Rich and "Beeming"
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2002 US PGA Championship | Wrap | 19 Aug 2002
If you had walked up to Rich Beem as he arrived at Castle Pines in Colorado two weeks ago and suggested that he would win that event and the PGA Championship in two weeks times and have $US2,550,000 in season earnings then he could have been excused for asking that you be escorted to the local mental institution.
It is true that at that point he had been having his best year to date on the USPGA Tour, with a second place at Kemper and fourth earlier in the season at the Genuity, but the level that he would reach two weeks later was probably the furthest thing from his mind.
Beem is yet another great example of what the PGA Championhip produces. In the last fourteen times it has been staged it has provided the arena for a first time major winner on eleven occasions but as I am sure Beem would be first to admit it is not that it is an easy major to win.
Beem joined the PGA Tour in 1999 having qualified via the Tour school in 1998. He had turned pro in 1994 but his career had been a shaky one with trips to mini tour events interspersed with times trying to settle down in the “real world” where he took roles teaching at various club positions and selling cellular phones and car stereos. He had studied marketing at New Mexico State University and although you get the feeling he could sell anything with his rather casual nature and appeal, a career in this field was clearly not for him.
And so it was back to what he new best, finishing eighth at the Tour school in 1998 then, in his first season on tour, winning the Kemper Insurance Open at The TPC of Avenel. That gave him the breathing space and luxury of fully exempt status on tour and despite an ordinary season in 2000 he has continued to develop to the point where he now has three wins including a major to his name.
Beem trailed third round leader Justin Leonard by three heading into round four with Woods a further two back and perhaps most would have felt that the challenge would come from Woods rather than the less experienced Beem. Woods opened with a scrambling chip in par but by the time he had reached the tenth tee he was just one back of Beem and the writing was appearing on the wall it would seem. That was not however allowing for a rather gritty and at times spectacular performance by the man from Texas. His second to the par five eleventh with a three wood from 271 yards nestled fifteen feet from the hole and when he made that the difference was two then extended to three when he made birdie two holes later. A bogey at fourteen saw the lead reduced again as Tiger made one last run but perhaps the coup de grace for Beem came at the dangerous sixteenth when he made a putt from some forty feet across the green for a birdie that established a three shot lead again.
Tiger who has not an ounce of “give up” in his system birdied the last four holes to ensure that Beem was kept honest playing the last two holes and given the moment it was surely never going to be easy for Beem. He (Beem ) made a solid two putt par on seventeen and so had to make bogey at worst at the last to win outright. A great drive followed by a mishit but straight second saw him fifty five feet from the hole and although he three putted he became one of the few players in recent years to take the challenge to Tiger down the stretch.
Interestingly enough this is the first time that Woods has finished second in a major perhaps reflecting that once he gets in or near the lead he is hard to hold back.
Chris Riley was third ahead of Fred Funk and the faltering Justin Leonard who surprised everyone including himself with his rather ordinary last day effort. He (Leonard) has shown in the past a capacity to front run very effectively and appeared to have everything under control entering round four. As we know however, this is golf and just when it appears everything is under control it can come unravelled in a heartbeat.
Of the Australasians there were some performances of note. Allenby equalled his best ever performance in a major (equalling his tenth at Troon in 1997). His horror stretch on Saturday where he dropped seven shots in three holes including a quintriple bogey at the par three eighth proved very costly. That he was able to rally back from that disaster is something quite extraordinary. Two late bogies today again cost him dearly but still his tenth place and the accompanying $US110,000 is a good week’s work. The final hole bogey cost him some $US40,000 but I guess there are many others aslo thinking of what might have been.
Stuart Appleby and Peter Lonard tied for fourteenth with Lonard bouncing back from a front nine of forty today to finish with three birides in the last five holes and claim his third top twenty in three majors this year.
Michael Campbell and Adam Scott were tied for twenty third with Campbell overcoming some recent major hoodoos it would seem and Scott showing once again that he is not far away from the next level.
Craig Perks was 29th, Steve Elkington 48th and Greg Norman a last round 80 for 53rd.
In what will be close to a repeat field this week at Sahalee in Washington it will be interesting to see how this week’s form holds up with Tiger attempting to win an event for the fourth consecutive year
