A wild ride for the Beemer

By Dan Jenkins

Photo By Darren Carroll

October 2002

Mother Nature must have been suffering from a stomach ulcer when it came to the majors this year. All four were interrupted and tortured by weather at one time or another. Not that it kept 40,000 wind-shredded Minnesotans from coming out every day of the PGA to worship at the shrine of Tiger Woods and even occasionally cheer the Jack Fleck — I mean, Rich Beem — who beat him.

Rich Beem's name had PGA champion written all over it even before he won at Hazeltine for Pepto-Bismol, which is among his favorite beverages. But he won it over the last nine holes, just when the world's ruling player went on a birdie binge and finally started looking like Tiger Woods instead of, well, Tiger Leonard.

After all of the zany weather for three days, it was supposed to be a Tiger Woods-Justin Leonard battle on Sunday — all the other Humpty Dumptys aside. So what were the odds on Tiger beating Justin by 10 shots, 67 to 77, and still losing the tournament?

About what they would have been on Rich Beem winning, I dare say. Two weeks earlier Beem had survived Steve Lowery's double eagle at the International for his second PGA Tour victory, but this was only his fourth attempt to win a major. The first, a missed cut at Carnoustie in his rookie year of '99, was preceded by what Beem gingerly described as an "altercation" earlier that week in Scotland — which he later clarified as an arrest for DUI. (And you thought Jean Van de Velde had a bad day.) Not for nothing was the title of the book on Beem's rookie season Bud, Sweat and Tees.

Beem, who turned 32 a week after doing the major deal in Minnesota, has settled down a bit after getting married last December. Still, a guy who was selling car stereos and cell phones six years ago wasn't the one you were betting on to stop Tiger from a second Triple Crown in the majors. There was all the Grand Slam talk after Tiger's victories at Augusta and Bethpage earlier this year, and even after a third-round 81 in the British Open at Muirfield, a victory at Hazeltine would have matched his triple major victories of 2000 at Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and Valhalla. That year it was Bob May who almost took Tiger out at the PGA. This time it was Rich Beem.

Bob May? Rich Beem? What happened to your Phil Mickelsons, your Sergio Garcias, your David Duvals? Why is it that the stars so often leave it to the understudies to do the dirty work against Tiger?

Tiger "plays in an era where guys lie down, big time," Johnny Miller was heard to say earlier in the week.

"It's a nice thing for Tiger, but it's not necessarily the best thing for golf. ... Tiger's gotten more gifts on the last day than anybody in history."

So while Beem was throwing a sweet final-round 68 at Tiger, finishing with his only three-putt of the week, the A-list crowd was nowhere to be seen.

Yeah, Garcia tied for 10th after a 68, but he entered the final round 14 strokes back. And that was enough to qualify him and Pierre Fulke as lone bright spots for the Europeans with the Ryder Cup to come six weeks later. The PGA usually serves as the final qualifier for the Cup, but those 12-man teams had been decided last year before the terrorist attacks delayed the competition until this year. Eight of the 12 Europeans missed the cut at the PGA by a combined 47 strokes, including Colin Montgomerie (by four shots), Jesper Parnevik (by seven) and Lee Westwood (10), which probably had captain Sam Torrance looking for Beem's Pepto-Bismol. On the U.S. side, eight of the 12 made the cut, though the tie for 34th place by Mickelson and Duval probably didn't do a whole lot for captain Curtis Strange.

Tiger was joined in the top 10 by Cup teammates Mark Calcavecchia and Jim Furyk. He compared his final-round ball-striking and putting favorably to his performances in his eight previous pro major titles, but his inability to take advantage of Hazeltine's par 5s was part of his undoing. A balky driver allowed him to play the 16 par 5s in five under par for the week, which must have seemed like five over for him.

Beem mashed his driver without fear, conjuring up images of John Daly winning the PGA in '91. "He had nothing to lose," said Beem, who's all of 5-feet-8 and 153 pounds. "Like I felt."

I agree with those who think Beem's eagle at the 597-yard 11th was the blow that sideswiped Tiger — he saw it go up on the board and promptly bogeyed two holes in a row, which meant his four closing birdies left him one stroke short. The sight of Rich urging that 276-yard 5-wood to within six feet, hollering and striding forward, was a thing to remember. He was either Admiral Halsey's task force steaming toward Leyte Gulf or a guy late for Happy Hour somewhere in El Paso.