American Brandt Snedeker charged into the hot seat after an impressive third round at the US PGA Tour Championship.

Snedeker shot a bogey-free six-under 64 to move to eight-under, tied for the lead with Englishman Justin Rose (68).

They have a two-shot buffer over Ryan Moore (65) at six-under and are three clear of world No 1 Rory McIlroy (68), Masters champion Bubba Watson (70) and veteran Jim Furyk (72).

Should Snedeker go on to win, he would pocket the tournament trophy and the FedEx Cup, as well as around US$11.4 million ($13.7 million) in prize money.

"It was probably one of the best rounds I've played this year," Snedeker said.

"I drove it fantastic. Hit a lot of quality iron shots, and putted actually okay." Tiger Woods was close enough after a 67 had him four off the lead but Australia's hopes all but vanished after Adam Scott and John Senden failed to charge.

Scott put himself into position to make a back-nine move but stalled coming home and seemingly played himself out of the tournament.

Senden also had a day to forget, shooting 73 to fall to three-over and a tie for 22nd.

In a week where he's been statistically better than usual with his putter, Senden was left to rue a few costly three-putts.

He carded three bogeys and a double bogey with just two birdies.

Leaderboard

202: Brandt Snedeker (USA) 68 70 64, Justin Rose (ENG) 66 68 68
204: Ryan Moore (USA) 69 70 65
205: Rory McIlroy (NIR) 69 68 68, Bubba Watson (USA) 69 66 70, Jim Furyk (USA) 69 64 72
206: Tiger Woods (USA) 66 73 67, Robert Garrigus (USA) 68 69 69, Matt Kuchar (USA) 67 69 70, Bo Van Pelt (USA) 67 68 71.

- AAP