After making birdies on his final two holes and three of the last four to make the 138 cut on Friday, defending champion Dustin Johnson made the biggest move on Moving Day, carding six birdies in the last 12 holes in shooting a 65 that vaulted him 49 spots into a tie for ninth at 7-under 203.

“It was a little better, gave myself a lot of looks,” said Johnson, who is trying to join Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson as the only repeat winners in tournament history.

“All in all, it was really solid. Drove it nice. Hit a lot of nice iron shots… The finish was definitely good. I feel like I’m doing a lot of things really well. It’s just every time I feel like I make a mistake, it’s a bogey.

“When you’re playing well, you miss a shot, you’re grinding out the par. That’s just what I haven’t been doing lately, or making big numbers, which I don’t really do either.

“So it’s nice this week obviously playing solid. To birdie the last two yesterday to make the cut, which I definitely wanted to be here for the weekend, and obviously going out today and shooting a nice score, it was good. So I feel like the game is coming around.”

Johnson, who is three off the pace of the co-leaders Kramer Hickok and Bubba Watson, will be paired with Matt Jones on Sunday.