Harrington hits form in Atlanta

FIRST ROUND LEADERBOARD:
-4 S O'Hair (US) -3 S Cink (US), P Harrington (Ire), T Woods (US) -2 L Glover (US) -1 S Marino (US), R Goosen (SA), D Johnson (US)
Selected others: E L Donald (Eng), +1 E Els (SA) +3 P Mickelson (US)

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Harrington continued his impressive recent form at East Lake

Ireland's Padraig Harrington continued his return to form to sit a shot off the lead after round one of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.

The three-time major winner shot a three-under 67 in Atlanta to finish a stroke adrift of American Sean O'Hair.

Ominously for the rest of the field, Tiger Woods put an inconsistent start behind him to shoot three birdies on the back nine and also record a 67.

Luke Donald, the only other European in the field, shot a level-par 70.

Harrington has rebounded from a miserable year, disrupted by swing modifications, to record five successive top-10 finishes since the start of August.

The run has propelled him to sixth place in the PGA Tour FedEx Cup standings, giving him a chance at the $11.35m (£7.05m) payday for the champion.

Harrington must win the $1.35m (£840,000) Tour Championship and see FedEx Cup leader Woods finish no better than third in the 30-man event if he is to earn the $10m (£6.2m) bonus for the FedEx Cup winner.

Tiger was asking me how I felt about my putting - He was just showing me a few things, very helpful stuff Sean O'Hair

He began the right way with four birdies in the first seven holes to take an early share of the lead, before a bogey at 15 saw him drop back to three under.

"This is quite exciting for me because obviously I've had a poor year for the first six or seven months and I was doing other things, shall we say," said Harrington.

"I have to turn it all around now. I've had a good few weeks and winning here this week would turn it into a spectacular year.

"I kind of like the idea of that, kind of sneaking in and having a great year."

O'Hair revealed he got some advice on his putting from Woods while the two men played a practice round on Wednesday.

"Tiger was asking me how I felt about my putting," he said. "He was just showing me a few things, very helpful stuff."

Woods began with a birdie at three, before two bogeys in three holes saw him drop back to one over.

A run of four birdies in seven holes got his round back on track.

"I'm going to go chew him out right now," joked Woods about O'Hair's performance following his putting advice.

"It's very simple, you always help your friends.

"Sean is a friend of mine, and like all my friends, you always try to make their life better somehow. That's the whole idea of having friends in your life.

"Sean has been struggling a little bit on the greens this year, and I thought I could offer a little bit of help and insight to how he could change that, and now, as I said, I'm going to go chew him out."

Open champion Stewart Cink joined Harrington and Woods in joint-second place in the clubhouse after firing an opening 67.

"I played well, especially on the front nine," said Cink. "On the back nine I just slowed down a little bit. I didn't have that many good looks at it."