Davis posted a roller-coaster one-over-par 73 on Saturday that left him at two-under for the tournament, in a tie for sixth and still in touch with third-round leader, American World No.1 Scottie Scheffler.

Cameron Smith remains at one-under, in joint-ninth and also in the mix, six strokes off the pace after a labouring 72.

Davis rued a crushing 45-minute stretch that sent the Sydneysider spiralling from five-under to one-under after storming to within two shots of the lead.

Australia's big halfway hope leaked the four shots in the first four holes of a horror start to the back nine.

After surging up the leaderboard with three front-nine birdies, Davis staggered around the most famous pocket of world golf after one bad swing on the 10th.

He had to chip out from the trees after a wayward drive, then fired his approach over the back of the green before taking three more shots for a double bogey six.

He compounded the error with a bogey on the 11th, then shaved the lip with a short birdie putt on 12 and dropped another shot after dunking his ball into Rae's Creek on No.13.

Suddenly Davis had tumbled back to one-under, six shots adrift of the lead.

He steadied with a bounce-back birdie on the par-4 14th before finishing with four straight pars, including a brilliant up and down from the drop zone after again finding the water on 15.

"I hung in there quite well. It was playing tough, but I feel pretty proud walking away with one over after a few, it felt like, disasters while I was out there," Davis said.

"I'm giving it everything I've got. Today I wasn't laying up and I was giving it a good crack.

"Hopefully tomorrow we'll make the right decisions in the moments and come away with a round that's as good as we can make it."

Cam Smith will need a lot of things to go his way if he is to win a green jacket tomorrow. PHOTO: Getty Images.

Davis is sharing sixth spot with American Xander Schauffele and Denmark's Nicolai Hojgaard.

Smith couldn't buy a putt all day.

After collecting his only birdie on the 3rd, the 2022 Open Champion reeled off 14 consecutive pars before closing out his frustrating round with a bogey on the last.

"I'm still in the golf tournament," Smith said.

"The way that the golf course is playing, I feel really confident with my ball striking – probably the best I've felt in a while.

"It's only one or two their way and one or two my way, and it's really close.

"Just got to keep grinding it out."

Adam Scott showed some resilience with a sub-par round of 70 to edge his way back to four-over and a tie for 26th, 11 shots off the pace.

But Min Woo Lee (75) slumped to seven-over and Jason Day (76) eight-over to round out the Australian challenge.

– Darren Walton