The Live Report: Sunday

PGATOUR.com Staff

PLAY SUSPENDED FOR DAY (7:59 p.m.): It took all of one hole for Ricky Barnes to lose his one-shot lead in the final round. A bogey at the first hole dropped Barnes to 7 under and into a tie with Lucas Glover. A few minutes later, it became too dark and play was suspended for the day. Players will return about 9 a.m. tomorrow.

For co-leader Ricky Barnes, it couldn't have come at a better time perhaps. He bogeyed the first hole and wasn't in great shape at No. 2 in the deep rough when the horn sounded. Rather than choosing to finish out the hole, Barnes marked his ball and will have about 13 hours to re-group for what will be the biggest round of his life. -- Brian Wacker

BARNES MAKES BOGEY (7:50 p.m.): Darkness might not be able to get here soon enough for Ricky Barnes. After making just one bogey in his first 42 holes of the tournament, Barnes has made six of them over his last 13 holes. The former U.S. Amateur champion who led by as many as six strokes at one point today, has seen that lead disappear -- he's now tied with Lucas Glover at 7 under after a bogey at the first.

The bogey came after Barnes pulled his tee shot at the tough first hole into the left rough. His next shot came up just short of the green and his chip shot that followed came up well short of the hole. A case of nerves? Perhaps. But also just a bad shot. -- Brian Wacker

AWAY WE GO (7:37 p.m.): The final group of the day, qualifiers Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes, just teed off on the first hole. Darkness is descending quickly upon Bethpage Black, which is much darker than what you're seeing on your TV sets. Both players found the rough off the tee -- Glover the right rough, Barnes the left -- on a hole that has yielded the fewest number of balls in the fairway off the tee all week.

Obviously both men would like to get off to a good start with neither having been in this position before. If they don't however, they can take comfort in the cover of darkness -- they won't get in more than a few holes at best. If they do get off to a good start, however, that same stoppage of play could hurt them. We'll find out shortly. -- Brian Wacker

O'HAIR OUT FAST (7:15 p.m.): Sean O'Hair is playing in just his third U.S. Open and is well within striking distance of the lead at 2 under for the week after a birdie on the first hole a few minutes ago. That's the sixth birdie posted this week by O'Hair on Bethpage Black's first three holes with him having birdied Nos. 1 and 3 in the first round and 1 and 2 in the second round.

O'Hair, currently in a tie for fifth, has never finished higher than a tie for 26th in two previous U.S. Opens, but is having the best season of his young career with a win at Quail Hollow and five other top-10s this season, including a runner-up at Bay Hill. He's also oneof the game's best ballstrikers at a soon-to-be 27 years old and when he putts well, as he has most of this week, he finds his way into contention. This won't be the last U.S. Open O'Hair will be in contention at. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER'S START (6:50 p.m.): If Tiger Woods was going to win his second straight U.S. Open, it was going to take one of the greatest final-round comebacks in tournament history.

Woods, who teed off a little over 20 minutes ago with Nationwide Tour star Michael Sim, however, got off to a shaky start with a bogey on the first hole. That dropped Woods to 2 over for the tournament and 10 shots back of leader Ricky Barnes. About 10 minutes later, however, he got it right back with a birdie on the par-4 second hole. One of the few putts of any length that Woods has made all week drew a roar from the crowd, but still leaves him nine back. -- Brian Wacker

TV TIMES UPDATE (6:40 p.m.): With the weather cooperating for a change, golf will be played until it's dark at Bethpage, which should be in just over an hour from now. When play resumes tomorrow, ESPN will begin coverage at 9 a.m. with NBC taking it the rest of the way starting at 11:30 a.m. -- Brian Wacker

PHIL, TIGER TALK (6:10 p.m.): Some quotes from the Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods interviews before they headed out for their final rounds:

MICKELSON: "I don't care when we play the 18 holes as long as we play them, and I know we will. Whether we play later today or tomorrow, everybody has got to deal with the same physical and mental obstacles."

WOODS: "Content with the ball-striking, yes. I didnt make many putts. In fact, I didn't make any. I made a putt on 3 and that was about it. I hit it, as all week, I hit it a lot better than my scoring indicates. Unfortuntely, I just haven't made the putts this week, and consequently, I'm ... (nine) back."

NO SHORTAGE OF SURPRISES (5:50 p.m.): The 109th U.S. Open has been short on sunshine, but not surprise contenders.
 
Take David Duval. The former No. 1 player in the world, whose last win came in the 2001 British Open, began this week ranked No. 882 in the world.
 
That doesn't seem to matter this week. Duval is performing at Bethpage Black the way you'd expect a major champion perform.
 
