US Open resumes 3rd round, with first 72-hole Monday finish in 26 years awaiting

Barnes isn’t slowing on 3rd round of soggy US Open

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Even a 27-hour break between shots couldn’t slow down Ricky Barnes. The midway leader of the sopping U.S. Open quickly extended his lead in Sunday’s third round, with a 25-foot putt for eagle at the par-5 4th that pushed him into rare territory.

Barnes became just the fourth player in U.S. Open history to reach double digits under par, joining Gil Morgan in 1992, Tiger Woods in 2000 and Jim Furyk in 2003.

As Barnes neared the midway point of his third round, he had a five-shot lead, even after making bogey at the par-4 7th — his first dropped shot in 33 holes.

Glover was second at 6 under, followed by first-round leader Mike Weir at 4 under.

The big guns? Nowhere to be found.

Phil Mickelson made only three pars in his first 10 holes, a wild up-and-down day that left him 1 over through 11 in the third round. And Woods, the defending champion, was even farther back, even par through 10 holes Sunday and still 3 over for the tournament.

Barnes, the 2002 U.S. Amateur champion, finished his second round on Saturday morning — long before rain moved in and halted the tournament for the second time. His third round didn’t even begin until Sunday afternoon, and the delay didn’t seem to bother him one bit.

“I got a really good night’s rest,” Barnes said.

He’ll need it: Because of plenty of rain and two long delays, there’s no chance of seeing a U.S. Open champion crowned until Monday.

Barnes got up early Sunday and was leaving for Bethpage around 6 a.m. when he got the text message saying play — which was originally set to resume at 7:30 a.m. — was pushed back to noon. The third round restarted 6 minutes ahead of the USGA’s revised schedule.

Weather permitting, the USGA wants the final round to begin late Sunday. Light rain had been forecast, but the sun peeked out by early afternoon.

“Actually, the forecast for the afternoon is relatively good,” Mike Davis, the USGA’s senior director of rules and competition, said Sunday morning.

Play was stopped Saturday evening because of rain, and another eight-tenths of an inch hit Bethpage Black overnight. Ordinarily, that’s not much, but Bethpage has gotten doused so often in recent days and weeks that one brief downpour was enough to render the course unplayable.

Woods needed a kickstart to his day and might have gotten one at the par-3 17th when he missed the green and dropped his club in disgust. No problem — he chipped in from the rough, harkening memories of his chip-in from off the green on the 17th hole in the third round at Torrey Pines on his way to last year’s title.

Alas, this chip-in left the world’s No. 1 player a whopping 14 shots behind Barnes.

There was still a long way to go at Bethpage Black — which more resembles Bethpage Brown, thanks to ankle-deep mud in some of the pedestrian areas.

Monday’s schedule called for play to begin somewhere between 7:30 and 9 a.m. If an 18-hole playoff is required, the USGA will hold that on Monday as well, provided it can begin before 4 p.m., Davis said.

Only 3 hours, 16 minutes of golf was played on Thursday because of rain, and the backlog has been copious since.

That being said, Barnes might never want this tournament to end.

Barnes, who has never finished better than 14th on the PGA Tour, made a 45-foot birdie putt on the par-3 eighth — his 17th hole of the second round — and followed with a par for a bogey-free 65 under a sunny sky Saturday morning, completing two rounds in 8-under 132.

Not only did it give him a one-shot lead over Glover, it was the best midway score in the 109 years of the U.S. Open.

“Obviously, at the beginning of the week, you didn’t think that score was out there,” Barnes said.

Thriving on Bethpage’s birdie-friendly greens, softened by all the rain, he’s making scoring seem easy.