Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy holds a massive eight-shot lead heading into the final day of the US Open at Congressional, while Australian Jason Day moved up to a tie for third.

McIlroy, 22, carded a three-under-68 to move to 14-under as he broke Jim Furyk's record for the lowest score ever at a US Open after 54 holes and moved closer to winning his first ever major title.

Korean Y.E Yang is his nearest rival way back at six-under, while world No.2 Lee Westwood, Day and American Robert Garrigus are tied for third, a further shot back.

After a double-bogey on the last hole of his second round, McIlroy was keen for a comfortable start to calm his nerves and achieved that with four successive pars, before birdies on the fifth and ninth holes.

He quickly recovered from a bogey on the 10th to immediately produce a birdie and another on the 14th took him to three-under, before he ended the day in the same way he started as he made four successive pars.

Yang made an early bogey but managed to hit two birdies in his final five holes in his round of 70 to claim outright second, while Day shot a six-under 65 to equal the best score of the tournament.

Four successive birdies from holes six to 10 set the platform for Day's charge up the leaderboard before he added birdies on the 16th and 18th while Westwood also carded a 65, with three birdies and an eagle in a four-hole spell the highlight of his round.

Garrigus shot a three-under 68 to continue his good work, while a shot behind the trio are world No.6 Matt Kuchar, Spaniard Sergio Garcia and world No.122 Fredrik Jacobson.

Kuchar and Garcia both shot 69, with the latter finishing with three birdies from his last six holes but they were overshadowed by Jacobson, who was one of the stories of the day with his five-under 66, courtesy of six birdies in his first 11 holes.

Korean Kyung-tae Kim is outright ninth after a two-under 69 while Americans Bo Van Pelt, Brandt Jobe, Davis Love III, Heath Slocum and Sweden's Henrik Stenson are in a five-way tie for 10th.

Defending champion Graeme McDowell is tied for 21st, 2011 US Masters winner Charl Schwartzel is locked in a six-way tie for 27th and world No.3 Martin Kaymer is tied for 36th.

World No.1 Luke Donald and Phil Mickelson (ranked fifth) both struggled for the day as they slipped well back into the field, with the pair joining the likes of Bubba Watson in a seven-way tie for 56th.