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By Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator

ATLANTA -- Don't worry, that déjà vu feeling is perfectly normal. For the second time this season, Woody Austin will be chasing Tiger Woods in one of the toughest, star-studded events on the schedule.

Woody Austin has put together two straight 65s at soggy East Lake. (Sam Greenwood/WireImage)

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

WOODY AUSTIN THRU 36 HOLES

Category Total Rank Eagles 0 N/A Birdies 11 T4 Pars 24 T9 Bogeys 1 T25 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A Driving Accuracy 60.7% T13 Driving Distance 284.3 yds. 18 Greens in Regulation 88.9% 1 Putts per Round 29.5 T16 Putts per GIR 1.719 14 Sand Saves 100.0% T1

• Woody Austin's Player Page

Granted, this time it's on a Saturday, not Sunday. And last time it occurred at the PGA Championship, where Woods earned his 13th major championship while Austin notched the best finish of his career in a major with a solo second-place finish.

But Austin thinks this time he can top Woods at this week's TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. Just not if Woods gets a huge head start.

"He's just hard to catch. He's not hard to beat if you're playing as well and you're right there," said Austin. "But if you let him get in front of you, like I said, he's hard to catch."

Luckily for Austin, he's got two days left to make up ground on Woods and doesn't have to dig himself out of a major hole. Woods shot 28 on the front nine during the second round Friday and looked poised to run away with the tournament, but ended up with a 63 for the day and stands just three strokes ahead of Austin.

With back-to-back 65s during the first two rounds of THE TOUR Championship, Austin is sitting pretty in second place. He made three birdies on the front nine and three more on the back, while his only blunder of the day came as a three-putt bogey on the par-4 14th hole.

After a rainy two days at East Lake Golf Club, Austin led the field in greens in regulation, sand saves and scrambling during the second round, a far cry from his '07 campaign, in which he ranks 78th, 93rd and 27th, respectively.

"It's fun when you're playing well. I mean, we're just shooting darts. You can hit a 4-iron or wedge, it just plugs," Austin said. "The golf course can't play any easier because the rest of the golf course is in perfect shape. The fairways are absolutely perfect, the rough is good, and you're just throwing darts wherever they throw the flags."

The game plan on Saturday is to take advantage of the scoring conditions and to thrive off the energy and atmosphere surrounding Woods as they play together.

"His arena is very electric," Austin said. "Just like today, I mean, there's plenty of people out there but it's not like there's a whole bunch of people spread out throughout the golf course...

"I hit a lot of good shots and you're waiting to hear for people to clap or hear anything and you really don't hear much go on. But every time he did something today, you heard it because he's got all the people with him," he added. "So that electricity surrounds him, whether it's for him or not, when you're in that arena you feel it and I'd like to feed off of that as well."

Austin considers his recent TOUR stretch the best four months of his career, starting with the 2007 Stanford St. Jude Championship, where he fired a final-round 62 to beat Adam Scott by two strokes. Three weeks later, he tied for second at the Buick Open and then earned that second-place finish at the PGA Championship.

"I used to think the best part of my game was consistency and that was the thing that bothered me the most about my game, is it wasn't consistent like it used to be," he said. "Now the last four months it's consistent, that's all. I'm not doing anything different as far as swing thoughts or craziness, whatever.

"I'm playing solid and I'm making a few, so I'm there every week. But I'm just not playing any bad rounds right now."

No bad rounds is right. For a time, Austin was just one stroke off of Woods on the back nine at Southern Hills at the season's last major and nearly caught him for his first major win. But even without a victory, Austin received some benefits from his high finish.

"The nice thing is I've got a couple of events now that I've dreamed about playing in that I'm going to get to play in," said Austin, who qualified for the Presidents Cup after his solid finish at the PGA Championship. He was also invited into the exclusive field at the HSBC World Match Play in London -- where he will battle 15 others for the richest first-place prize in golf -- as well as all four major championships and the Mercedes-Benz Championship in 2008.

A former off-season credit union teller and supply department employee at Eckerd Drugs, the 43-year-old now has a chance to make history by winning THE TOUR Championship for his fourth TOUR win. The first came in 1995 at the Buick Open and helped him earn Rookie of the Year honors. A long drought then followed, with Austin not finding his second TOUR victory until the 2004 Buick Championship.

He's out of contention to win the first FedExCup this week, but is enjoying his return to THE TOUR Championship, where he hadn't played since 1995.

"I'm just happy to play. To me, this week especially, since I'm not in the running for [the FedExCup], is about making it back to THE TOUR Championship, meaning I had a good year.

"I remember a lot of the good players, Phil and those guys, have always said in the past, if you don't like the way things are, play better. Well, I'm trying to play better."

Play better and hope for a little luck. Austin made it through his round in the nick of time, sitting in the interview room as the skies opened in Atlanta. With Woods still working his way around the course, Austin joked that it was about time Woods had to deal with some wet conditions.

No sooner had his words been spoken than the rains stopped.

With a laugh, Austin acknowledged the difficulty of going up against the unflappable Woods, who always seems to be a favorite with the golfing gods.

"That's why he's the golden child."