![]() Beem has not won another tournament, descending back into the Tour’s middle class and eventually fading into the shadows. Most impressive, he outwilled Tiger Woods, withstanding a furious back-nine charge by the fiercest clutch performer on the planet.īeem’s victory earned him $990,000, guest appearances on “The Today Show” and “Late Show with David Letterman,” five years of exemptions and a place among golf’s elite. 18, 2002, with the galleries and an international television audience expecting him to make good on his threat to vomit under the pressure, Beem gulped Pepto-Bismol on the tee boxes to settle his nervous stomach and outplayed veterans Justin Leonard and Fred Funk. “It takes you a while to get over not being able to repeat it, but I tell you what, once you get over it, there’s nothing better.”īeem’s ascension was stunning because he entered the 2002 PGA ranked 73rd in the world and took down a field that featured a record 98 of the top 100 players. If you don’t win another tournament the rest of your life, that’s the way it goes,” Beem said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to let it go. He is totally secure with his unlikely place in golf history and utterly content soliciting tournament exemptions while raising two kids with his wife, Sara, in Austin, Texas. Speaking freely earlier this summer on the caddie terrace overlooking the site of his greatest triumph, Beem offers no apologies for a career that includes more than $9 million in earnings, nor does he self-loath about what should have been after his crowning achievement. “Behind every win, something happens early on that nobody recognizes,” he recalled last month. Yet Beem maintains his defining moment that week in Chaska was salvaging par on the tournament’s third hole Thursday morning, with no inkling of the celebration he would savor in the Sunday twilight. His final round included a 30-foot birdie putt on the treacherous 16th hole and two thunderbolts to set up eagle at No. 12 that initiated a John Daly-esque breakout from obscurity, culminating with him smooching the Wanamaker Trophy as the 2002 season’s ultimate major champion. Instead, Beem dubiously poured in the par-saving putt on No. ![]() ![]() He figured, grind it out a couple of days in Minnesota and prepare for fun the next week in the Pacific Northwest.Īfter all, he was returning to Seattle, where “The Beemer” once charmed locals as a cell phone and car stereo salesman. The affable pro was coming off a victory at The International. Three holes into his Hazeltine baptism in August 2002, Rich Beem stood over a 40-foot putt already thinking about missing the cut at the 84th PGA Championship. ![]()
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