Insider: Barr's play will decide his Tour future

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Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Barr became the first Canadian winner on the Champions Tour in 2003 at the Royal Caribbean Golf Classic.

Dave Barr has been biding his time waiting for another chance. He returns to the Champions Tour this week to play in the second of three big events in successive weeks, something he hasn't done in four years.

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Barr, who in 2003 became the first Canadian to win on the Champions Tour, last played regularly on the Champions Tour in 2006 when he finished 51st on the Money List. A week ago he got a late call to play in the Dick's Sporting Goods Open.

This week, he's playing on a sponsor's exemption into the inaugural Montreal Championship at Club de Golf Le Fontainebleau. And next week he'll tee it up in the Canadian Senior PGA.

When the stretch is over, Barr will have a better feel for what's next for him.

"This is kind of a barometer to test myself out," said Barr, 58. "Do I want to give it one last crack at the (qualifying) school in the fall? I'll feed off what I can accomplish in this three-week span.

"I'm just looking for a decent showing."

Barr's last official round before last week was at the U.S. Senior Open at Whistling Straits in 2007. He has tried unsuccessfully to qualify a few times but mostly he's been at home in his native Kelowna, British Columbia, working on his game and "playing some decent golf" in nothing near tournament conditions.

It was a whirlwind trip that got Barr from Canada's western-most province to Endicott, N.Y.

"I got a phone call Thursday that said can you make a 1 p.m. Friday tee time?" Barr recalled. "I was able to get a flight, flew to Toronto, drove across the border to Buffalo, got four hours sleep and drove the rest of the way Friday morning."

Good enough until...

"In the first round my old driver had a crack in the face," Barr said.

Barr managed to play respectably with a driver borrowed from Andy Bean and shot 73-75-75.

Barr tested a couple of drivers during Tuesday's practice round in Montreal with some success. That puts him in a better frame of mind. And after a week on greens rolling at tournament speeds, he's more comfortable with his putting after being "gun shy hitting putts" at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open.

"Hopefully this will settle down into a more normal week and get some decent results," Barr said.

Barr, 58, played collegiate golf at Oral Roberts University and turned professional in 1974. After four years on the Canadian Professional Golf Tour, where he won a dozen events, he qualified for the PGA TOUR from 1978 to 2002.

Barr won twice on the PGA TOUR at the 1981 Quad Cities Open, where he claimed a playoff, and the 1987 Georgia-Pacific Atlanta Golf Classic by 4 strokes over Larry Mize.

His closest brush with lasting fame came at the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills Country Club's South Course, better known as the Monster.

Barr tied for second at Oakland Hills behind Andy North but both men were overshadowed by a little-known Taiwanese golfer, T.C. Chen. Chen shocked the golf world by leading through 58 holes before the infamous double-hit on the fifth hole of the final round. Chen made quadruple-bogey 8 there to surrender the U.S. Open.

Barr realizes that a victory at Oakland Hills "would have really put me over the top," but he doesn't regret anything that happened. Barr made bogey at the last two holes and shared runner-up honors with Chen and Dennis Watson, 1 shot behind North.

"I didn't have any negativity coming out of it," Barr said. "I used it as a positive. It told me I can play with the best on the toughest courses. I didn't dwell on losing by a shot. I played some of my best golf after that, from 1985 through 1994. I had a good run through there, won Atlanta and lost playoffs at Milwaukee and Hartford."

Barr, playing with Rick Fehr, was two holes ahead of Chen and feeling pretty good about his chances after draining a 65-foot birdie putt at the fifth, the hole with the Monster's sharpest teeth. Like everybody else, Chen's snowman got everybody's attention in a hurry and told Barr, North and the others, "Game on."

"The only thing I'd like to turn back is to have had the opportunity to hit second on the 17th tee box," Barr said of Oakland Hills' 202-yard uphill par 3. "I had the honor. I would have liked to see Fehr hit his shot to gauge myself. I was between a 3- and 4-iron and went with the 3."

The tee shot went two yards over the green into typically lethal greenside U.S. Open rough. Left with perhaps the most difficult shot on the golf course to the most difficult green and pin position, Barr's flop shot ran down a hogback and he made bogey 4.

That mis-fire notwithstanding, Barr had a solid career on the PGA TOUR with three dozen top 10 finishes in addition to the victories. He joined the Champions Tour in 2002 and became the first Canadian to win a Champions Tour event at the 2003 Royal Caribbean Golf Classic.

The goal now is to get back to the Champions Tour for an encore.

Champions Tour Insider Notes:
Also getting an exemption from sponsor Synchro Sports is longtime Quebec professional Daniel Talbot.

Talbot, one of the most accomplished players to ever come out of Quebec, participated in the Montreal Championship pre-qualifier Friday but narrowly missed earning one of the five spots into Tuesday's final qualifying round.

"This is a surprise and an honour for me to be invited to participate in a tournament of this stature," Talbo said.

Barr and Talbot join fellow Canadians Jim Rutledge and Yvan Beauchemin in the field.

• The Montreal Championship marks the Champions Tour's first stop in Canada since the 2002 AT&T Senior Open. It will be the 13th event to be played north of the border.