Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
Ricky Barnes, ranked 519th in the world, is trying to pull a shocker of Ben Curtis-Orville Moody proportions
At 519th in the Official World Golf Ranking, Ricky Barnes ranks behind Raphael De Sousa of Switzerland, Marciano Pusey of the Philippines, Mikko Korhonen of Finland, Nabahito Sato of Japan, Unho Park of Australia, and Mark Haastrup of Denmark. Lest you think I’m just cherry-picking obscure foreign players, he’s also behind Americans Ryan Hietala, Garrett Osborn, and Chad Ginn.
When you go that far down the list, the world ranking might not be a perfect yardstick, and it may be undervaluing Barnes a little bit. He won the U.S. Amateur in 2002 and has been a reasonably good player on the Nationwide Tour, finishing 25th there last year to squeak into a PGA Tour card.
But in 12 PGA Tour events this year he has made only six cuts with a best finish of 47th. He never won a tournament in his five years on the Nationwide Tour. Coming into this week, it never entered anyone’s mind that he could win the U.S. Open (except maybe Ricky’s mind, but only because he’s been known for his confidence, going back to his amateur days).
Since the world ranking was instituted in the 1980s, the player with the lowest ranking was Ben Curtis, who was 396th when he won the 2003 British Open. He was also a PGA Tour rookie.
Would a Barnes victory be as shocking? Maybe not quite, considering his U.S. Amateur win. But it would be right up there.
|
Barnes wouldn’t be the most unexpected champion in U.S. Open history, but you would have to go back 40 years to find a bigger shock winner. That would be Orville Moody, who had just gotten out of the Army and was just getting his feet wet on the PGA Tour, where he had yet to win (nor would he win any other PGA Tour events after taking the 1969 U.S. Open at Champions in Houston).
Jack Fleck was a non-winner until he beat Ben Hogan in a playoff in 1955 at Olympic. Nobody predicted amateur Johnny Goodman’s victory in 1933. But the two biggest U.S. Open upsets were pulled off by a pair of locals. Sam Parks was a Pittsburgh area pro who shocked the world by winning at Oakmont in 1935 and 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet stunned British greats Harry Vardon and Ted Ray at The Country Club in Brookline in 1913.
Ken Venturi in 1964 and Steve Jones in 1996 also pulled off big upsets. Both were multiple winners, but were coming off serious injuries which had derailed their careers.
Jerry Pate (1976), Ernie Els (1993), and Michael Campbell (2005) made the U.S. Open their first PGA Tour victories, but Pate was an accomplished amateur (he won in his rookie Tour season) and Els and Campbell had won significant events overseas.
Of course, Barnes is ranked ahead of one of the players on the leaderboard. David Duval is 882nd in the world ranking, and his best Tour finish this year is 55th. But Duval is a former leading money winner on PGA Tour (1998) and major champion (2001 British Open). A Duval victory would mark a comeback of epic proportions, topping even Venturi and Jones.
Barring a charge by Phil Mickelson or Mike Weir or even Tiger Woods (who started nine strokes back), we’re bound to have an unlikely winner. Lucas Glover, one stroke back, has one PGA Tour win and has a world ranking of 71st. Hunter Mahan, six behind, also has one victory and is ranked 49th. England’s Ross Fisher has two European Tour wins and a world ranking of 29th—a win for him would be roughly the equivalent of Tony Jacklin in 1970.
Barnes led by six strokes after a hot start to the third round, but hooked a couple of drives and missed a couple of four-foot putts on the back nine as the enormity of the occasion may have begun to weigh on him (still, he managed a creditable 70). Will he join upstart 54-hole leaders like Kenneth Ferrie (2006), Mike Donald and Billy Ray Brown (1990), T.C. Chen (1985), Jim Simons (1971), and Marty Fleckman (1967) by faltering in the final round? Or will he join Orville Moody, Jack Fleck, and Sam Parks in U.S. Open lore?
On the plus side, he starts out five strokes ahead of everyone except Glover. On the minus side, he doesn’t have any positive pro experiences to draw from, and that U.S. Amateur title must seem like it was a long time ago and a world away.
0 comments
