Harrington runs out of gas

Marc Leishman gives an interview just minutes after his 62. “Clubhouse leader always has a chance,” he said without much conviction. Two hours later he had his first US Tour win.Padraig Harrington carded his fourth sub-70 round on the trot but still came up four shots shy of winner Marc Leishman in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

Just three shots off the pace starting the day, the Dubliner mixed three birdies with two bogeys but a 69 was only good enough for a share of 11th place on another low scoring day at TPC River Highlands.

Australian Leishman closed with an eight under par 62 to set the clubhouse target at 14 under and while the 28-year old was far from confident that he would claim his maiden PGA Tour victory, nobody could do better or even equal his total over the next two hours.

Charley Hoffman looked likely to set the target when he got to 16 under par with two to play but double bogeyed the 16th after a visit to water off the tee and then boeyed the last for a 66 that left him tied for second with Masters champion Bubba Watson (65) on 13 under.

Overnight leader Brian Davis and Roland Thatcher needed birdies at the last two holes to match 2009 PGA Tour Rookie of Year Leishman but failed.

Davis finished with two pars for a 70 and ended up tied for fourth on 12 under with Tim Clark (67), John Rollins (68) and Thatcher (70), who birdied the 17th but then bunkered a wedge at the last and bogeyed.

Harrington missed a 15-foot chance at the first but holed one from inside 10 feet at the next to get within two of the leaders.

But after holing a six footer for par at the third, he had to hole one from a similar length at the par-five sixth to limit the damage to a bogey.

In trouble off the tee, he laid up, missed the green with his third from 189 yards, fluffed his fourth into a bunker and did well to get up and down for a six.

Now four shots behind a quartet of leaders in Davis, Leishman, Hoffman and James Driscoll, Harrington needed birdies and got one when he holed from 15 feet at the 202-yard eighth to get back to 10 under.

He was still tied for eighth and four strokes behind Leishman, who birdied the 17th and parred the last to set the clubhouse target at 14 under with a superb, eight under par 62.

However, Harrington’s tournament all but ended at the par-three 11th where he went through the green and failed to save par from 12 feet.

He simply didn’t have the energy to put in a red-hot finish and while he two-putted the par-five 13th for a birdie, he failed to pick up a shot at the driveable 15th, missing from three and a half feet for his three.

It was his first significant miss inside four feet all week but he made amends at the last after hitting a tree with his drive, leaving himself a wood to the green.

Well left of the green in two, he hit a 36 yard pitch to 11 feet and holed the putt to end the week on a high.

Much will be expected of the Dubliner in the Irish Open at Royal Portrush this week but it remains to be seen how much energy remains in the tank.

The Irish Open will be his seventh event in eight weeks and his fourth in a row.