Australian Jason Day let slip a chance to storm up the Tour Championship leaderboard today as Paul Casey stood on the verge of golf's biggest pay day.
Day, 29, jumped out of the gates with four consecutive birdies early in the third round at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club, but suffered another bout of the back-nine blues to sign for a two-under-par 68 and a six-under total with a round to play.
It left Australian world No.6 tied seventh and six shots back of leader Casey at the finale of the FedEx Cup playoffs, with the Englishman firing a 65 for a 12-under total and a two-shot lead.
Kevin Kisner was hot with a 64 to share second place at 10 under alongside American rookie Xander Schauffele (65), while US Opener champ Brooks Koepka (68), Patrick Reed (69) and top-five seed Justin Thomas (70) share fourth at seven under.
Victorian Marc Leishman held steady in carding a 69 to claw back to one-over and tied for 22nd.
The Aussie has struggled to capitalise on the top-five seeding he earned with a dominant victory at last week’s BMW Championship, but remains in sixth place in the overall FedEx Cup standings.
The 33-year-old entered the Tour Championship guaranteed to claim the $US10 million FedEx Cup bonus if he won this event.
Earlier, Day took a share of the lead after six holes, but a double-bogey at the par-4 16th cruelled his chances of pushing clear.
"The front side’s been actually pretty decent for me this week. So hopefully the plan is just to change that and come home strong on the back side in the final round," Day said.
Meanwhile, a disastrous inward 41 has cost New South Welshman Brett Drewitt a huge shot at a PGA Tour card.
Drewitt, who opened the DAP Championship – the second last of the Web.Com Tour finals series – with rounds of 67 and 68, was in the top 10 when he turned at four under overall.
But a double and four bogeys later and Drewitt spiralled down to T51 and well outside the required top 25 cut-off for a card, projected at T44 overall.
Fellow New South Welshman Matt Jones was the only other Aussie to make the cut, but he remains eight off the pace at one under needing a top-five finish to work into card calculations.