(Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Who?
Not Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, or Padraig Harrington, who have won a total of 20 Majors?
What do you mean?
Not a rising star like Geoff Ogilvy, Paul Casey, or Ian Poulter?
C'mon—I must be dreaming, right?
This wet and soggy U.S. Open may go on forever and then a day.
Am I dreaming?
Third-round play started very late Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and was suspended at 7:09 p.m.
Ricky Barnes?
I remember him from the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields outside of Chicago.
The one that Jim Furyk won.
Barnes, at the time, was a huge, chiseled V-shaped strapping youth all of 22-years-young.
This kid was bigger than Gaston in Beauty and the Beast.
His invitation to play in the U.S. Open back then?
He was the 2002 United States Amateur Champion from Stockton, California who played college golf at the University of Arizona and was a First-team All-American.
The 6'2'', 200-pounder beat Hunter Mahan in the final match 2-and-1 at Oakland Hill CC—site of last year's PGA Championship; The one won by Padraig Harrington, who missed the cut yesterday at Bethpage Black.
Earlier in 2003, he was the low amateur at the Masters Tournament. He outscored his playing partner Tiger Woods by seven shots in the opening round and finished T21.
Where has he been these past six years?
Grinding, grinding, and more grinding it out trying to make it to this stage in his golfing career.
After a T59 finish at Olympia Fields, he played in the British Open and missed the cut.
After turning professional he managed to play in six more tournaments and missed all six cuts.
He went from college prodigy to playing less PGA Tour events and more Nationwide Tour events, and then exclusively Nationwide Tour events.
But he kept grinding over the years, playing full time on the Nationwide Tour and keeping the dream alive. The progression: 2004- 15 starts; 2005- 16 starts; 2006- 28 starts and T86 at Q-School; 2007- 30 starts; 2008- 26 starts.
He was PGA Tour-driven, as the slogan goes.
Finally, he made it, and just barely, as a rookie on the PGA Tour after placing 25th on the 2008 Nationwide Tour money list.
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