Steve Flesch made just one bogey in the third round. (Getty Images)

It's that Flesch knows what people think -- and he thinks they might be right as he embarks as the clear underdog Sunday at Augusta National Golf Club.

Flesch birdied the 18th hole on Saturday with a perfect 6-iron to four feet. (Getty Images)

The Masters

Full coverage Round 4 Tee Times Leaderboard Running Round 3 Notebook More notes Tiger back after a 68 Phil slips with a 75 Preview: Round 4 Video: Immelman's post-round interview Video: Casey's post-round interview Video: Snedeker's post-round interview Video: PGA TOUR Today Podcast: Round 3

"The majors are about the world rankings and Tiger Woods and history, and I'm not a name anyone is used to hearing," the veteran left-hander said after his punctilious 3-under-par 69 on a soggy Saturday afternoon kept him among the leaders with 18 holes remaining. "I'm not a name people see on the weekend at a major. I've never been close to winning a major. I'm totally off the charts."

Nevertheless, after a day when he was seldom off the mark playing with a more celebrated and decorated fellow left-hander, Phil Mickelson, the 40-year-old veteran from Union, Ky., has a chance to write himself into the script from which he had just voluntarily omitted his own name.

Moving from shot to shot coolly and confidently while his playing partner, a two-time Masters champion, was coming unglued, Flesch did his best impersonation to date of a major player, erasing one bogey with four birdies, including a 4-footer at the home hole set up by a gorgeous 6-iron that prompted him to remark to his caddie, Paul Fusco, as it neared the cup, "That's as good as I've got."

His 69 came on the heels of a 67 Friday, the low round of the tournament, and Flesch, the 1998 PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year, enters the final round at 8-under 208, three behind Trevor Immelman, the 2006 Rookie of the Year. Brandt Snedeker is just one ahead; he was the 2007 Rookie of the Year.

So, who said Flesch doesn't belong?

He'll go off Sunday in the penultimate group with England's Paul Casey, a young rising star.

He'll go off while chewing on a piece of reality that isn't necessarily bitter, but certainly is making him salivate.

"I've got nothing to lose, and I know that," said Flesch, who has posted two top-10 finishes in his 25 major championship starts, with a tie for seventh in the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst his best. "Nobody is expecting much of Steve Flesch. But I have a big heart, and I've proven I have a few shots in my bag, so I'm just going to go play and try to have fun."

It's not hard to have fun when two key components of your game are clicking. Flesch, whose best finish at Augusta in three previous appearances was a tie for 17th in 2004, recently switched to a Cleveland Hi-Bore driver, and he ditched his belly putter, the one he used to win twice late last season, in favor of a conventional Never Compromise Exchange 5 model.

Both have been instrumental to his success.

"I drove it as well today, maybe even better than I have the past two days, which as I was talking about yesterday, sets up my iron game," Flesch, winner of last year's Reno-Tahoe Open and Turning Stone Resort Championship, said. "And I had a lot of good numbers today to keep the ball below the hole, which was one of my big goals out here."

He didn't necessarily putt well, but he saved a few crucial pars with his flat stick on the front nine. On balance, his was a relatively stress-free round, which anyone seldom experiences at Augusta National, especially on a funky day when rain made the layout play longer and increasing winds made it trickier.

Flesch, whose two victories last year ended a three-year drought, is one of the game's more cerebral players, which often evokes a somewhat temperamental disposition when the putts aren't dropping. He'll say he's not a major player, but he expects more of himself than he lets on.

And, yet, he's prone to some self-deprecation. "I write and eat right-handed, I throw left-handed. I started playing golf right-handed and then switched. I'm pretty messed up," he said with a laugh as he hugged his son, Griffin, while talking with reporters in the media center.

His daughter, Lily, was hovering close behind and other family members were in the vicinity. Flesch was clearly reveling in the moment while talking about all the things he's doing well, all the fun he is having and all the reasons he probably won't win.

Except he knows that he can win, even if many observers think otherwise.

"This means so much to me, because I don't know when I'm going to be back or how many chances like this I'll ever have," he said. "You know, I haven't been lighting the world one fire. It's easy for people to look past me. But I am just having a ball out there, and my family is here and I'm just enjoying the whole experience."

Of course, there was one more thought.

"I've got four victories in 11 years out here," he said, "You know, if you're going to make a run at one, you might as well make a run at one this week."

Spoken like a man who, deep down, thinks he belongs.