PGA: Bradley's good day not enough to match Rose

Keegan Bradley shot a 4-under 67 in the opening round of the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston.

NORTON — Keegan Bradley refused to allow his most disappointing round of the season to keep him down for long.

 Bradley carded a 9-under 62 last Saturday to move into second place in the Northern Trust, the opening round of the FedExCup playoffs, but he sky-rocketed to a 7-over 78 on Sunday to plummet into a tie for 34th.

 “To be honest,” Bradley said, “I was really bummed out and then just a couple of days went by and I didn’t care anymore. It was tough because I felt like that was my day to kind of tell everybody that maybe I was back here and I was here to stay and I may have put too much pressure on myself.”

 On Friday, Bradley put his highest final-round score of the season behind him and shot a 4-under 67 in the opening round of the Dell Technologies Championship at TPC Boston.

 Bradley shared the first-round lead until late in the day when Justin Rose birdied three of his final four holes to card a 6-under 65 and both Russell Knox and Abraham Ancer shot 66s. Over their last six holes, Knox had an eagle and three birdies and Ancer carded four birdies.

 Chris Kirk, who won at TPC Boston in 2014, Beau Hossler, who played with Bradley, and Gary Woodland also shot 4-under 67s.

 “It’s nice to come right back out,” Bradley said, “and play quickly. So I didn’t have to wait a week or two weeks, and that was great.”

 Last year, Bradley closed the Northern Trust with an 80 to freefall from seventh into a tie for 43rd and he opened the Dell Technologies Championship with a 5-over 76. But he shot a second-round 68 to make the cut and went on to tie for 35th, his worst finish here since he missed the cut as a rookie. His best finish was a tie for 13th in 2012 and he’d like to top that this weekend.

 Bradley bounced back from a disappointing finish in the Northern Trust much quicker this year.

 It must have helped Bradley that he played in friendly territory. He played golf for the Hopkinton High Hillers, about half an hour from TPC Boston. In 2004, he was the medalist at the Division 2 state golf tournament. During his round on Friday, fans shouted, “Go Hillers.”

 “It’s fun,” he said. “I know coming in that I’m going to have that (support) this week and that comes with some extra pressure as well. But I’ve learned to love coming here. It used to be a very tough week to me. I put so much pressure on myself, but I’ve learned to go with it. But being out here with all the fans, it’s awesome.”

 Bradley, 32, closed his round by rolling in a downhill, birdie putt of 4 feet, 9 inches on 18 for his fifth birdie to more than offset his one bogey.

 Bradley was one of the PGA Tour’s rising stars in 2011 when he won the Byron Nelson and the PGA Championship to earn Rookie of the Year honors. He captured the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational the next year, but he hasn’t won an official PGA Tour event since. He has, however, finished first each of the last four years in an unofficial PGA Tour event, in the CVS Health Charity Classic, combining with Billy Andrade and Brooke Henderson for the past two and with his Hopkinton High teammate, Jon Curran, for the first two.

 In 24 events this season, Bradley has finished in the top 10 four times, including second place in the CIMB Classic last October, but he’s had only two other top 20 finishes and he’s ended up outside the top 40 nine times. Nevertheless, he’s earned nearly $2.3 million, his most since he collected $2.8 million in 2014. Two years ago, he pocketed less than $900,000 and wasn’t one of the top 100 golfers who qualified to play at TPC Boston.

 “I feel like I’m ready to play again,” Bradley said, “at a level that I was at or hopefully better.”

 After missing the cut last week in the Northern Trust, Rose went home to the Bahamas for six days, opted out of the pro-am and didn’t arrive at TPC Boston until Thursday night. So he had nearly a week off to recharge his batteries.

 Rose had no bogeys and drained birdie putts of just under 5 feet on 4, a foot on seven, 26 feet on 10, 4-1/2 feet on 15, two feet on 17 and 5-1/2 feet on 18.

 In the inaugural PGA Tour event at TPC Boston in 2003, Rose played as a sponsor exemption and shot a 63 to grab the first-round lead. He finished third to earn his PGA Tour card without having to go to Q-school. Adam Scott, another sponsor exemption, won that year.

 “This venue,” Rose said, “I’ve always been very thankful and grateful to it, everyone here in Boston for extending that opportunity. So sad to have this be the last year of it.”

 Actually, the PGA Tour will return to TPC Boston in 2020 after skipping it in 2019.