Jack Dempsey / AP

Phil Mickelson, shown here completing his second round on Friday, missed the cut and failed in his attempt to win a third title at the International.

When the top 70 golfers who made the first cut teed off again for Round 3, Johnson holed out from 96 yards from the fairway for an eagle on the first hole.

“Making that eagle was huge. It brings confidence, it brings momentum,” said Johnson, who birdied four of his last five holes. “You jump a lot of people and that’s the beauty of this format.”

Just before he eagled, a bee landed on Johnson’s ball, forcing a bit of a delay.

“You can’t touch your golf ball but you can kind of (shoo) the bee off,” he said. “And eventually it moved. It was probably a wasp or a hornet or something, I don’t know. It was big. I didn’t want to kill it.”

Just as critical as that sensational start was Johnson’s fantastic finish in the morning when he sank a 12-footer for a bogey save on No. 9.

“A horrible third shot and a horrible fourth shot. So, making that putt, I mean that’s a two-point putt,” Johnson said. “And any time you’ve got a two-point putt, I don’t care what it’s for, it’s huge.”

Johnson is ninth in the Ryder Cup standings, and his solid season excites Lehman, captain of the U.S. team that will go to Ireland next month to try to bring home the cup for the first time since 1999.

“Zach has played very well all year. He’s been very steady. He’s had some good tournaments and the thing I like is that his bad tournaments have been not too bad,” Lehman said. “If he plays poorly, he’s 30th or 25th, and that’s a very comforting thought when you’re going into an international competition ... when you know that your player’s bad golf is still pretty good.”

Lehman, however, shied away from questions about what he’d do if he played himself onto the Ryder Cup team.

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Divots: 2001 champion Tom Pernice Jr. took the 36-hole lead with 19 points but didn’t add any in the third round, when he had five bogeys and a double-bogey. ... Phil Mickelson missed the 36-hole cut by one point. ... Saturday’s play was interrupted by a 15-main rain delay. More rains are expected Sunday.