today I felt much more relaxed, much more patient and never got too ahead of myself.

"One under going into today I knew if I was going to get back in this tournament I had to make a move of some sort although I wasn't thinking about that out there.

"My approach tomorrow won't be any different, I don't think. It's going to be just hitting solid shots and giving myself opportunities.

"I'm hitting a lot of greens and that's what I've got to continue to do. If I can keep hitting greens, getting an occasional long putt to drop, you never know what can happen."

Johnson, who is not one of the longest drivers on the circuit, admits the soft fairways have not helped him this week and favours traditional hard and fast links conditions.

"I like having to use the ground. Obviously I don't overpower golf courses so I put a lot of pride in the fact that I can hit fairways regardless of the conditions.

"Wet, moist conditions, especially off the tee, is not very ideal for me, I like the ball rolling out but I can adjust to whatever. Today I drove it as good as I've driven it this week, certainly, but probably for the year."