Harman, English on Tampa Bay leaderboard

• By Jason Sobel
• Mar 14, 2013 6:41 PM ET

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Brian Harman and Harris English were college teammates. They live just a few doors down from each other. They travel together. They eat meals together on the road nearly every night.

And for a few minutes on Thursday afternoon, they shared the Tampa Bay Championship lead.

Even though Harman finished with a bogey to shoot 67 and English closed with a double bogey to fare one stroke worse, both University of Georgia products are on the leaderboard following the opening round.

That said, don’t expect too much trash talk between them.

“Harris doesn't know how to trash talk,” Harman said with a laugh. “He's too much of a sweetheart. No, Harris is probably my best bud in the whole world. We are kind of attached to the hip out here. He's my buddy and we live real close together and travel a lot together. Good pal, and I'm glad to see him playing well.”

How close are they? Even their stats from this season look the same. Entering this week, Harman had made the cut in five of eight events with one top-20 finish, while English has made five of seven cuts, also with one top-20 finish.

“I've had some decent [rounds] this year,” Harman said. “This is definitely probably the best thought-out round that I had. I had a great game plan and stuck to it all day.”