Bethesda: A crowd of more than 35,000 came out to watch the third round of the US Open on Saturday at the Congressional Country Club. They lined the fairways and tees and encircled the greens 10 deep.

A hot sun left the air steamy and turned the galleries feisty. They sought drama, a good clash, maybe something to give hope to the promise of a final-round showdown. They longed for someone to make a charge at Rory McIlroy, and any number of aspirants in good position threw their logo-festooned hats in the ring.

So on the first tee, a large crowd cheered for Sergio García, until he hooked his opening drive in the deep rough. García’s shoulders slumped, increasingly a default pose. Several holes later, another García drive ricocheted off a spectator. The crowd cheered García still, and he had the occasional near-miraculous recovery. There was some of the old magic but only so much. When the day ended, he shot a 69 but was still 10 strokes behind McIlroy’s score of 14 under.

Along came Zach Johnson, who birdied the first hole. The crowd following Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, surged — until he bogeyed the second hole, a pattern of good and then bad that he continued throughout the day.

There were the two Brandts: Brandt Jobe, who had two birdies on the front nine, then consecutive bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes; and Brandt Snedeker, who made a habit of bogeying the easy holes and making birdies on the hard ones that led to no progress up the leader board.

Fredrik Jacobson, wearing his all-white “Man From Glad” suit, made noise with four consecutive birdies in the middle of his round. But after a bogey on the 13th, he was in the middle of the 14th fairway drop-kicking his club in disgust after a wayward shot.

Then there was Y. E. Yang, who began the day with the biggest hopes of all. His initials do not stand for “You’re Everywhere,” but in the early going, it certainly seemed that way. Scattering drives hither and thither playing alongside McIlroy, Yang battled bravely, but it was telling that a smile did not crease his face until he birdied the 14th hole.

Then again, McIlroy made a birdie putt seconds after Yang’s wee grin to maintain what was then a nine-stroke lead. There was plenty of good golf played Saturday by golfers not named McIlroy. There were more than 20 scores under par. In most any other year, in fact, the third-round performances of all the non-McIlroys would have set up a much-anticipated Sunday shootout.

If McIlroy were removed from the leader board, there would be eight players bunched within three strokes of the lead. There would be 11 more within five strokes of the lead. Instead, the cast of characters who appears to be playing for second place through 20th is just that — a collection of guys who battled to be noticed but came out looking similar.

“Level par at the US Open after three rounds ought to put me right in the thick of it,” said Graeme McDowell, the defending champion who, like McIlroy, is from Northern Ireland. “But it’s a different year because Rory is making it look incredibly easy. That’s what’s been running through my head the last couple of days. It’s just phenomenal. You run out of superlatives to describe what he’s doing this week. He’s decimating a field.