Berger and Finau, who started the third round 11 shots out of the lead, each shot a 4-under 66 before Johnson hit his first shot. Johnson faced greens that made him feel as though he were putting on glass, and it was like that to the very end.
Johnson, who started with a four-shot lead, barely nudged his 17-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole and watched it roll — and roll — 8 feet by the cup. He missed the par putt coming back and signed for a 77 to fall into a four-way tie for the lead.
"I didn't feel like I played badly at all," Johnson said. "Seven over usually is a terrible score, but with the greens the way they got this afternoon, I mean they were very, very difficult. I had seven or eight putts that easily could have gone in the hole that didn't. And that's the difference between shooting 7 over and even par."
At least he still has a chance, and he had plenty more company at the top than at the start of the day.
Johnson joined Berger, Finau and defending champion Koepka (72) at 3-over 213, the highest 54-hole score to lead the U.S. Open since the fabled "Massacre at Winged Foot" in 1974.
Only three players broke par, all before the final groups teed off.
"If they'd have shot 4 under this afternoon, it would probably have been the best round of golf anybody's ever seen," Koepka said about Berger and Finau.
Two other major champions — Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson — were right behind, and both had a share of the lead at one point. Both had three straight bogeys. Rose wound up with a 73 and was one shot behind at 214. Stenson had a 74 and was another shot back.
In the LPGA, Lydia Ko has also continued her charge at the Meijer Classic, shooting a five-under 67 on the Blythefield Country Club course, improving to 13-under through three rounds and sitting in a tie for ninth.
With one round to play, South African Lee-Anne Pace and Sweden's Anna Nordqvist were tied for the lead at 18-under.
