It would take an awful lot of backing up from Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes to bring the rest of the field behind them into the picture at the 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park's Black Course.

Both Glover and Barnes are atop the leaderboard, currently five shots clear of a star-studded group at two-under that includes Phil Mickelson, David Duval, Hunter Mahan and Ross Fisher. Mike Weir is alone at one-under for the event while the group at even-par features Tiger Woods, Soren Hansen, Graeme McDowell, Bubba Watson and Retief Goosen.

This thing is far from over as history has shown that the leaders traditionally back up, at least a little, through the final round of a US Open. Should that happen and a player or two within striking distance (two, three, four, five shots back) gets on a roll, there is no telling what the result of this Open will be. It remains to be seen if either or both Glover and/or Barnes can remain five full shots ahead of the field for the duration of the final round as this is uncharted water for both of these players.

TIGER: Has Tiger Woods played himself back into this tournament? That is the question. You would think so after posting rounds of 74-69-68 in his first three rounds, good, but not great scores, that leave him seven shots back of the leaders with only 11 holes left in his US Open.

For all the conversation of where Tiger was after the Memorial, it might have been all done in by the luck of the draw. Starting early-late in this Open put Tiger on the wrong side of the weather on Thursday, then when things got backed up on Friday, not only did he not put a peg in the ground for what seemed like forever, he missed some of the best scoring conditions Bethpage had seen all week long. What Tiger needs now is to get white hot and have everyone in front of him fade, which is not a likely combination.

PHIL: Philly Mick has tallied an amazing 15 birdies so far but has also posted nine bogeys and two doubl…

Hang on the for the ride as we are one day and 36 holes away from crowning a US Open winner, but first there is some golf to be played.

Mike Davis, the USGA's Senior Director of Rules and Competition said that there was a chance that 109th US Open at Bethpage State Park's Black Course could get done on time.

Of course, the USGA, Bethpage Black and the fine fans of the New York Metro area and golf in general would have to get a break. But if that break did come in the form of some dry weather, the third round of the US Open, slated to continue on the Black course Sunday morning could be finished by 11 a.m, then the USGA could re-pair and get the final round underway as late as 1:30 p.m. and hopefully finish around 7 or 7:30 Sunday evening.

Both groups will start on the first and 10th tees and in the event of bad weather, the USGA could opt not to re-pair and instead play on in the same groups that are being played in Round Three. The trouble there is that you could have the winner of the US Open finishing on the ninth hole instead of 18.

Rick-ee, Rick-ee: Last year on the Left Coast at Torrey Pines, it was Rocco Mediate who came into the event ranked 158th in the World Golf Rankings and captured the spirit and spunk of golf fans everywhere by playing well in the US Open while finishing second to Tiger Woods in an epic 91-hole battle.

This year on the East Coast at Bethpage Black it is Ricky Barnes, ranked an astonishing 519th in the World Golf Rankings, holding the 36-hole lead while coming off his best finish on the PGA TOUR this year, a tie for 47th at the St. Jude Classic.

Not only is the 5-1-9 ranking a mind blowing number, consider this -- Barnes has only one bogey at Wetpage and in posting opening rounds of 67-65-132 established a new 36-hole US Open scoring record.

The USGA did everything they could to get the players back on the course to begin their third rounds but eventually at 6:55 p.m. Eastern time, play was cal…

Hooray for the USGA, they may have gotten this at least a little right.

There was speculation that because of the first round cancellation of the 109th US Open at Bethpage State Park's Black Course on Thursday due to torrential rains, that fans who paid upwards of $100 for a Round One ticket would not be allowed to use that ticket to regain entry into the event, even though it had been cancelled due to weather.

Instead at a press conference Friday morning, it was announced that spectators who have a Thursday, Round One ticket would be to use the ticket if there is Monday play of the Open, which, given the weather conditions looks likely, or if there is no Monday play, those ticket holders will receive a 50 percent refund of their purchase.

However, with the weather situation unsettled for the weekend, the USGA issued a late statement saying that if 90 minutes or more of golf are played on either Saturday or Sunday, that daily tickets for that day will not be refunded or exchanged. In the event that less than 90 minutes of golf are played on either Saturday or Sunday, tickets for that day will be honored on to the course for subsequent play.

It's not perfect, but it is far better than what the USGA originally had stated, that there would be no refund of the purchase and the ticket could not be used during any other day of competition.

Future Forecast: The early forecast in Farmingdale calls for a chance of morning showers followed by scattered afternoon thunderstorms with highs near 75 and the chance of moisture at 60 percent. Sunday calls for a high of only 67 with a 60 percent chance of rain.

Normally, that wouldn't be such an ominous forecast, but with all the moisture Bethpage Black has already absorbed, there is no place for the water to go. Any precipitation will only complicate the equation.

In the history of the US Open, only two times has the tournament not finished on Sunday due to weather delays.

In 1959 at Wing…

"Come on people, we can do better than this..." is what I used to bellow into the headset at Milwaukee County Stadium when we were doing something on the scoreboard that didn't come off as planned. I'm sure it was the same scenario in the broadcast compound for both ESPN and NBC as first day coverage commenced at the US Open from Bethpage Black Golf Course.

Following a fine lead-in from The Golf Channel's "Live From" show, ESPN opened with unique shots of Bethpage only to have NO audio whatsoever. No natural sound, no narration, no music, until about 45 seconds into the open, then it popped in. Trust me when I tell you this, having been in the situation, someone was screaming in the truck. You only get to open the 2009 US Open once and when it's wrong, there is a producer screaming somewhere at someone and or everyone.

At the US Open, when you're ESPN and you're trying to demonstrate what a wonderful job you can do broadcasting the first two days of a major, you have meeting after meeting making sure that all is in place and will go well. That said, I like Chris Berman. I had the chance to meet him when he was involved in the pro-am at the Quail Hollow Championship earlier this PGA Tour season and I was on site hosting the coverage for the PGA Tour Network on Sirius 209 and XM 146.

The players seem to like him, he is a very nice fellow indeed, however, he should not be hosting the opening round live coverage of the United States Open. ESPN has several very capable fellows who could fill in nicely sitting next to Roger Maltbie, but Boomer isn't one of them. I would suggest, if not Scott Van Pelt, who at one time worked for The Golf Channel, then how about bringing in someone who just happens to be on site working for another company associated with the Open, like Peter Jacobsen? He's media friendly, he knows the game and he's won an Open. Sure, the Open he won was in the movie "Tin Cup," but he's closer to winning an Open than Chris Berman.

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