With his oh-so-hip painter's hat, plaid pants and power game, Barnes has emerged as one of the most colorful stories of this year's rain-plagued Open.
If he wins, the world's 519th-ranked player will be golf's big story again.
Barnes and Glover enter today tied for the lead at 7 under par, five shots clear of the field. But the pressure seemed to be getting to Barnes late Sunday.
He bogeyed the first hole of his fourth round, then yanked his tee shot on No. 2 into deep rough. He bogeyed six of his last 13 holes and surrendered the six-shot lead he held at the turn.
Win or lose, Barnes has already etched his name into the U.S. Open history books. On a Bethpage Black course softened by days of rain, he eagled the par-5 fourth hole Sunday to move to 11 under par and become only the fourth player in tournament history to reach double digits under par.
On Saturday he set a 36-hole Open scoring record — 132 (8 under par). Not bad for a guy who missed the cut in half of his dozen PGA Tour events this season and whose best finish was a tie for 47th at the St. Jude Classic.
"I'll take it," Barnes said Sunday after posting an even-par 70 in the third round. "I'll take a lead after 54 holes in any event, let alone the U.S. Open."
Barnes and Glover were paired together Sunday's third round, and they will play together in the final round. Glover said the two had "a good time (Sunday), talked a lot, and yeah, it was fun."
When Glover was asked about the opinionated Bethpage crowd vocally supporting Barnes, he quipped: "He's got cooler pants than me."
Barnes is more late bloomer than out-of-nowhere surprise. The 6-1 Californian was supposed to be golf's new golden boy after winning the 2002 U.S. Amateur. But the can't-miss kid struggled through years of Q-school and mini-tours. Meanwhile, players he used to beat, such as Hunter Mahan, earned PGA Tour cards and then claimed victories on the big tour.
The hard-luck Barnes even had his own Greg Norman-like disaster when competitor Craig Kanada chipped in not once but twice to beat him for a Tour card in 2006.
Barnes said Saturday his rise, fall and rise again has humbled him. He credited newfound maturity and more focused work on the practice range for his success.
"I've grown up. I obviously thought after my college career I'd be out here right away," he said. "I was able to get a lot of exemptions earlier with my play at The Masters and U.S. Open and Amateur. And not getting real success. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really pissed off the first two or three years. And seeing other guys that you played with getting out there and playing well."
A win today would take Barnes to "another level," says Andy North, the ESPN golf analyst who won the U.S. Open in 1978 and 1985.
"This is a guy who's been a great junior player, a great amateur player. All the way up through the ranks, he's won tournaments," North says. "You can never dismiss a guy who has shown he can win tournaments."
