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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 1, 2007Rich BeemNORTON, MASSACHUSETTS STEWART MOORE: Rich Beem, thanks fore spending a few moments with us here after a great second round 66 at the Deutsche Bank Championship. You came into last week's Barclays up in New York on the outside looking in, made your way in. You come into this week on the outside looking in, now you're tied for the lead after 36 holes as it stands right now. Are you quickly becoming the poster child for the survive-and-advance mentality? RICH BEEM: Of all the things I could be the poster child for, this is not the one that I would have picked (laughter). Q. What would you have picked? RICH BEEM: Dougie, that's a little deep for me right now (laughter). I guess, I mean -- you know, it's kind of crazy how this is all coming together, but I sure am having some fun. But yeah, this is certainly interesting. I've made it interesting for myself. I'm having a damn sure lot of fun out there, and I think it's showing. I've just got to keep moving forward and hopefully the guys that are behind me won't do anything crazy. I know that the big three had some really good rounds today. I'm sure the fans were excited to see that. But I've just got to keep trying to make some putts, and who knows. STEWART MOORE: Yesterday you hit eight greens, today you hit 16. Obviously your irons are on point right now I would say. RICH BEEM: Are you saying I hit it bad yesterday? STEWART MOORE: I'm just saying you hit it really good today. RICH BEEM: The funny thing is I missed ten greens yesterday, and I missed like the first six, but I only missed them by yo-di-ho (indicating two feet). I mean, they weren't very far. Anyways, I didn't miss them by much, so my up-and-downs were actually fairly simple. I hit my irons a lot better today, and that was a lot more fun trying to putt for birdie instead of chip for birdie. Q. Is it something you found in your game, or are you just playing so loose because you have nothing to lose right now? RICH BEEM: I wouldn't say I've got nothing to lose, but I feel like I've been playing well. I just haven't had things go my way. I just haven't been able to play really well. I've hit the ball well. I might have putted well one day, chipped well, whatever the case may be, I just haven't put it all together and played well. I've felt for a long time that it's been close, and finally it's kind of breaking through. Like I said, it's a lot of fun. But I can't put one thing -- it's everything that's clicking. It's all going well right now, but I think what I'm doing best is I'm managing my marbles up here (pointing to temple) a little bit better right now. I've got them a little more aligned instead of scattered, which is fun. Q. How much do you expect it'll help on the weekend having gotten some results last week? RICH BEEM: Yeah, you know, being in the last group on Saturday and then right in the second-to-last on Sunday, that helps out. It helped out coming down the stretch today knowing that when I started making a few birdies, and I knew that Baddeley was in at 9-under and I wanted to get to 9-under. Once you get in that position and you kind of get the nerves settled and whatnot, then once you get back in that position the following week, then it's easier. It certainly was going to help out a lot, or at least I'm expecting it to anyways. Q. Are you a procrastinator who waits until the last minute when someone puts a gun to your head to study for finals? RICH BEEM: Yeah, pretty much. Like my wife, she gets mad at me because airplanes fly every day, why would I want to get -- I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. I've finally got a flight home on Monday, but I'm hoping to miss it, you know? Q. So you made it early? RICH BEEM: I made it early, like four days, and my wife hates it. There's always a hotel room and there's always an airline. I mean, these guys -- who was it, Lee Porter. You know, he used to do it; he got his TOUR card one year, and that November he sat there and did all of his travel arrangements for the following year, and he got two flights, one on Friday night and one on Sunday night. Yeah, I'm not Lee Porter (laughter). That is not me. I'm kind of a procrastinator, but -- I don't know. I'm not in a hurry, that's for sure. Q. What's the best thing you've found about the FedExCup Playoffs so far now that we're almost halfway into it? Anything about it you think is working really well? RICH BEEM: The money (laughter). It gives everybody a shot. I mean, you can play your way in. I'm living proof of that. You have a shot. I kind of find it funny that some of the guys brought that up, like last week if you miss the cut, like there's a couple guys that missed the cut and they didn't lose any spots in the FedExCup, and I thought that was kind of -- if it's going to be a playoff, if you miss a cut, with a few exceptions, you ought to be losing ground to the guys that do make the cut. Maybe we'll tweak that, I don't know. But overall I think that it's working fairly well right now. Like I said, I've still got a shot, and I know what I have to do. I have to finish first or second. Q. If at some point this week or next week you don't advance, is there anything you can do with those leftover FedExCup points like trade them in for a plasma screen TV or a couple nights in a Marriott? RICH BEEM: