Five top-10 finishes in his last five starts left Pádraig Harrington with everything to play for at The Tour Championship this week and the Dubliner delivered again with a three-under-par 67 that left him one shot off Sean O’Hair’s clubhouse lead.

Harrington may well be disappointed with the way he finished after a bogey at 15 and badly under-hit approach to the par-three 18th effectively killed off any chance of a bright finish, but there were plenty of positives in an otherwise steady round at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

Until he found the greenside bunker and three-putted the 15th, he was the only person in the field not to have bogeyed.

There was a sweet symmetry for a time to his front nine, with birdies at the first, third, fifth and seventh before he had to settle for a par five at the ninth.

Harrington is sixth in the FedEx standings and needs to win and hope Tiger Woods finishes third or worse if he is to claim the €900,000 first prize and a €6.8 million bonus.

After a mixed start, however, the world number one picked up three shots between the 12th and the 15th to join Harrington on three-under.

Stewart Cink is also three-under, with Lucas Glover two under, Retief Goosen one under and Luke Donald on level par.