PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 16, 2002

Rich Beem

RICH BEEM: You get a lot of cool stuff if you win this thing. I played another solid round today. I didn't hit it particularly well again today, but I hit it better than I did the first round, and my putter has been unbelievable. I've made virtually everything I've looked at through 36 holes. That certainly helps in any tournament, especially in the majors, when the greens are as good as you possibly get. Birdies, hit 9-iron to No. 1 and made about a 15-footer for birdie there. Drove it poorly on No. 3 and ended up going from Army golf, rough to rough, and ended up making bogey there. But then came back, the next hole on No. 4, hit a beautiful 7-iron in there about two feet and made that. No. 7, I hit 4-iron -- it's actually not a 4-iron, a souped-up 4-iron, to 25 feet and 2-putted that. Hit it 12 feet on No. 8 and coaxed that one in. 12, I hit my drive way left over in the port-a-potty area and hit an 8-iron on the front edge and chipped that in. Then 17, hit it to about 15 feet top left above the hole and made that. On 18, hit it way right and hit just a wonderful opening underneath the trees and hit a little 7-iron to three feet there, got extremely lucky and birdied that.

RICH BEEM: I was just off the front edge, so I'm going to say about 40, 50 feet.

RICH BEEM: This is completely different than anything we go through in the PGA TOUR, not discounting PGA TOUR wins, but let's face it, a major win is extremely difficult. So, I think coming down the stretch, just kind of tells what you kind of internal fortitude you have. I had to sweat it out my first win with -- I was battling myself more than anything else and then last time, it was not only myself, but a hard-charging Steve Lowery. I was fortunate enough to win both of those. This weekend, it's going to be completely different. So I don't know exactly what's going to happen tomorrow, but it's going to be fun. Unless I shoot 90; then it won't be fun.

RICH BEEM: Well, I never really decided to come on TOUR. It's not one of those things you wake up in the morning and say, you know what, I'm going to go play the PGA TOUR for a living. I was working up in Seattle selling car stereos and cell phones, back in '95 and '96, for about a year, and watched, actually Paul Stankowski win the BellSouth Classic, and that kind of fired me up a little bit about golf again. I was pretty dejected about it. I had always loved golf, but never really thought of myself as much of a player, so I thought I'd go back out to try to play again. Didn't have much success on the mini tours for about a year and decided to go back to work at El Paso Country Club and worked there for the better half of two and a half years, and then I was really playing well. And that's when my he head pro and now my instructor, Cameron Doan, came in one day and he says, "Rich, you have two choices, either you're going to quit and go play golf for a living, or you're just going to have to quit," because I really was not a very good assistant pro. I was fortunate enough to get through qualifying school in the fall of '98, finished eighth coming out of there, and then here I am, still at it. I can't believe it. (Laughs).

RICH BEEM: Actually, the first win was pretty -- it was significant in a lot of ways because, A, it gave me the belief that I could win out here, but at the same time, it gave me an extra two years to figure out if I belong out here. I really had to -- I really struggled that second year and even last year, I was playing -- I've played well in spurts last year, and actually came down to the last month and a half that I didn't have my card yet. I actually sent in my qualifying school form and fortunately, made it through at Williamsburg. If it was not for the Kemper Open win, when it happened, then I would not be sitting in front of you here today because I don't think I would have had what it took to maybe go back through qualifying school again and do all that. Fortunately, it gave me two years to really find out that I was not that good of a player then, and finally, at the end of the year 2000, I just said, listen, I've got to go figure this out. So I went and really worked hard on my game and I'm still working at it, but, fortunately, I did win when I did, in 2000, to give me the luxury of figuring this thing out.

RICH BEEM: Yeah, I sit over there and I hit it and obviously, it was not a very good tee shot. When I got down there, I figured, hey, if nothing else, I could kind of pitch it up close to the green, but then I kind of -- I was looking underneath the trees instead of over them, but I kind of looked up and saw the trees, actually, were not that high in front of me. So, I just wanted to hit 7-iron, my caddie said no, no, no, get it over the trees, not through the trees, but over them. I went with a 7-iron in and hit just short of the green; and like I said, we've been working hard on my chip-and-runs and I'm not very good on the real chip-and-run. So, I took out a 9-iron to kind of pitch it up there a little bit further than I normally would and just happened to hit a great little chip there and had beautiful speed and was fortunate it went in. It was not something you look to make. It happens when you're playing well.

