FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Could there have been a more enticing preview for what will come today? Did NBC have a hand in this?

Moments before darkness closed the curtains Sunday at the 109th U.S. Open, Tiger Woods crept onto the first page of the leaderboard.

Meanwhile, Ricky Barnes, seemingly in position to win his first anything since 2002, took on the gait of a man who couldn’t swallow. Was a golf ball lodged in his throat?

Barnes bogeyed the first hole of his final round and snap-hooked his drive on the second. He opted to wait until this morning to play his second shot. By then, maybe his heart will stop beating through his shirt.

Woods birdied No. 7 to move to seven shots off the lead.

“It was nice to end the day with a birdie on one of the most difficult holes of the week,” Woods said.

The USGA felt good enough about the forecast for today to resume the final round at 9 a.m., leaving enough time for an 18-hole playoff if it comes to that.

Phil Mickelson, who waltzes around Bethpage Black like William Shatner at a Star Trek convention, is five back. Same for Hunter Mahan, David Duval and Ross Fisher.

Then there’s Lucas Glover, who looked hopeless during a three-hole stretch in the third round but is now eye-to-eye with Barnes at 7-under par.

A bit confused?

So are the players, who have endured four days of starts, stops and restarts due to showers that have turned Bethpage Black into Bathpage Splat.

“We can’t even remember what day we were playing,” Woods said. “It all blurs together.”

Barnes, speaking after his third round, said he expected to hold up amid the final-round pressure.

“With these crowds out here, it felt like Sunday today,” he said.

Well, it was Sunday. But a third-round Sunday.

When the horn sounded to stop play, Barnes quickly marked his position and walked briskly off the course.

“It’s going to be pressure-packed tomorrow,” Glover said. “I’ll sleep fine. If not, I guess I’ll be tired.”

A Monday finish will be the first for a U.S. Open – excluding playoffs — since 1983 at Oakmont.

That year, a Sunday afternoon thunderstorm forced a five-hole Monday finish.

This year, Glover and Barnes have 161/2 holes to play. Or in Barnes’ case, 163/4.

Even before Barnes stumbled at nightfall, even when he had a six-shot lead midway through the third round, there was skepticism that he would emerge as the Open champion.

Once a brash phenom who won the 2002 U.S. Amateur wearing a Hawaiian shirt, Barnes went invisible for about six years.

He has never so much as contended in a PGA Tour event in 36 career starts. He had entered the final round of a tour event within 10 shots of the lead just three times.

He hasn’t even won a Nationwide Tour event.

If Barnes is victorious today, he will become the lowest-ranked player in history – 519th – to win a major championship. (The rankings began in 1986.)

Glover survived a bogey-double, bogey, bogey stretch in the third round and has to be considered the ever-so-slight favorite today.

What does he need to shoot in the final round to win?

“If I knew,” he said, “I’d mail it into Vegas.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LEADERBOARD

Leaders at the U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park (7,426 yards, par 70) and how many final-round holes they completed Sunday:

ScoreThru

Lucas Glover-71

Ricky Barnes-71

Hunter Mahan-22

Phil Mickelson-22

David Duval-22

Ross Fisher-21

Notable

Tiger WoodsE7

Ryan Moore+16

Kyle Stanley+84

INSIDE/B6

UW’s Nick Taylor follows 65 with a 75.

Results: See Scoreboard, B5 TRACKING RYAN MOORE, KYLE STANLEY and NICK TAYLOR

Where: The 109th U.S. Open, Bethpage Black Course, Farmingdale, N.Y.

Sunday’s scores: Moore shot a 2-over-par 72 in the third round and is even through six holes of his final round.

Stanley shot a 4-over 74 in the third round and is even through four holes of the final round.

Taylor shot a 5-over 75 in the third round and is 3 over through 10 holes of his final round.

Position: Moore (1-over) is tied for 13th, Taylor (6-over) is tied for 34th and Stanley (8-over) is tied for 45th. Ricky Barnes and Lucas Glover are co-leaders early in the final round at 7-under.

Recap: Moore, from Puyallup, opened the final round with a double bogey but came back with birdies at No. 4 and 6. On his final hole of the day, he blasted out of the rough with a wedge to 18 inches for a birdie. … After making seven birdies in his second round, University of Washington standout Taylor, the , has gone 22 holes without another. … Gig Harbor’s Stanley has learned why the par-4 12th was Bethpage’s second-hardest hole in 2002. He has played it in 6-over for the week.

Tee times today: Action resumes at 6 a.m. PDT, weather permitting.

Todd Milles, The News Tribune