Rich Beem Returns to Improbable PGA Championship


Look for the usual suspects – Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and the hottest player in the game Scottie Scheffler – who will compete in this week’s PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Okla, Tulsa.

But don’t be surprised if someone suddenly appears to eclipse the big names.

After all, 20 years ago Rich Beem did exactly that.

No one was talking about Beem as he entered the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., despite winning the International tournament in Colorado two weeks ago. People were talking about Tiger Woods and other top players, who captured two majors that year.

Entering the final day of the game, Beem was trailing 1997 British Open champion Justin Leonard by three strokes. Woods was five years old.

On Sunday, however, Beem moved up as Leonard struggled to finish 77 with a top five in fourth place.

The two standout shots were the 7-wood Beem, shot at number 11 from about 270 yards, par 5, which gave way to an eagle, and it was the 35-yard bird shot that he transformed at number 16. To get the upper hand on Woods. This was Beem’s third victory on the tour.

After a few bogeys in the back nine, Woods tapped the last four holes together to put pressure on Beem – he felt as he prepared to hit his second shot on the last hole.

“I was literally like, ‘Don’t hurt this in front of all these people,'” Beem said. “’Don’t screw this up now.’”

Beem reached the ground on approach and then landed in three hits for a bogey. After the last one fell, she danced a little on the green.

“I can relax,” he said. “I can breathe again. I’m done.”

He will never forget the shot from Beem 11. Perhaps the same could be said for Woods.

On a practice day leading up to the 2016 Ryder Cup in Hazeltine, Woods walked to the number 12 green. The beem was moving in the opposite direction.

“He doesn’t say hello,” Beem recalled. “It doesn’t say ‘what is it’”

Then, said Beem, Woods asked him:

How did you get home in two hours on Sunday 11?

Beem didn’t miss a beat.

“When you got it, you got it,” he said.

Paired with Beem in 2002, Leonard had a similar impression of the approach in 11.

“It was a shot that I admired,” Leonard recalled. “I felt there was some kind of tournament there.”

Not really. Not while Woods is still on the road.

Beem heard the roars as Woods made his final rally.

“I’ve heard of them,” Beem said, “but I never really thought about them or wanted to react to them.”

Beem was only 31 years old, but the victory would be his last on the tour.

“I’m really bored about this,” he said. “That’s probably one of the things that eats me up more than anything else about my career. I probably didn’t grind as hard as I should in some cases.”

He knew a lot about grinding. Before joining the PGA Tour in 1998, Beem was a professional assistant for two years at the El Paso Country Club in Texas. His salary was about $13,000. He won roughly twice as much from mini-tour events in New Mexico and West Texas.

Before that, he sold cell phones and car stereos in the Seattle area for about nine months.

Beem said you’re a good phone salesman. But stereos were another matter.

“I was just terrible,” he said. “I didn’t know the speakers were different sizes for different cars.”

Beem, 51, now works as a commentator for Sky Sports, but hopes to compete more often on the PGA Tour Champions, the track for professional golfers aged 50 and over.

Meanwhile, he’ll be kicking off with the younger guys in Southern Hills on Thursday as he’s exempt as a former PGA champion. His goal is to play on the weekend.

“I am healthy enough,” he said. “The body feels great. I am very skilled at making the cut.”



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