Barnes hits that first gate;
maybe slope’s little easier
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- Golf can be a lot like skiing. In the head at least. You hit that first gate in the giant slalom, and not that it gets easier, but maybe you can breathe a little. Ricky Barnes would understand that. He came out for the second round this U.S. Open that’s been so badly fragmented by rain, and he put his first tee shot smack in the fairway. Considering the shaggy grasses and the expanses of sand of Bethpage Black, that were swallowing up so many other golfers, and considering the fact that Barnes had absolutely no idea of what he was about to do, much less a hope thereof, this might have been categorized as a Class A Deliverance. What made all this so important is that Barnes started the second round three strokes off the lead, which is country he’d just heard about, like maybe the Himalayas. When he finished the round, well, he found himself on the moon. Totally alien -- leading.
Barnes, 28, of Stockton, Calif., was making his 37th start on the PGA Tour, 30th as a pro. He joined the tour this year, and has made the cut in just six of 12 previous starts, and his best finish was a tie for 47th. Barnes had never led at all, much less at the halfway point, and certainly not in the meat-grinder of the U.S. Open, where he finished 59th once and didn’t finish at all in his other three tries.
On the question of whether there’s stress in the U.S. Open:
“You’re telling me,” Barnes said. But he had got a good night’s sleep. Not that he shouldn’t have. Sitting three shots off the lead in the first round is no real cause for insomnia. Then he got to the second round.
“Came out, hit a great tee shot on No. 1 and settled any nerves that were going on,” he said. He had nailed that first gate, and he rolled from there to a 5-under-par 65. Tiger Woods got thunderous roars. So did Phil Mickelson. Barnes strode through a chorus of “Who’s he?” And when officials totaled things up, they found that Barnes, with his two-round 132 total, 8 under at Bethpage Black, had just set the opening 36-hole record for the U.S. Open, which was first played in 1895.
So the name Ricky Barnes replaces those of Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh in the record book, and it also replaces that of Lucas Glover, who with his 64-133 had enjoyed the distinction of tying Furyk and Singh for about an hour.
“Could I have predicted I would shoot 132? – no,” Barnes said. “Did I know I had it in me? Yeah. I’m starting to play well.”
Golfers are astonishing in their talk. Barnes tied for 47th in his previous start, his season best, and yes, that’s playing well compared to the tie for 60th in the start before that, and compared to the three straight missed cuts before that.
But with the mightiest of golf courses lying between the ears, if Barnes says he’s playing well, then he’s playing well, and that’s the spirit that will have to sustain him when he goes out into the third round Sunday morning, a third round that had started late Saturday and then, like the second round before it, got suspended because of rain.
Barnes shot his 65 without a bogey, by the way, which is more or less unthinkable, given the soggy, long mess that Bethpage Black has become. But so did Glover (64), Geoff Ogilvy (67) and James Nitties (69). It would seem that Tiger Woods was far enough away – he just made the cut with two shots to spare with a 69-143, and ended up 11 behind – that he wasn’t trembling at the thought. Woods had just teed off for the third round, and Barnes was one of 16 who didn’t. Meaning 36 holes on Sunday – weather permitting.
Barnes has been like the utility infielder, brought up from the minors and not getting the call. He hasn’t cracked the tour’s starting lineup yet, which made his position in the national championship even more fun.
“That’s been the main thing,” he said. “Can you foresee this happening? Its tough to foresee something happening when you play two weeks and you ride the bench for two weeks because you’re not getting any tournaments.
“It’s sad, but true, but guys in my category, it’s just tough to get in. So I was saying earlier, I was stoked to be able to play three events in a row.”
It’s been a long road for Barnes. “Three years ago,” he said, “I finished bridesmaid in the Nationwide Tour to get my card, and last year, I was kind of the guy that snuck in.”
Ironically, one of Barnes’ five U.S. Open starts was in 2002, right here at Bethpage Black. He managed to shoot 78-75 – 153. 13 over, and miss the cut. But he thinks he might have established some kind of identity with the locals.
“They walk by and look at the standard bearer and see the last name,” Barnes said. “It’s been good.”
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