Birdie run carries Barnes, Holmes to victory at Charity Classic

Barnes, Holmes take Charity Classic

BARRINGTON, R.I. — Ricky Barnes had no problem being a last-minute replacement.

Under normal circumstances, Barnes would have spent the early part of the week preparing for the upcoming AT&T National in Philadelphia.

But when the LPGA Tour’s Paula Creamer withdrew because of a thumb injury, Barnes was asked to replace her.

Barnes and J.B. Holmes combined for a string of seven consecutive birdies on the back nine Tuesday and captured the Charity Classic with a final 36-hole score of 21-under 121.

That total was two strokes shy of the tournament record set by Mark Calcavecchia and Nick Price in 2001.

Barnes and Holmes finished one stroke ahead of Angela Stanford and Brett Quigley in the best-ball format at Rhode Island Country Club.

“With our start we didn’t really think we were going to chase it early,” Barnes said after his team birdied only one of the first four holes. “You want to get off to the start that we did yesterday (the team shot 6-under 30 on Monday’s front nine).

“We finally got it going. I made a long putt and then J.B. got on his streak.”

Barnes’ long putt was an eagle on the par-5, 516-yard eighth hole.

Holmes’ streak consisted of birdies on holes 11 through 16, which enabled his team to shoot a 13-under-58.

A short birdie putt on the par-4, 401-yard 16th hole broke a tie with the team of Hall of Famer Juli Inkster and Boo Weekley and put them ahead for good at 20 under.

“This golf course sets up where you can challenge a few shots and go ahead and wail away with your driver,” Holmes said. “The PGA Tour takes the driver out of your hands quite a bit on a lot of courses.

“It was fun to be able to come out here and get on a golf course where you could hit it on almost every hole.”

Barnes, who has six top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season, and Holmes split the winner’s share of $300,000 of the total purse of $1,500,000.