Barns storms on as Tiger frustrated

IT will take Tiger Woods another four weeks at least before he can renew his bid for a 15th major championship and so narrow the gap on Jack Nicklaus at the top of the honours list to three.

Typical of the game’s greatest, the runaway pre-tournament favourite gave it everything he had over the past three weather spoiled days but it wasn’t enough and he will now turn his attentions to the Open Championship at Turnberry next month. The coveted title will instead likely go to a player of relatively modest pedigree unless, that is, Phil Mickelson takes advantage of two late birdies last night that got him up to two under par and within six of the lead held by the virtually unknown Ricky Barnes.

The USGA battled manfully to get the tournament finished on schedule but that was never really a runner once they lost all but three hours of playing time on Thursday. Their aspiration to complete 36 holes yesterday were dashed when overnight rain did further massive damage and the third round couldn’t recommence until noon.

When they finally got through that session, the unlikely figure of 28 year-old Californian Ricky Barnes held the lead at eight under, one ahead of fellow-American Lucas Glover and five clear of the “born-again” David Duval and England’s Ross Fisher in a share of third. But Barnes had been six in front after completing the first nine of the third round in 33, he is very inexperienced player at this level and certainly opened the door for his closest pursuers with a two over back nine of 37.

Bethpage has been re-christened “Wetpage” after the conditions that have plagued the event and made a fifth day a necessity to conclude the championship. The 60 surviving players have a considerable amount of their fourth rounds to complete today when, if necessary, an 18-hole play-off will also take place. So while there is still life in Woods, it would take a recovery of Lazarus-like proportions to enable him to bridge a yawning nine-stroke gap between himself and Barnes and with 13 others between him and the leader. Significantly, Woods has never come from behind to win a major championship.

Tiger’s failure has been disappointing for the New York crowds who have come out to Long Island in huge numbers with Woods and Mickelson as the chief focus of their attentions. Instead, they were left to ponder a leaderboard dominated by Barnes, whose main claim to fame prior to this week has been as US Amateur champion in 2002, an event in which he defeated Hunter Mahan, another challenger overnight, in the final. He has yet to win on either the main PGA Tour or the secondary Nationwide Tour.

When Barnes rattled in a 25-foot eagle putt on the fourth to move 11 under, he became only the fourth player in US Open history to go to double digits under par in the history of the event. Woods finished 12 under at Pebble Beach when running away with the 2000 championship. Dr Gill Morgan, 1992 at Pebble, and Jim Furyk, 2003, at Olympia Fields, Chicago, also reached 11 under.

When play in the third round ended prematurely on Saturday, Barnes, 519th in the world and currently 197th on the US Tour money list going into the tournament, held a one stroke advantage on eight under ahead of Lucas Glover and two better than Canadian left-hander Mike Weir. Try as he might, however, Woods couldn’t make the required impression although he did produce the odd piece of magic.

A classic example came at the par three 17th (his eighth) where a four iron tee shot was pushed so badly that he dropped the club in anguish on making contact. He was left with an extremely difficult chip from the wet, clinging rough but somehow conjured up a shot that bounced twice before striking the flagstick and dropping into the hole.

Even with that birdie, Tiger was still three over par at that point and not really going anywhere quickly.

He did pick up further shots at the third and fourth and then went on all-out attack in a desperate bid to get back into the tournament.

Every putt went past the hole but none went in and a string of five pars led to a round of 68 and a one over total of 211.

Now the focus is very much on Mickelson. 30,000 plus New Yorkers will skip work this morning to see how the championship pans out and “Lefty” will be very much in their thoughts, partially because they are mad about him in these parts but also because of the illness of his wife Amy. The man himself has little doubt he can pull it off by the end of the day.

“If I can get a hot round going, I believe I can make up the difference,” he declared. “There are only four people ahead of me heading into the last 18. The birdie putt on the 18th was 35 to 40 feet and that’s a huge bonus at this stage. The interruptions have been difficult but we’re all going through it and we all face the same obstacles.

“Above all, it’s going to be 72 holes and I think that’s important. It allows you to get into a mind set that you can make up the difference or get things going as opposed to trying to force things if we were rain shortened.

“Obviously the leaders are playing great golf but you never know what’s going to happen in this event.”

Meanwhile, it was a good day for Dublin-based Horizon Sports Management and their chief Conor Ridge.

Englishman Ross Fisher is a member of his “stable” of players and is leading European at three under having birdied the 18th.

Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, another Horizon man, played himself into a share of 12th, also by shooting 69.

Rory McIlroy was four over and tied 33rd after a 72.