Yeah, I've got this nice Lamborghini I'm looking at. Unfortunately I think you get taxed on them, too -- You know what would be a shame is I finish 7th and then 3rd and I can't go next week? I might go anyways. Forget Finchem, I might just show up (laughter). Q. Can you talk about the motto on the side of your bag, how long it's been there, why it's there? RICH BEEM: It says, "There's a lot of things to think about but nothing to worry about." I got that off of a -- I watched an ABC Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and there was a gentleman on there that had -- you're going to feel really good about this. He had terminal cancer, passed away, and that was his motto. "There's a lot of things to think about but nothing to worry about." I thought that was pretty cool, so I have since borrowed it. I am giving due -- it's not mine, it's somebody else's that I'm borrowing. But I'm spreading the gospel, baby. Q. How long ago? RICH BEEM: I don't know, probably six months ago. Maybe not even that long, four months ago. I think that's a pretty good line. Q. Can you talk about how you ended up in Providence at Triggs Memorial Golf Course on Monday? RICH BEEM: I went to Applebees, was having lunch and a couple beers. This gal walks in, sits down next to us. We told her we're going to the golf course. She said, no, go down to Triggs. We hopped in the car and there we went. Q. What did you think of the course? RICH BEEM: Awesome, an old Donald Ross design. Q. What did you shoot? RICH BEEM: I played about 15 holes, and then I had had enough. I was extremely tired. Q. Anybody steal your ball? RICH BEEM: Oh, I don't think so. I left my putter there. Q. Did they comp you? RICH BEEM: Yeah, I left my putter there. I got two brand new ones. I had ordered two new ones because I was changing my putter, so I just left it there. Q. Do you have any idea what happened to it? RICH BEEM: I think I gave it to somebody. Things were a little fuzzy if you can kind of get my drift. Q. Yogi has got it? RICH BEEM: Yogi has got it. Q. I understand you wanted to get a tee time and the girl in the pro shop had no idea who you were. RICH BEEM: That's okay (smiling). Q. And didn't care anyway. RICH BEEM: Hey, I just want to go out, play golf, have a good time with my caddie and enjoy a day off. I'm just another guy who took a day off of work and went to go play golf. Is that so bad? Q. No. RICH BEEM: Exactly. Q. How much muni golf do you play? RICH BEEM: I love it. I grew up on muni golf courses. That's all I played. It's been a while since I've played them, except for Triggs, but I like muni golf courses. They're fun. Q. Would you pay $400 to play Pebble Beach? RICH BEEM: Oh, God, no, but I'd pay $15 to play El Dump-o-rama down the street with the bowl-shaped greens and the bunkers that haven't been raked in four years. Absolutely. That's fun. That's fun golf. We come out here and we play these beautiful golf courses all the time and this and that, but what's wrong with going out and playing some fun golf now and then and shooting whatever, play in your bare feet like Jim McMahon, whatever. That's a good way to just blow some steam off. Q. How does Billy play? RICH BEEM: He's a hell of a player. He's still a hell of a player. Q. He doesn't play a whole heck of a lot anymore, does he? RICH BEEM: No, not as much as he used to. He probably plays more when he's on the road with me than he does back home just because he's got kids and things like that. Q. Where did he lose to Quigs? RICH BEEM: In Vail. He has a U.S. Junior Amateur in Vail I think it's '85 or '86. In fact we were talking about that out on the course yesterday. They were actually trying to think how many guys in that Junior Amateur played with them and are actually out on this Tour now. Q. What was going on here? Was there any inclination for you to come out here and play on Monday? RICH BEEM: Oh, gosh, no, it was just a Pro-Am. No, I was tired. Billy and I like doing that; we like hopping in the car, going down the road, if we see a course just pull off. We did that when we had the U.S. Open in Pinehurst, '05. We went from D.C., missed the cut, drove down to Pinehurst, and just before we pulled into -- what's that town? Q. Southern Pines maybe? RICH BEEM: No, where the airport is. Q. Raleigh? RICH BEEM: Yeah, we pulled into Raleigh because we were going to get a hotel room there, saw this golf course off the side of the road, it's about 3:30, let's go play that. It turns out it's a semi-private club, and they were having this huge member-guest. We ended up sitting there eating dinner at this member-guest and having this big old steak and potatoes. Q. What's been your favorite experience doing this? Anyone who recognized you or did or anything memorable out of these excursions? RICH BEEM: Most everybody recognizes me now since '02. I haven't -- it's been a while since I haven't been recognized, which is good and bad. But we've played some dumps, and it's been fun. Absolutely hilarious. We've played some pretty good ones, too. The one we played in Raleigh was pretty good, and this Triggs is pretty good. It's an old Donald Ross track. There were more characters out there in one afternoon that I've met than any other place in my life. West Texas has got nothing on you boys up here. You guys are completely whack jobs. Q. Those are all the boys from the Hill. RICH BEEM: Yeah, you've got some guys who know some guys, huh (talking with a New England accent)? Q. And the cops play with them? RICH BEEM: Exactly. God, it was funny. Q. Did you have playing partners? RICH BEEM: I played with two police officers from the Rhode Island PD. They had their day off, and I don't think -- they finished playing golf, but I don't know how (laughter). They were really enjoying their day off. It was pretty funny. They were -- Chip and Scott. They gave us a ride home. They were going to go to jail, I wasn't. I don't do that. Boys, you've got your own get-out-of-jail-free card. I'm not going there. I've got enough problems. Q. Your hole-in-one at Riviera is one of the highlights of the year, and now it's a commercial for Nissan and they're showing it a lot. Do you get any residual for that, or was that just from the footage? RICH BEEM: Absolutely I do. I may be dumb but I ain't stupid. Absolutely. They actually approached us for us. It was really nice. They did a good job, and they've been really nice about everything. Q. Have you probably gotten almost as many comments about that shot as about winning the PGA? RICH BEEM: It's getting close, absolutely. It's kind of nice, though. I'd rather hear, "Hey, jump on a car" instead of "Hey, do the dance." STEWART MOORE: Rich, maybe quickly go through your birdies and bogeys. RICH BEEM: Going through the birdies. Made a nice birdie on No. 2, hit a good wedge shot in there. And then 3, it was my first three-putt. I don't know if I had another one today -- I had two of them today. Then came back with a nice birdie on 4. Made a nice putt on 7 from about 20 feet. Made a good par save on 9, two-putted from the back part of the green, made about a eight-footer for par there. Made about a 15-footer or so on 10 and just missed on 11 and 12. And then hit a horrible chip shot on 13, missed a 12-footer there. Three-putted from about 50 feet on 14. And then made a birdie putt of about six, seven, eight feet on 15. About 15 feet on 16. About five feet on 17. And two-putted on 18 but had to make about an eight-footer on that one. Q. You know it's T2 to advance. Obviously you're aware of that? RICH BEEM: Is it T2? I didn't know what it was. Q. No worse than second. RICH BEEM: Can't even finish outright third by myself. Is that taking like every scenario into play? I have to do that? Q. Yeah, because there's a minimum to get to at least 70. RICH BEEM: But I know a couple guys ahead of me like Funk and DiMarco, they withdrew or dropped out or whatever. STEWART MOORE: It'll be updated tomorrow after the cut apparently. RICH BEEM: Yeah, I'll be going down No. 17 going, "Geez, I've got to finish second." Q. Does it make it more fun for you at least knowing -- there's a lot more pressure, but does it make it fun knowing that each week instead of kind of just shooting for the one TOUR Championship at the end of the year, kind of shooting each week to have that secondary goal? RICH BEEM: It makes it a little bit more fun. I can say that -- I'd like to think I'd be playing this well anyways, but knowing that I've got to play well to get into Chicago might have spurred me a little more, I don't know. I can't say that for sure. I mean, you definitely think about it, there's no question about that. Q. That's kind of where I was on the procrastination thing. A blow torch woke you up? RICH BEEM: Pretty much. Q. To be in this position now and in great shape going into the weekend, do you at least also think of a good paycheck in that if you don't finish what you need to finish, you shift over to Top 125 and it would take care of that it would seem? Have you given that any thought? RICH BEEM: Not really. I mean, I haven't really thought about Top 125 this year. Maybe it's just because of the procrastinator in me. My wife was thinking about it, I just -- that's just not my style. I'm not going to think about it. She was saying, "Well, are you going to send in your application for Tour School? I go, "No, I'm not going to do it." It's not something that I'm going to do. It might be bull-headedness, might be a lot of things, but it's just something that I wasn't prepared to do. If I finished outside I could write some letters being a past major winner, this and that, but I just never -- it never entered my mind that I may not finish in the Top 125. I'd like to be back in the winner's category again starting next year again. Q. I'm wondering if the schedule was exactly the same as it was last year and you're playing exactly the way you are now if you might not be hurt by this Playoff system. In other words, you could tee it up as much as you want -- RICH BEEM: Right now that's kind of a good point. You know, I think the one point that's even better is that I could go keep playing until I miss a cut. I feel fine. I mean, this is my fifth in a row, but I keep getting better, so why would I want to go home? I wouldn't take a week off now irregardless of whether I had to or not. I would keep playing. You could look at it that way saying, hey, if you play well this week, you can get into Chicago, another golf course you like, you keep playing all these tournaments that you like and keep playing well then you can play your way into the TOUR Championship in November. Right now -- a couple ways to look at it, but I probably should have just played a little better in the summertime. STEWART MOORE: Thanks, Rich, good luck. End of FastScripts |
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