Through 54 holes, Duval is 3 under and five shots off the lead. He dropped to 1 under with a bogey on the par-4 15th on Sunday, but bounced back with birdies from 10 feet and 5 feet, respectively, on Nos. 16 and 18 to secure a spot in the next-to-last pairing with England's Ross Fisher going off at 7:29 p.m.
 
"I'm excited to go play some more," said Duval. "It's a little awkward in a way, too, that you're going to tee off and play a hole, you know, and go do it all over again. It's Groundhog Day, but I'm going to try to sit down and relax for a while and rest up and go get ready to play a hole." -- T.J. Auclair

FINAL ROUND TEE TIMES (5:16 p.m.): The final round will start at 5:45 p.m. with Henrik Stenson and J.B. Holmes going off No. 1 and Nick Taylor and Rory McIlroy going off No. 10.

The final group of Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes, who are separated by just a single stroke with Barnes holding the advantage, will tee off on No. 1 at 7:37 p.m. Because of such a late start, they'll get no more than a hole or two in before returning in the morning.

Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, will tee off with Hunter Mahan at 7:21 p.m. on No. 1. Tiger Woods will play with Michael Sim. They'll tee off on the first hole at 6:25 p.m. For a list of all the tee times and pairings, click here. -- Brian Wacker

THIRD ROUND COMPLETE (5 p.m.): It took an extra day, but the weather finally cooperated today and we had our first day of uninterrupted play one players put the peg in the ground.

At one point, Ricky Barnes led by six. But this is the U.S. Open and by the time he missed a short par putt on the 18th hole, Barnes' lead over Lucas Glover was down to just one.

Still, he'll take the lead into the final round for the first time in his career and try to become the first player to make the U.S. Open his first win after winning the U.S. Amateur since  Jerry Pate, who won the 1976 U.S. Open after winning the 1974 U.S. Amatuer. -- Brian Wacker

PHIL, TIGER DONE WITH THIRD ROUND (4:30 p.m.): After needing 18 hours to play his first two holes of the third round, Phil Mickelson is now done with it, making birdie on the 18th to get to 2 under for the tournament and within striking distance of Ricky Barnes' shrinking lead.

It was an incredibly wild day for Mickelson -- seven birdies, four bogeys, one double bogey -- but in the end four of those birdies came in his last six holes, giving him the kind of momentum he hopes to carry into the final round later today.

Woods, meanwhile, had a far less eventual afternoon, making three birdies and just one bogey. Several times he burned the edge on one putt after another. His 2-under 68 was solid, but still leaves him nine shots back. --Brian Wacker

MAHAN IN THE HUNT (4:10 p.m.): Hunter Mahan's third round of the 109th U.S. Open is finally in the books. The result was a 2-under 68, which had him in a tie for fifth at 2 under for the tournament when his round ended. The round included five birdies, one bogey and a double bogey. The double came on No. 15 when Mahan hit a bad chip due to mud on his golf ball.
 
"You can make birdies, but it's playing so long that you can make bogeys because of one bad shot," said Mahan, whose lone PGA TOUR win came in 2007 at the Travelers Championship. "But I think 5 or 6 under is definitely possible out there. You just have to be patient and hit a lot of good shots."
 
When Mahan finished his round, he was trailing leader Ricky Barnes -- the man who beat him in the final match of the 2002 U.S. Amateur -- by six shots. While Mahan conceded that he wished his position had been a little better, a comeback wasn't completely out of the question.
 
"They've got a lot of holes, just like everybody else," he said. "You've just got to keep playing, especially on this golf course. Every hole is tough. Every hole has bogey or double potential, so you've got to be so patient out here. The greens are rolling good, they're rolling true, so you can make some putts, make some birdies and you can get on a streak."
 
This week marks Mahan's fourth start in a U.S. Open. He missed the cut in his debut in 2003 at Olympia Fields, tied for 13th at Oakmont in 2007 and tied for 18th last year at Torrey Pines. He believes that those experiences, along with the Ryder Cup, will prove beneficial in the final round.
 
"Ryder Cup, playing the TOUR, Torrey Pines last year, all that experience helps," he said. "Trying to win a major it's tough. More chances you get being in tougher situations helps."
 
While this is in fact a major championship, Mahan said that the frequent weather interruptions give it a strange feel.
 
"It's just awkward," he said. "You're going to play the final round of the U.S. Open on two days and two different types of conditions. Tomorrow I think it's supposed to be windy. It's just weird. It doesn't feel like a U.S. Open." -- T.J. Auclair

BUBBA IN THE PICTURE (4 p.m.): Two years ago, Bubba Watson finished fifth in the U.S. Open at Oakmont. That success and the fact that he is in the top 10 going into the final round may defy logic, though. Conventional wisdom suggests that the U.S. Open is less about power than it is about accuracy. While that may be true, length certainly has its place in our national championship.
 
