While the lion's share of the Australian focus was really on Bendigo's overnight leader Lucas Herbert's title bid, his fellow Victorian John just knuckled down quietly to put together his third impressive round of the week and ended up sitting tied for 11th place.
Saturday's one-under 69 left John four under for the championship and still believing he's right in the thick of the hunt for the Claret Jug, only three shots behind fourth-placed Herbert and six adrift of US leader Sam Burns.
"It's kind of pinch me stuff," said the 27-year-old with a smile.
"But I feel like over the past two years, especially working with (coach) Denis (McDade), this is kind of what we've built my game around.
"I feel like I'm capable of competing at the highest level and hopefully I've shown enough of that already this week and hopefully I can do even more tomorrow.
John, who's on the same four-under total as major-winning luminaries like world No.1 Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Shane Lowry and Hideki Matsuyama, added: "I feel like I'm playing great golf and today I was hitting the ball probably better than the first two days.
"Score-wise, it felt like there was a couple that I let go and there was a couple that obviously went my way. That's golf; it doesn't matter where you're playing, I'm always going to give it 100 per cent and hopefully that holds me in good stead come tomorrow."
And he's staying ambitious.
"It's still 18 holes of golf and focus on trying to win the tournament and try to at least give myself a chance with nine holes to go.
"For now, I'm focusing on hopefully trying to catch him (Herbert), and he's hopefully going to have a good round tomorrow and we can sort of battle it out."
Adam Scott didn't fire on all cylinders as he had hoped, ending at one under for the tournament after a 71, while Min Woo Lee also had a one-over round as he slipped to two over.
