Ex-UA star Barnes living golf's wild ride

Golf doesn’t always treat its prodigies well.

In the summer of 2002, University of Arizona senior Ricky Barnes won the U.S. Amateur. He was golf’s next big thing, tall, handsome, could hit the ball a mile.

The following April, Barnes was the low amateur at The Masters, finishing 21st. He was 22 years old. Here was the kid who would challenge Tiger Woods, and the arrogant Barnes did nothing to dissuade the talk.

“No one had higher expectations than myself,” Barnes said.

Six years later, Barnes is still searching for his first PGA win. There have been more lows than highs, more missed cuts than top-10 finishes. He’s no longer the can’t-miss kid. Now 28, he’s just another face in the crowd, hoping to secure his Tour card for next season and praying for more putts to fall.

“I know I’m close,” Barnes said after shooting a 4-under 66 Thursday in the first round of the Frys.com Open at Grayhawk Golf Club. “I know I have it in me to get out here and compete.”

Barnes’ story isn’t unique. Remember Charles Howell III? Or Bobby Clampett? They were supposed to be stars, too, and the Tour chewed them up. Barnes thought he was so talented, so precocious, that he could simply unleash his driver and overpower courses.

All that got him was a ticket to the Nationwide Tour.

Then, just when the sport had forgotten him, Barnes reintroduced himself on one of golf’s grandest stages.

A qualifier for the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black this past June, Barnes set an Open record with his 36-hole score of 8 under. When he eagled the par-5 fourth hole on Sunday to get to 11 under, he became just one of four golfers ever to be in double digits under par at a U.S. Open.

Barnes, after leading by six, took a one-shot lead into Monday’s final round but eventually tied for second with Phil Mickelson and David Duval, two shots behind winner Lucas Glover.

The paycheck — $559,830 — was more than Barnes had earned in the three previous years combined. More importantly, the Open seemed to be the launching pad for the rest of his career.

Instead, Barnes again fell into obscurity. He’s won just $25,440 since the Open, and he’s missed six straight cuts dating back to the John Deere Classic in mid-July. The Open remains his only top-25 finish this season.

“When you go through something like Ricky went through at the Open … you have this amazing week that’s kind of something that you’ve never really truly experienced before, it takes a lot out of you,” said D.A. Points, who knows Barnes well from their days on the Nationwide Tour. “And in a way, whether you believe it or not, there’s just a smidge of a letdown after that.”

Barnes doesn’t agree. He’s certain there’s a simpler explanation for his struggles: He can’t make a putt. He ranks 187th on the tour in putting.

“I like the way I’m hitting it,” he said. “… Just gotta get a few to fall to make the cup look bigger.”

The cockiness that once defined Barnes is gone. Golf has humbled him and made him more mature. In 2002, he wouldn’t have admitted to an ounce of self-doubt. Now, he freely admits there have been times when he’s questioned himself, when he’s wondered if he’s good enough to succeed on Tour.

“For it not to come right away, yeah, I mean I was heated, mad, ticked off, what am I doing? All those things,” said Barnes, a Scottsdale resident. “Obviously, you have to believe that you’re good enough and I did. But when results weren’t coming my way, there’s going to be doubt. … A lot of things creep into your mind.”

There’s still time for Barnes’ career to take off. The top 125 players on the money list secure their card for 2010, and Barnes currently is 119th. If he can find his putting stroke, who knows?

But it’s been seven years since his U.S. Amateur triumph. He’s been overtaken by a new generation of can’t-miss kids.

That doesn’t make Barnes a failure.

It’s just what golf does.