Cheesesteak chugger Justin Thomas could steal the crowd and the show on Sunday at Truist Championship

As the late-afternoon sun began its slow drain from the sky above Philadelphia Cricket Club, a door to a modular trailer swung open and a thin man stepped out into the evening. The winds had died down, but Justin Thomas looked like a man who carried their memory with him. His backward hat sat high and loose on the top of his head, as if he had attempted to put it on while carrying a couple of bags of groceries. An expression of weary relief washed across his face. As the door to the scorer’s office closed behind him, he let out a sigh.

“I just kind of fought, battled, stayed patient, and just tried to take advantage of the opportunities when I had them,” the world’s fifth-ranked golfer said.

It sure sounded like somebody needs to chug another cheesesteak.

» READ MORE: Sepp Straka and Shane Lowry are three shots clear of the Truist Championship field after late birdies

If Thomas did indeed treat himself to another one of the delicacies from Angelo’s, he more than deserved it. Sunday’s final round of the Truist Championship needed some star power. In Thomas, it will get it. The two-time major winner continued his early-season surge by firing a 4-under 66 on Saturday to put himself in a tie with Keith Mitchell for third place, three shots off the lead. No offense to tournament coleaders Sepp Straka and Shane Lowry, tied at 14 under, but there will be a final group, and a group with the biggest crowd.

In Thomas, the TV people and tournament sponsors will have one of golf’s most recognizable names to go with a top of the leaderboard that seems ripe for some Sunday drama. That’s not to say they wouldn’t have scripted Saturday differently if they could. They had a feature-worthy group with Rory McIlroy and Colin Morikawa playing together while entering the day among a jumble of players tied for fourth place, five off the lead. But this was a totally different Wissahickon Course from either of the first two days, with swirling winds and greens that picked up speed as the day wore on.

McIlroy, who exerts a remarkable amount of gravity on a crowd regardless of where he is on the leaderboard, gave the gallery a show early. He sank a 53 foot putt on No. 6 to record his third straight birdie, moving him to 10 under and within striking distance of the lead.

The momentum died fast, and with it the dream of the Master’s Champion headlining Sunday. McIlroy ended up in a bunker on No. 7 and then two-putted for double bogey. He followed that up with a bogey on eight and finished the day at one-under. And that was still three shots better than Morikawa.

“Look, it’s great to see the way the conditions come into it today,” said Lowry, who is looking for his first individual victory at a major since the 2019 Open Championship, despite a number of close calls. “The golf course is standing up really well. Because the fairways are quite generous for us this week. I feel like the fairways are wide, and once you get the ball on the fairways, you’re going to have some chances. It was very tough today in those winds, particularly tough to hole putts. When you get inside 10 feet, to be really precise on these greens was tough. I think you just need to get the ball in the fairways your first go. It doesn’t matter how far it goes. Once you’re in the fairway, I think you can really get after this golf course.”

Which brings us to Thomas. Now 32 years old, the one-time wunderkind displayed plenty of his newfound zen while battling his way to remain in position to claim his second tour victory of the season. He spent much of the afternoon charging, birdieing Nos. 6, 7, 9, 12, and 13 despite claiming not to have his best stuff. The momentum could have come to a screeching halt when he bogeyed the Par 5 15th, his second on a par 5 of the day. But he seized it back on 18, hitting a five iron from 209 yards out and then a 27-foot putt to grab the birdie and move into a tie for third.

» READ MORE: Truist Championship golfers love Philadelphia Cricket Club’s short — but ‘diabolical’— par-3 No. 14 hole

“I would say it’s a lot of probably faith and belief in my game and where everything’s at,” Thomas said. “I think it doesn’t — it doesn’t just happen coincidentally. I do think it’s something that you can do the best that you can in terms of thinking your way to being more positive and good things will happen.”

In a tournament that has been short on compelling stories outside of the Cricket Club’s history, another step in Thomas’ redemption tour would provide a heck of an ending.