	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE BARCLAYS

August 25, 2007

Rich Beem

HARRISON, NEW YORK

NELSON SILVERIO: Rich Beem, thanks for joining us for a couple minutes. Just two back going into Sunday, why don't you give us some thoughts on your round today and your thoughts going into tomorrow.
RICH BEEM: (Pausing) Yeah, it was kind of an up-and-down day, especially the first part of the round. I struggled a little bit. I didn't particularly feel very comfortable out there for whatever reason, and then made that nice eagle on 9. That kind of got me focusing a little better.
Then I played very comfortably on the back side. I hit some quality shots and if I didn't, I got up-and-down and didn't put too much pressure on my game and just didn't hit it particularly close on 17 or 18. That's probably the biggest disappointment. But can't complain about anything. I played some pretty good golf today.

Q. Can you talk about how you kind of keep things together after the quick bogey on 1 there and just not feeling right?
RICH BEEM: Yeah, you just -- you know it's going to be a long day with the greens and the conditions. The greens were getting a little crusty out there. You just have to hang in there the best you can. You know that you grind it out, you have a chance, and there's still some birdieable holes out there and you just have to kind of keep it together.
That's basically what I did. It wasn't my best of anything today, but I did some good things and at the end of the day, I'm still in pretty good position. Hopefully we can do something tomorrow.

Q. Just as a follow, as close as you are right now, how do you feel going into tomorrow and what's your excitement level to be that close to the top and have a chance here?
RICH BEEM: Yeah, that's always exciting being in this position. It's always fun playing good golf. You know, there's a lot of times where you walk off the golf course and you're just, you know, didn't get much out of it.
But I've got a lot out of my golf game this week and that's always fun. You ask anybody that plays the game, it's always a lot more fun when you're playing well.

Q. Is it stating the obvious with a 62, 63, 64 out there that going low tomorrow is essential?
RICH BEEM: They must have played some different holes than I did. That 62 by Hunter Mahan is outstanding.
Depends on what the winds do and how firm the greens are in the morning. Yeah, as good as Steve is striking the ball now and he's always been a great roller of the golf ball and a great putter in his career, I'll probably have to shoot a fairly low number, not super low, but I think fairly low to hang in there.

Q. Hunter said he had to undergo an attitude adjustment a little bit from his younger days in amateur golf, and even when he first turned pro, he slammed clubs and would get really angry and he saw a sports psychologist, his good buddy Neale Smith who turned him around. Can you talk about the ups and downs that guys go through; do you understand why guys slam clubs and curse at the bad shots?
RICH BEEM: Do you play golf? (Laughter) I mean, come on, imagine having to do it for a living and the ball doesn't go your way.
Yeah, there are a lot of guys out there who wear their emotions on their sleeve; Calcavecchia, Steve Pate, Pat Perez. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, as long as it doesn't carry from one shot to the next and the next and you make an ass out of yourself out there. I think that, you know, it's okay to show some emotion out there. If it's detrimental to your game, obviously you have to do something about it.

Q. Talk about the eagle on 9, what that did for you, it looked like you were at a moment on the front nine where it could have gone south?
RICH BEEM: Yeah, I did, and trust me, it wasn't a whole lot of fun. I just wasn't seeing lines on the green. I just wasn't comfortable with how far I was hitting it. I just didn't feel that comfortable out there.
I somehow got in the fairway on 9 and hit a pretty good 3-wood in there and fortunately K.J. was along the same line I was on 9 and I kind of saw how his putt broke to the right at the end and I just played a little more and thankfully it went in.
It helped turned around and got me set a little more. I drove it really well on 10 and got up-and-down there for birdie. Then I hit some quality shots from then on in. I didn't really hit that many bad shots with the exception of the wedges on the last two holes. I had a bad number on 17, just hit it too far off the tee, we didn't think we were going to hit it that far off the tee box and was trying to hit a spinner and got away from me. On 18, I didn't hit a very good shot there either.
Other than that, I was really comfortable on the back side. I really wasn't that comfortable on the front side, and obviously it showed.

Q. When is the last time in your mind that you had a chance like this?
RICH BEEM: I played well at Nissan early this year and was in the front at Nissan and was not too far back of Phil but I had some ground to make up.
It's going to be fun for me getting in there tomorrow.
NELSON SILVERIO: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297