Bradley, Dufner revive PGA memories

Golf: Keegan Bradley and Jason Dufner atop the leaderboard in Atlanta should sound familiar.

Only this was the FedEx Cup finale, not the final major of the year.

And they were on East Lake, not 40 minutes up the road at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Bradley, who won the PGA Championship last month in a playoff over Dufner, ran off four birdies on the back nine Thursday for a 6-under-par 64 to build a two-shot lead in the Tour Championship.

Dufner was surprisingly crooked off the tee, yet still managed a 66 and was tied for second along with Chez Reavie and Luke Donald, the No. 1 player in the world and one of five players in prime position to win the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus.

Bradley and Dufner will be in the last group today, and it was impossible to ignore the coincidence.

“Yeah, I don’t think there’s any big surprise,” Bradley said. “He likes this grass, too. He likes these courses, and I hope I get to play with him tomorrow. I think that would be a lot of fun.”

It would bring back great memories for Bradley, a 26-year-old rookie. Not so much for Dufner, who had a four-shot lead with three holes to play until he made three straight bogeys and wound up losing in a three-hole playoff.

“Maybe he’s having some of the same feelings – very comfortable on this type of golf course … with the conditions maybe a little more severe at Atlanta Athletic Club off the tee,” Dufner said.

Lynx waltz past Mercury in opener

WNBA: Seimone Augustus had 21 points and seven assists to lead the Minnesota Lynx to a 95-67 victory over the Phoenix Mercury in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at Minneapolis.

Maya Moore scored 13 of her 15 points in the first quarter and Candice Wiggins added 14 off the bench for the top-seeded Lynx, who held the highest-scoring team in the league to 22 points less than its regular-season average.

Diana Taurasi had 22 points and five rebounds for the Mercury.

The Lynx opened the game with a 15-3 run and the Mercury never got closer than six points the rest of the way.

Game 2 is Sunday in Phoenix.

• Smith guides Fever in opener: Tangela Smith scored 25 points to lead the Indiana Fever to an 82-74 victory over the Atlanta Dream in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at Indianapolis.

Tamika Catchings, announced as the league’s Most Valuable Player earlier in the day, added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Fever.

Game 2 of the best-of-3 series will be played Sunday in Atlanta.

• Storm ended season banged up: Multiple bruises from the just-completed playoff series against Phoenix were not the only health issues discussed Wednesday by the Seattle Storm.

During the final team day of the season, All-Star point guard Sue Bird said she has a slight labral tear in her left hip and pain in her right hip. Bird played the season with the injury after first learning of the problem in November.

Bird said she would still have played if the season continued beyond the Western Conference semifinals. The defending WNBA champion Storm lost 2-1 to the Phoenix Mercury.

Storm center Lauren Jackson did not say the same.

Jackson had labrum surgery on her left hip June 30. She returned to the court Aug. 20. She said if the Storm advanced, she would have likely missed a game in the Western Conference finals.

NBA rookies light up scoreboard in Provo

NBA: Jimmer Fredette’s exhibition game for NBA rookies turned into a typical high-scoring all-star game with the host’s team losing 140-126 at Provo, Utah.

Tobias Harris and Kawhi Leonard both scored 24 points and Kemba Walker added 23 for the non-Jimmer team in a game that featured eight NBA first-round draft picks and four second-rounders.

Sneva’s co-chief mechanic dies at 60

Auto racing: Mark Bridges, co-chief mechanic on Spokane native Tom Sneva’s Indianapolis 500-winning car in 1983, has died. He was 60.

Bell Mortuary said that Bridges died of natural causes at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis on Monday.

Bridges was a lifelong Indianapolis resident who grew up near Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A statement released by the track said he started working at IMS in his teens, becoming chief mechanic for the MVS team and driver Sam Sessions as a 22-year-old.

He went on to work with drivers such as Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Roberto Guerrero, Gordon Johncock, Wally Dallenbach and Chip Ganassi.