Rich Beem is a 5-foot-8 party.
The guy’s glass is always north of the half-full line. Jokes with the best of them, laughs with one and all.
Remember, the man they call Beemer did a jig on the 72nd hole after slaying a goliath named Tiger Woods and lifting the Wanamaker Trophy at the 2002 PGA Championship.
Now he’s one of the best voices in golf as an analyst for Sky Sports and, yes, he drops in some amusing one-liners from time to time. He finds the proverbial silver lining in most everything and has done so since the COVID-19 global pandemic halted the PGA Tour and stifled most of the world.
“All about hanging out and staying safe,” Beem said in a chat with Golfweek from his home in Austin, Texas. In a lively discussion – they always are with Beem – he touched on how he’s been dealing with the current times, why COVID-19 put his plans for joining PGA Tour Champions on hold, meeting Woods for the first time and the magical week he took down Tiger in a major championship.
Beem, 49, said he’s been fortunate to be able to play golf four to five days a week but has been longing to get back to work and commentating on the best players in the world. This week, he was supposed to be in San Francisco – at TPC Harding Park, to be exact – pulling double-duty as player and analyst for the 102nd edition of the PGA Championship. But the tournament has been postponed to August 6 because of the coronavirus.
Still, this time of the year always gets him thinking about the PGA Championship.
Last year, he played one official event – one – and somehow made the cut at bruising Bethpage Black in the PGA.
He said, “smoke and mirrors was a lot of it,” that karma played an influential hand and how a few words from John Daly got him going. Beem made five birdies in the last six holes in the second round and made the cut on the number.
“It was meant to be,” Beem said. “I was as shocked as anybody. But probably one of the proudest things I’ve ever done.”
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After he finished his second round, Beem rushed to get back on the course for his day job for Sky Sports and caught up with eventual champion Brooks Koepka on the fifth hole. Beem said he smoked a drive on the fifth during his round and had hybrid to the green.
“Brooks gets up there and hits driver, 9-iron,” Beem laughed. “Well, we’re competing on the same course but it’s really not the same game we’re playing right now. But for me, that’s the fun part of it. They have a different set of skills I don’t have. I just love getting out there and being inside the ropes with a golf club in my hand again. I love competing knowing full well I’m going to get smoked.”
His biggest moment in golf, however, came in the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota. Beem had won The International two weeks prior. Woods won the Buick Open the week prior. Woods had won seven of most recent 12 majors. Beem was in the final group on Sunday with Justin Leonard, with Woods playing right in front of the two.
“That day was obviously surreal. The whole week was surreal,” said Beem, who earned an exemption into the tournament every year until he’s 65 with his victory. “I had a handle on the greens right away. I was rolling the golf ball unbelievably good. Going into Sunday I was incredibly nervous. But I still felt I was in charge of my emotions.”
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After an eagle at 11 and a birdie at 13, Beem had a six-shot lead. Then Woods birdied his last four holes. Beem held on and a tap-in bogey on the last gave him a 1-shot win and ignited the jig.
“Thankfully he ran out of holes,” Beem said. “But let’s face it, you know me, if golf was 19 holes, you think I would have let him beat me on the 19th hole? I’m an excellent 19th hole kind of guy.”
But Woods was a different kind of guy.
“It’s like he fell out of bed and he knew has was going to win another major championship,” Beem said. “Everybody in the field at the time knew that you had to beat him in order to win any tournament.
“His confidence was so high and he was so focused on what he was doing. You just were in awe of the guy. At the time, in 2002, he was No. 1 in the world by forever.”
Beem hoped to be playing in the fall on the PGA Tour Champions (he turns 50 on August 24). But the coronavirus got in the way.
“My plans to play this year are on the back burner because I feel I owe Sky Sports to see out the rest of the year once golf starts back up,” Beem said. “I’m going to be the only one from Sky Sports to be in the U.S. that will be able to go to the events. So I’m looking forward to playing next year. I’m OK with that.”
He’s usually OK with everything.
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