The key is to understand when to unleash the big dog and when to lay back. For three days, Bubba has laid up on the 18th. That suggests that Bubba has a game plan that he is sticking to. At 1 under, it remains to be seen how far back Bubba will be going into the final round, but it seems likely that he will be within striking distance. He has been in this position before and let it slip away midway through the final round two years ago. What will happen this time? As always with Bubba, whatever happens, it should be entertaining. -- John Maginnes

 THE GOOD NEWS FOR BARNES (3:45 p.m.): Thanks to an up-and-down birdie on the par-5 13th, Ricky Barnes got the stroke back that he gave away with a bogey just one hole earlier. It also moved him back to a three-shot lead as the third round marches on.

If Barnes can hang onto the lead by the time Round 3 does come to an end, probably somewhere in the 5 p.m. hour, he'll obviously be in good shape. The 54-hole leader/co-leader has won 48 times at the U.S. Open, most recently last year when Tiger Woods won in a playoff at Torrey Pines. In 24 PGA TOUR events this season, the third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win 17 times, most recently with Brian Gay at the St. Jude Classic presented by FedEx. -- Brian Wacker

MORE ON BARNES (3:15 p.m.): Not only has Ricky Barnes never led on the PGA TOUR heading into the final round, but he has been within 10 shots of the lead just three times in his career going into the final 18 holes. He was three back at the 2004 FBR Open before a 1-over 72 left him in a tie for 14th, and seven back at both the 2003 Chrysler Classic of Tucson (final-round 2-under 70, finished T18) and 2003 Masters (1-over 73, finished 21st).

Barnes' only 54-hole lead on the Nationwide Tour came at the 2006 Oregon Classic. He was tied with Tim Wilkinson after 54 holes, but a 4-under 68 in the final round left him one shot behind tournament-winner Cliff Kresge. -- John Bush

GOING LOW (3:05 p.m.): As the third rounds winds its way through the back nine, here's a look at the lowest score to lead after 54 holes, followed by the largest 54-hole leads in U.S. Open history. -- John Bush

Lowest Score to Lead Field at the U.S. Open (54 holes)
200 Jim Furyk 67-66-67 Olympia Fields (2003)
203 George Burns 69-66-68        Merion (1981)
203 Tze-Chung Chen 65-69-69 Oakland Hills (1985)
203 Lee Janzen              67-67-69 Baltusrol (1993)

Largest 54-hole leads at the U.S. Open:
10      Tiger Woods Pebble Beach (2000)
7 Jones Barnes Columbia CC (1921)
6 Fred Herd Myopia Hunt Club (1898)
6 Willie Anderson Baltusrol (1903)
6 Johnny Goodman North Shore (1933)

BARNES WITH A BIG SAVE (2:55 p.m.): After dropping a shot on the seventh hole to fall back to 10 under, Ricky Barnes just dropped one more with another bogey at No. 10. The latter, however, could have been a lot worse, especially considering Barnes nearly lost his tee shot in the high rough then hit his second shot into the tall fescue 100 yards short of the green. One of the stronger players on the PGA TOUR, Barnes was able to muscle it out and land it on the green. He missed the par-saving putt, but it was just his third bogey of the week and still leaves him well in the lead. -- Brian Wacker

MAHAN MAKING A MOVE (2:41 p.m.): Quietly, Hunter Mahan is enjoying a very nice season on the PGA TOUR. He hasn't missed a cut since the PGA Championship last August -- a stretch of 19 events. That said, he hasn't wowed with his play, either.
 
That could all change for Mahan over the next couple of days at Bethpage Black. Mahan is 4 under through 14 holes in his third round, which has him at 4 under for the tournament and in a tie for second, six shots behind leader Ricky Barnes.
 
Mahan could benefit greatly from the experience he gained as a member of the U.S. Presidents Cup team in 2007 and the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 2008 in dealing with the pressure situations that are sure to come.
 
It should also be noted that in 2002 it was Barnes who defeated Mahan in the finals of the U.S. Amateur. That was the same year the U.S. Open was first played at Bethpage Black.
 
Will Mahan get his revenge in the form of a first major title? We'll see. -- T.J. Auclair

WEATHER ON THE WAY (2:30 p.m.): You can see it on the horizon, making its way across Long Island Sound from Connecticut, more rain. It's not a matter of if, but when with this little cell. It's also a question of how intense. As we saw yesterday, 5 minutes of heavy rain is all it will take to make the course unplayable. It's starting to sprinkle right now, but we could be in for another delay. Stay tuned. -- Brian Wacker

RECORD SETTER? (2:05 p.m.): There's way too much golf to be played -- including what looks like some sort of Monday finish should the weather hold up -- to talk about records, but we'll do it anyway.

