US Tour: British Open champion Padraig Harrington jumped to within one stroke of the lead before an approaching storm halted the opening round at the Tour Championship at the East Lake GC Atlanta, Georgia.

Harrington was three under after 12 holes, just behind South African Tim Clark, who was was one hole back.

The final pairing in the 30-man field, Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker, did not even complete the first hole before play was stopped at 2.17pm local time.

The other two Europeans started quite nicely, with Justin Rose (seven holes) and Sergio Garcia (four holes) both one under.

Harrington hit a fine approach at the par four first, only to miss his five-foot birdie putt on the high side, apparently reading too much break.

He then hit a shocking tee-shot at the par three second, 20 yards right of the hole, but a deft pitch led to a tap-in par.

He followed with a birdie at the par four third, sinking a nine-footer after a nice approach shot from the left rough, but gave back the shot with a bogey at the next when he three-putted.

Harrington's next birdie came at the par three sixth, where he judged his tee-shot beautifully to six feet, and he parred to the turn for an outward half of 34.

He birdied the next two holes as his putter caught fire, running in an 18-footer at the 10th followed by a 12-footer at the next.

Clark, meanwhile, started nicely with a hat-trick of birdies from the second hole, and picked up another shot at the 10th to edge ahead of Harrington, Colombian Camilo Villegas (11 holes) and American Scott Verplank (eight holes).

Americans Woods, Stricker and Phil Mickelson are battling for a $10 million bonus awarded to the play-off points winner, while a separate $7million purse is up for grabs in the tournament.

Tee-times for the second round have been brought forward by almost four hours with the remnants of Hurricane Humberto expected to move into the Atlanta area this afternoon.

Showers and thunderstorms are predicted late today before the cold front rolls out early on Saturday. Dry weather is forecast for the weekend.