RICH BEEM: We'll start with the first question first, I guess. When I hit it way right, same thing as it was on No. 12, I hit it where the crowd was trampling everything down and the wind was blowing left-to-right, and I had an opening, and I was only 129 from the front, 164 to the hole; so what I had to do was scoot something through the trees. It was not that hard of a shot, really, but where it landed, on the upslope of the first round, which killed it and then had enough spin on it going left-to-right and just took it right. I hit it within about three feet and you could see -- as Bob Rossberg said -- not Bob, Ken Venturi: "He could sit there with a thousand golf balls and not do that again." I probably couldn't. It was lucky, but when you're playing well, those breaks happen. I don't even know where to begin -- I'm a terrible teacher. I've got no patience for it. Most of the help, I like, but the people, I didn't like, I really didn't like them. So I just wasn't very attentive. My attention span, I could do one thing very well. Like, if you wanted me to fill out score cards or do something for a tournament, I could do that, but give me three or four things to do, forget about it. I was lost. My attention span was not very good.

RICH BEEM: No, I didn't. In fact, I've been to -- when I lived in Sioux Falls, I came up to the (Twin) Cities three times; twice to go to the Mall of America and what's that pretty cool adventure park over here, the -- yeah, Valley Fair. I wasn't into golf then, I was working as an assistant, but every time my head pro left me off for a few days, I certainly didn't want to play golf, wanted to get as far away from it as possible, so came up here to go shopping and have some fun.

RICH BEEM: We formally have a Wednesday and Friday game, it's a quota game. It's two points for par, four for birdie, eight for eagle, nobody has ever made double-eagle, so we would have to make something up on that one, one point for bogey and zero points for double-bogey and you basically get paired up with somebody. J.P. Hayes plays with a plus six, I play to a plus five and we have a medal game, so, basically, I have to shoot 66 to make my medal. Stakes aren't very high in those games because we are playing with other members, but most days, we get about 20 guys in the game and sometimes there's a Skins Game and sometimes there's an Indian game in Vegas or whatever. So, you can go out there on a bad day and lose four or five hundred bucks, easily. But then somebody comes in and wants to play for some big dough, we can certainly welcome those games as well, but those are few and far between. It's a fun game. We play with guys that are 24 -, 25-handicappers, all the way down to plus fives and sixes. So there's a huge range of talent level out there, but it's just a good old boy game.

RICH BEEM: No, I haven't. I'm not going to mention his name. I'm actually surprised he has not called me or gotten in trouble for it. Mr. Shapiro knows who he is. I stand by what I said. I'm not going to back away from that. It was not a very nice article and I don't think it was very deserving of my play up to that point in time. So that's all I'm going to say.

RICH BEEM: The author was Alan Shipnuck (ph), actually surprised he's not here right now, might be somewhere but Alan Shipnuck, Sports Illustrated writer.

RICH BEEM: I did, for most of it. Everything that was written about me, I read the galleys (ph), I don't know if anything was changed after I read them. I read them in about September or October of -- I don't even know when the book came out, 2001 it came out, maybe. I think I read them in 2000 and everything that was given to me was factual or I changed to where it was factual. Whether he went back in and changed them or not, I don't know because I haven't read the book, either.

RICH BEEM: I didn't even get a free book. I didn't get paid, I didn't get a free book. He says he's going to take me to dinner, but I don't think so.

RICH BEEM: Yes, sir, I do.

RICH BEEM: So I don't go No. 2 on the golf course. (Laughter.) I just have always done it. It's just habit. I don't know, I just -- I've done that for as long as I can remember now. I go through close to a bottle a week. Part of it's nerves. I think it's nice to have nerves before every opening round, and I certainly do for most every tee shot. It has not been as bad this week which is very surprising, but, yeah, I just put a little jug down. I don't care if anybody sees anymore. I used to be embarrassed but now I don't care.

