Is It the PGA Championship or the Tour Championship? Déjà Vu All over Again

Kathy Bissell

East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, GA -- After round one of the Tour Championship, the two names on top of the leaderboard are Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner, the two guys who were in a playoff at the PGA just one month ago in Atlanta. 

East Lake Golf Club is about 30 miles down the road from Johns Creek, GA. In fact, back in Bobby Jones time, East Lake Golf Club was the Atlanta Athletic Club until it moved to Johns Creek.  Both courses have interesting finishing holes. Both courses are championship tracks.  Both have that historic Bobby Jones connection.  

Will the finish on this coming Sunday be the same as it was on that Sunday in August? 

“I think it’s really cool,” Keegan Bradley said about seeing his name and Dufner’s atop the leaderboard again. “I hope I get to play with him. He’s a good guy. I think it would be kind of cool that coming back to Atlanta we’re going to get to play with each other again.” 

Dufner said it will be interesting if the couple are paired together tomorrow.

They both like East Lake Golf Club. Dufner has been to the Tour Championship before in 2009, but Bradley has not.   

“I really like the golf courses here. I really like the grass we play on,” Bradley said about Atlanta, adding that the grass was the same grass as Atlanta Athletic Club. “The greens, I just seem to be able to read them pretty well.”   

Dufner probably hopes the order of the finish is changed from the PGA Championship, but he’s too much of a gentleman to say that. He said he has had a positive and sympathetic response from golf fans after the PGA, which surprised him.  

“I told a lot of people, don’t feel bad for me," Dufner said. "There’s nothing to feel bad about. I was in a great situation. There’s worse things to happen than losing in a playoff and finishing second in a major.”

Dufner also likes the golf course and the turf.

“I feel pretty comfortable on this type of golf course with the Bermudagrass and the greens being like they are,” he said. “It will be interesting if we are paired together tomorrow.”

Dufner said his good play is due to the experience he had in college at Auburn and because he grew up in Florida on Bermuda greens.

“Just golf in the south in general. I seem to be real comfortable with,” he said. “Guys that grew up on the West Coast have a lot of success on the West Coast. You see that a good bit. Same with the Northeast, Midwest.”  He said he struggles on bentgrass and poa annua.

Bradley, originally from Vermont, now lives in Florida and believes living where there is Bermudagrass has provided the experience he needed to be successful on that surface. 

Both Bradley and Dufner finished about 90 minutes ahead of Webb Simpson and Dustin Johnson, who are No. 1 and 2, respectively, in the FedExCup standings. 

The final four groupings endured between one and five holes of rain that started gradually but picked up in drench factor until play was called at 5:23 p.m. due to lightning in the area. Four players were left on the course at the time:  Webb Simpson, Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Justin Rose.  Brandt Snedeker and Matt Kuchar finished just before the horn blew. Play resumed at 5:52 p.m.    

Kathy Bissell is a Golf Writer for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand or from official interview materials from the USGA, PGA Tour or PGA of America.