When Tiger Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, he set or tied several U.S. Open records. One of those was his 272 total, which tied with Jack Nicklaus for the lowest ever score in U.S. Open history.

The way Ricky Barnes is playing, that certainly seems within reach. Barnes is 11 under at the moment and still has a lot of golf in front of him. Pebble Beach was a par 71 and Bethpage is only a par 70 so an 8-under total would get Barnes to 272. If Barnes goes lower than that and stays in double digits under par, he would be just the second player (joining Woods) in the history of the U.S. Open to do so.

With all that in mind, there's no one who wants to play as much golf as possible today than Barnes. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER TRACKS (1:38 p.m.): Well off the lead and clearly struggling, Tiger Woods still finds a way to deliver highlight-reel moments. Much like he did in the third round of last year's U.S. Open, Woods hit a miraculous pitch shot, this time from just off the 17th green at Bethpage Black. His ball took a couple of hops and hopped into the hole for a birdie.

The crazier shot (or shots) of the week? The fact that Ricky Barnes is 11 under in two-plus rounds here. His first 10 U.S. Open rounds (as a professional and an amateur), Barnes was a combined 50 over. -- Brian Wacker

BARNES BOMBS ONE IN (1:25 p.m.): With his eagle at the fifth hole, Ricky Barnes is now the fourth player to reach double figures under par in U.S. Open history.

The last player to accomplish the feat was Jim Furyk when he got to 11 under in the third round of his victory at Olympia Fields in 2003. Gil Morgan got to 12 under at Pebble Beach in 1992, but Tom Kite was the winner that year at 3 under. Morgan played his last 29 in 17 over and finished the tournament at 5 over.

Tiger Woods is the only player who has ever finished 72 holes of a U.S. Open in double digits under par. He was 12 under at Pebble Beach in 2000 and won by a record 15 strokes. -- Helen Ross

TICKET UPDATE (1:15 p.m.): Spectators holding Thursday or Monday tickets for the 109th U.S. Open will be admitted to the competition on Monday.
 
Thursday ticket holders who have lost or misplaced their Thursday ticket should report to one of the Will Call facilities at Bethpage State Park on Monday. Will call should be able to verify those who purchased tickets by mail or online well in advance of the championship

Individuals who purchased tickets at the pre-championship on-site sale (June 11-14) will need to show their receipt at Will Call. -- Helen Ross 

BREAKING DOWN BARNES (1 p.m.): There's a long way to go, but if Ricky Barnes plays his last round-plus anywhere near as well as he played the first 36 holes, we'll have the most improbable U.S. Open champion since Michael Campbell in 2005 or Steve Jones in 1996.

Barnes, who is already 1 under through his first three holes today, has hit nearly 87 percent of his greens in regulation and 70 percent of his fairways. No wonder he has 10 birdies and just one bogey all week. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER'S TROUBLES (12:40 p.m.): Beginning the day 11 shots off the lead, Tiger Woods obviously has his work cut out for him. So far, he's not doing himself any favors with the putter. Woods is even par through his first four holes, but he's missed two legit birdie putts, the latest coming via lip-out on No. 13, his fourth hole of the day and fifth of the round.

Things didn't get any better for Woods on the next hole, either -- he pushed his tee shot at the par-3 14th and missed the green, leaving himself in a difficult position to get up and down. -- Brian Wacker 

ALL GROUPS ON THE COURSE (12:25 p.m.): It took Phil Mickelson about 18 hours to play his first two holes of the third round with all the delays, but finally every player still in the field is on the course with Ricky Barnes and Lucas Glover out on the first hole.

The most noticeable condition players will have to deal with is slower than usual greens. We've already seen Tiger Woods come up well short on a birdie putt and other players have, too. With about an inch of rain falling overnight, the greens are incredibly spongy, soft and slow. -- Brian Wacker

UNDER WAY AGAIN AT BETHPAGE (12:10 p.m.): The third round finally resumed a little more than 10 minutes ago and though more weather is on the way today (surprise, surprise), they should be able to get a lot of golf in.

The biggest storyline right now is that the leaders will finally play in wet conditions, something they haven't really done the rest of the week. How will they handle it? We'll know in the next few hours.

As for the top two ranked players in the field, Phil Mickelson resumed his round by rolling in a birdie on the second hole. Tiger Woods, meanwhile, left his birdie putt well short at No. 1, which drew a quizzical look from Woods and caddie Steve Williams. The good news for Woods -- aside from an opening par -- is that everyone is finally playing in the same conditions. Expect a lot of shifting on the leaderboard today. -- Brian Wacker