Ricky Barnes: I Was Taking Quick Swings
June 24, 2009 – 11:45 am by Tas MelasI can’t imagine playing in the conditions that the Men’s PGA Tour tried to master in this past weekend’s US Open. Sure, they’re all dealing with the same elements, but the feet were slipping on drives, everything was just nasty. I’m not providing excuses for Ricky Barnes falling apart in round number four (he’ll tell you why that happened below). It’s impossible to feel the way these golfers do while dealing with those issues, but it makes the viewing experience that much more enjoyable for me. Barnes joined ESPN Radio in New York to discuss what went wrong in the final round, his focus, and glancing up at the scoreboard.
On parring hole 10 before the rain:
“The smart play was probably to punch out and try to get up and down with my sand wedge. I figured if I could pull off and make par, I could settle down in the round pretty good. I probably couldn’t do that again with a small bucket. It was a great shot, kind of settled me down and obviously played good the next three holes and unfortunately I ran into a little bad train in the middle of the round.”
What went wrong:
“Mostly it was just quick swings. It wasn’t the rhythm that I had been into all week where it was kind of free flowing, tension free and kind of letting the ball fly. Everyone has those swings, anywhere from the top players in the world to guys probably not heard of week to week out on the PGA tour.”
On the mindset of experienced players vs. newer players:
“I think you’re un-human if you’re not going through the round thinking of what could happen or getting out of the moment a little bit. A lot of us always talk about staying in the moment one hole at a time but as you go along and there’s leaderboards along the way, you’re only human if you look at them and your mind starts to wander a little bit, but that’s just part of sports in general. People with maybe 1 game left and a 12 point lead with 5 minutes to go, I think you’re just human to think about outcome.”
On his focus during shots:
“For about 30 seconds every 4 minutes, you got to block everything out, get really focused on the target, maybe pick out a tree limb or a sign on the back of the green or a fairway. You’d be surprised after you hit a shot, you see something that you didn’t for the first minute while you were in your shot. So, you get pretty focused especially in a tournament where you’re playing really well like the US Open; super tunnel vision was going on with me, I know that. It was cool to get it back in that stage.”
If he heard the Mickelson eagle on the 13th hole:
“You’d be surprised, you can kind of pick out birdie roars and eagle roars, and probably Mickelson roars and Tiger roars. It’s kind of crazy.”
Listen to Ricky Barnes on ESPN Radio in New York with Brandon Tierney (17:45 into podcast)
Tags: Golf, Lucas Glover, PGA, Phil Mickelson, Ricky Barnes, US Open
