The way this U.S. Open is going, Saturday’s shootout between the Three Amigos may very well spill over into a Monday game of showdown poker.

David Duval, Phil Mickelson and Payne Stewart, three of the PGA Tour’s brightest stars, are finding Pinehurst No. 2 living up to its reputation as a legend-maker. After 36 holes of breath-holding, hair-raising, knee-knocking chips and putts on the Donald Ross-designed course, the three are deadlocked at 3-under-par 137.

It doesn’t appear that anyone is going to be able to pull away from the field. The course is too demanding for anyone to make a birdie run, and only the patient are surviving.

Of the leaders, only Stewart was able to gain ground on Friday, while No. 2’s crowned greens became firmer and faster as the sun bore down and the wind blew. Stewart cashed in a hard-earned 1-under-par 69 to go with his opening 68, while Duval and Mickelson could only tread water with level-par 70s.

Holding one’s own was no easy task, however. With the course approaching the conditions it was supposed to offer prior to rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, pars became a valuable asset and birdies a rare commodity.

Tiger Woods, he of the tremendous length and awesome potential, could only shoot 71 and trails the triumvirate by two. Today’s pairings will have Stewart and Duval in the final twosome with Mickelson and Woods just ahead of them.

Jack Nicklaus, who at 59 was playing in his 43rd Open, missed the cut with 78-75. Greg Norman, still struggling to regain his form after shoulder surgery last year, went home after shooting 73-78.

As Nicklaus walked onto the green at 18, a woman in the gallery shouted, "We love you, Jack!" He smiled, waved and made par from the fringe.

On the bright side, defending champion Lee Janzen birdied 18 to hit the cut figure of 147 on the nose.

Stewart played early and was delighted with 69, but didn’t shoot it the way he had planned.

"The way I got it wasn’t what I had envisioned," the knickered one said. "But it was what you have to do here. You miss the green and you have to get it up and down."

Stewart even found the Bermuda rough a couple of times.

"On 16, wow! that’s a long hole," he said of the 489-yard par-4. I drove it in the rough and had to take my medicine. I hit an 8-iron out and played it like a par-5."

Duval, who started fast and was minus-5 before making double-bogey on the par-3 6th, wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t continue the pace.

"I haven’t played a lot of U.S. Opens," he said, "but I’ve played enough that I didn’t think I could just keep going. I think, more than anything, that the wind made it more difficult. I was hitting a lot of little 7-iron knockdown shots today."

Duval feels good about his chances this weekend.

"This course just seems to set up well for me," he said. "When I walked it on Monday, it just seemed to fit me. I’m very pleased with my position now. If I make the fewest mistakes from here in, I think I’ll have a good chance on Sunday. I’m patient, and that’s what this tournament is all about.

"If you’re standing on any hole with a 9-iron or wedge in your hand, you can’t let your ego be overriding and make you shoot for the flag."

The golfers appeared tired and emotionally drained as they left the course Friday.

"It’s the tournament that causes that as much as anything," Duval said. "There’s no letup anywhere out there."

Mickelson, who seems certain now that he won’t be getting a beeper from his wife to rush home for the delivery of their first child, is also content with his position.

"David and I both feel that par will win this Open," he said. "We’re just trying to build up a few shots for the weekend. In a regular Tour event, it’s easy to look back and see someone tearing it up, but that’s not the case here. Par is good. I felt 70 would be an exceptional score today and would have taken it before I teed off."

Duval and Mickelson played together the first two days, but Mickelson denied that they made it a match play event.

"No, it never had a match play feel," he said. "It’s going to take a lot of pars to win and that takes patience, not trying to make something happen. You want to go for the center of the greens and leave yourself 30 feet. But you’re not going to make a lot of 30-footers for birdie."

Mickelson feels that if one player can make a move today and take a cushion into the final round, he will be hard to catch.

"If you have to make up ground on the leader, you’re just going to have to hope he makes some bogeys," the left-hander said. "It’s going to be hard to catch up by making birdies. You just don’t get many opportunities on this course."

Mickelson actually likes that situation, though.

"I’m heading into the weekend with a much more relaxed feeling," he said, "because I don’t feel I have to hit every shot perfect. I don’t feel nearly the tension that I usually feel in an Open."