NEWPORT, R.I. >> The wind at Newport Country Club hasn’t been able to slow down Hiroyuki Fujita in the U.S. Senior Open.

Maybe the rain will stop him.

The Japanese Tour veteran shot a 3-under 67 on Saturday to improve to 14 under in pursuit of a wire-to-wire win and his first victory on American soil. He’ll have to withstand thunderstorms forecast for the final round as well as a charge from 2019 champion Steve Stricker, who made back-to-back birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 to shoot his third straight 66 and cut a four-stroke deficit in half.

“The conditions are supposed to be pretty bad, from what I hear, tomorrow,” Fujita said. “I don’t have a lot of distance on my club, so I’m definitely going to be in some tough spots. I’m just going to focus on the fact that I’m playing on the last day in the last group and focus on the fact that I’m lucky to be here.”

Richard Green shot 69 to sit at minus-11, with Richard Bland (69) at 9 under and Bob Estes (66) at 8 under.

Players teed off early and in threesomes from both nines on Saturday in an attempt to finish before the fog rolled in on the 7,024-yard, par-70 course on the mouth of Narragansett Bay. Tee times were moved up again for the final round on Sunday, when rain and lightning were forecast for the afternoon.

“This place is meant to be kind of firm and fast and kind of linksy in feel. If it stayed this way, a little breezy, and firmed up a little bit, it would be a really tough test tomorrow,” 2021 winner Jim Furyk said.

“If it rains quite a bit, I think you’ll see some guys who are able to score, where it’s easier to keep it on the fairway, easier to get the balls on the greens, and maybe a little less difficult,” he said. “If it’s wet, if it rains, someone will go out there and fire it.”

Fujita, who had never broken 70 on the 50-and-over tour, did it for the third day in a row while posting the only bogey-free round on Saturday. He has just one bogey in the first 54 holes and has missed just one fairway in the tournament.

“He didn’t really miss a shot all the way around. He’s very consistent,” said Stricker, who was the tournament’s runner-up in each of the last two years. “We’re going to have to go out and have a good round to try to catch him. It looks like he’s in control of what’s going on with his game and emotion.”

Fujita had three birdies on the front on Saturday to open a big lead at 14 under before making nine straight pars on the back nine.

“He just didn’t make any mistakes,” Green said. “If he plays like that tomorrow, it’s going to take a good round from the guys coming from behind to catch him. You never know in the pressure of a U.S. Open at the end of the week what might happen. But I’ll just play my game and see where it ends up.”

Stricker fell four strokes back with a bogey on the par-3 13th but then got the stroke back on No. 16. He drained a 40-foot putt on the 17th right before Fujita missed his birdie putt from about 12 feet.

Stricker, who was second by two strokes to Padraig Harrington in 2022 and one shot behind Bernhard Langer last year, has posted a 33 on all six nine-hole sides of the tournament.

“You’ve got Greenie, obviously, who’s playing great at the minute. Steve Stricker’s been there, done it,” Bland said. “I don’t know too much about the guy that’s in front, but he’s pretty much had the lead all week.”

Bhatia, Rai share PGA lead for another day

Akshay Bhatia and Aaron Rai ended the third round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in the same position they started it — tied atop the leaderboard.

Bhatia and Rai each shot 4-under 68 on Saturday to reach 17 under, sharing the lead again on a crowded leaderboard.

“So many people in this golf tournament, it’s not just us two,” Bhatia said. “We didn’t separate ourselves.”

Cam Davis (66) and Cameron Young (67) were a shot back at soggy and windy Detroit Golf Club.

Sam Stevens (66) and former Minnesota Gopher Erik van Rooyen (68) were another stroke back.

Amateur Luke Clanton (65), Min Woo Lee (66) and Joel Dahmen (68) were three shots behind the leaders, entering the final round Sunday.

The third round started a couple hours late and threesomes went off both the front and back nine because more than an inch of rain soaked the course, leaving standing water in the fairways and large puddles in the rough.

The conditions allowed players to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairways. Players, though, did not get relief from the wind that gusted up to 25 mph.

“The biggest factor was the wind,” Lee said. “We’ve been playing in pretty calm conditions the last two days and today was like a hurricane.”

American duo of Ewing and Kupcho take lead in LPGA team event

Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho handled a strong wind and the tough foursomes format for a 3-under 67 on Saturday, giving the American duo a one-shot lead going into the final round of the Dow Championship.

The South Korean tandem of Haeji Kang and In Kyung Kim was tied for second with a team of former No. 1s in Atthaya Thitikul and Ruoning Yin. The final round is fourballs, the easier format to score.

Ewing finally got a birdie putt to fall from about 18 feet on the 10th hole, and they picked up another birdie on the par-5 11th. A soft bogey on the 16th hole dropped them back into a tie and then Ewing hit a good tee shot on the par-3 18th to set up Kupcho’s birdie.

“I didn’t really know where we stood. I knew we were near the top,” Kupcho said. “Honestly, I don’t think it matters going into tomorrow. One shot lead isn’t that much when it’s the format of best ball tomorrow. Like somebody can go out and shoot 11 under. It’s just going out and focusing on our own game tomorrow.”

They were at 15-under 195 in the only official team event on the LPGA schedule. Kupcho won it two years ago with Lizette Salas.