RICH BEEM: Yeah, like every single one I had in the year 1995 on the Dakotas Tour. I wasn't playing very good and I was actually recently engaged to a gal. I just really thought I wanted to become an every-day Joe, work blue-collar job, whatever, and just play on the weekends. I was content with that but something inside of me just kept pulling me back to try to do this for a living. Obviously, I'm glad it did. But I was more than happy to walk away from the game and just watch it on TV and cheer for these guys, because these guys are really good out here. I'm fortunate to be among them.

RICH BEEM: He's been my caddie -- Rich Mayo was actually playing on the Dakotas Tour when I was working up in Sioux Falls. After 1999, Rich Mayo asked me if I would be interested in hiring Bill and I already had somebody else lined up, and when it didn't work out, I called Rich up and said, listen, would Bill be willing to work for me. He was actually out playing on the Hooters Tour at the time and Rich calls him up and says, hey, would you like to go work for Beemer, and Bill says absolutely. We worked up at the Western in the year 2000 and have been together ever since. We have a great relationship. In fact, I'm not allowed to fire him, ever. In order for me to fire him, I have to not only get permission from my wife, but his wife, my parents, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Bill and I make a great team. He's a wonderful caddie. I'm glad to have him on the bag.

RICH BEEM: I've been working pretty hard on any game this year. I've been working a little bit with my instructor. But honestly a lot of it, just working on posture and a lot of -- my short game, my bunker play throughout the year has been atrocious. So I've been really working hard on my short game, and the reason I'm playing well right now is because I'm actually putting really well right now. I've never felt this comfortable or confident with the putter since I can remember, ever. Actually, maybe back in '98 when I was playing really well in the Sun Country section events. But right now I'm putting extremely well and that certainly takes a lot of pressure off the rest of the game. You don't feel like you have to drive it in the middle of the fairway or knock it on every green close to make something happen. That's what's really going well for me right now.

RICH BEEM: No, I don't. In fact, if I'd have missed the cut this week, it would not have been a big deal, not a blow to my ego at all. These guys have been doing this for a long time and I'm still new to the ballgame as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to find out how good I can get. But winning The INTERNATIONAL boosted my confidence quite a bit, but at the same time, I don't come to two golf tournaments and expect to win. I think I can compete with them, but I'm not really too sure yet because I have not done it on a consistent basis. If you look at my track record, especially the last few years I've missed a lot of cuts I'm starting to make a lot of cuts and when I am, I'm not making it by one or two like I used to now I've made it by going into contention on the weekend. That's obviously pretty big for your confidence. My self-esteem is probably about the same. These guys are still really good. (Laughs).

RICH BEEM: To make it believable, when I'm sitting here on Sunday with the trophy right here. Like I said before, I didn't come into this tournament expecting anything. I'm just as surprised as you all that I'm sitting here. What I'm not surprised is that I'm playing well. I know I've I'm good, I know I've got some game, but at the same time this is a major championship and I haven't really done anything in majors yet and so I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm not going to back down this weekend if I start playing bad it's just because I'm playing bad or I hit it bad. But honestly, I probably will be intimidated a little bit if I get paired with somebody big. But at the same time, I don't think it's going to change my outlook on the game. I mean, I'm still going to try to knock it down the fairway as far as I can and try to hit it as close as I can and try to make every putt I look at. It would be a nice deal if I was sitting here in Sunday in front of all you guys again.

RICH BEEM: Yes and no. I mean, obviously, the money helps and I think that -- I think the cool thing about The INTERNATIONAL win is all of the stuff that it gets me into: I've gone to 15th on the Money List, get into next week at Sahalee, I should get into the one over in Ireland; if I keep playing well THE TOUR Championship, the Mercedes, and those are big events. Those are the events that all of the top-ranked players in the world play in. I think that maybe being around these guys, maybe I can feed off of them a little bit and watch them play, because that's how you get better, is you look at the players that are successful and figure out what they do and what they do so well. You're wrong about the money because I don't have any of it. My wife does. You should know better. (Laughs).

RICH BEEM: You know, it's in my wallet back in the hotel. But yes, I still do have the Magnolia Hi-Fi ID card.