Rich Beem: From selling phones to slaying Tiger

Rich Beem interview

Everyone likes Rich Beem. Most golfing nicknames aren’t said with much affection but ‘Beemer’ has always been announced with a more than a degree of endearment; he’s one of the boys and he’s great company.

He’s also a Major champion, having won the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, home to the 2016 Ryder Cup. In the final round he held off four closing birdies from Tiger (67), winner of the year’s first two Majors, with a 68 of his own.

In his press conference there was no talk of processes or focus, just an honest assessment of what had just gone on before.

“At 18 I just thinned an 8-iron just on the front edge and managed to three-jiggle it down there. Yay. Yay, me!” These days Beem forms a big part of Sky Sports’ excellent output.

The day after we speak he is caddying for his producer in a pro-am though he still manages to play a bit. At July’s PGA at Baltusrol he made the cut and a new nickname, from co-commentator Ewen Murray, was born: ‘Sir Richard’.

How nervous were you at Hazeltine in 2002?

I’m a fairly nervous guy and get worked up at tournaments. I was really worked up and must have gone to the bathroom on the Saturday seven times, and I felt jittery and shaky.

My wife got me into Pilates – she still does it and I don’t – and I thought about the core when putting and it worked. I tried to compress all my nerves into my stomach and, me being me, just flying off the cuff with my words they made a big thing about it. You are one of only five players Tiger has finished second behind in a Major championship.

What was the key to beating him?

I wasn’t playing with him, I was playing with Justin Leonard who I get along with quite nicely and even when he was struggling we were having fun. I never really thought about Tiger and I don’t know why, I really didn’t. I was chatting to Fred Funk recently and he was playing with Tiger on that Sunday.

Fred had been a really good story all that week so when I heard all that rumpus on 15, 16, 17 and 18 I was thinking ‘go Freddy, go’. I looked at the leaderboard after making a birdie at 13 and saw that I had a six-stroke lead and that’s when you just start trying to breathe.

I looked at the board after 17 and I was three ahead so that is kind of the only time I thought of Tiger. I didn’t look for his name on the board, I just wanted to see what the numbers were. Can I geek it down the last and win?

What do you remember of playing the 72nd hole?

There wasn’t a process back then, it was just keep breathing and stay upright. You always stick with your routine, that’s all you can do, but you just want the damn thing to be over with.

You are nervous as heck sitting over that second shot and I thought if I really hit it good it was going to go over the green so I came up and out of it. There was so much adrenaline running through me and I panicked and half-thinned it but got her down in three and the rest is history.

How well do you know Tiger?

I don’t know Tiger that well, he knows who I am and vice versa but I’ve never spent any time with him socially other than the past champions’ PGA dinner. He’s one of those guys who is a bit like a hermit at times. I get it, he has created that world for himself but, no thanks, that’s not for me.

You know it can’t go on forever. Everyone thought it would, but it hasn’t and you almost feel like it was all too good to be true. When he started getting bigger and bulkier it didn’t look right and once he started having those surgeries, you wondered…

Do you feel sorry for him now?

I don’t feel sorry for him, no, but I guess I feel bad that his body has kind of broken down. You want to see him age gracefully and it would be nice to see him back out there.

How often do you watch the 2002 win?

I did right after and then I did in about 2009, then this year I went to the PGA headquarters at the Honda Classic. I had never been in there, and when I walked in they had it on one of the TVs and I watched a few minutes of it.

They have got stuff up at the club, they did their own pictures and I have got a couple of small things like framed scorecards and the clubs that I used are in the garage. I have got it on VHS tapes – but who has got a VHS player?

How big a deal is it to be a Major winner?

Winning a Major is a huge deal to European players, especially in the UK. I think it is a massive deal. It’s not like I walk around and think about it a ton, I’m not going to wear a button on my shirt and I don’t expect people really to acknowledge that, but when you are in the UK you get reminded real quick and it’s a great feeling.

In America it’s almost like ‘what did you do for me yesterday?’ Spieth won two Majors and narrowly missed all four last year and narrowly missed the Masters this year and they are writing him off a bit – that is just the mentality of the American media.

How much has the playing side of the PGA Tour changed in the past 20 years?

When I won the Kemper Open in 1999 my next event was two weeks later and people congratulated me and it was neat. Back then Tiger was ruling the world and everyone was kind of in a panic so everybody went into their shell and it wasn’t as sociable.

Now the young kids are buddies, they play practice rounds and hang out. They want to be the World No 1 and win the biggest tournaments but they all seem to have a mutual respect and bond.

The four of them – Spieth, Fowler, Justin Thomas and Smylie Kaufman – at Baker’s Bay was outstanding. Here’s four kids who never went on Spring Break and they decided to have one. They might be multimillionaires but they are no different to any other kids apart from they had just played in the Masters. The same antics on Twitter or SnapChat, I thought it was great.

Who would you take on your Spring Break?

I would take Adam Scott as he would attract all the girls to talk to us. But I would need someone old like me so I would bring Darren Clarke. I could invite Tiger down and give him some grief.

What could you have done better after the PGA win?

I was as guilty as sin as anybody else. I had a great opportunity to play the European Tour as a member and play worldwide and get my game better.

Playing worldwide it really exposes your weaknesses and mine was short game but I didn’t do it. If I had one more year I would play on the European Tour; I like the travel, I like the different courses and it is a special environment. You’re not playing for $6.5m every week and that might help the atmosphere.

But they are just as good and there are some amazing players who are solely on the European Tour and I applaud them. It can be a grind but you get to some pretty cool places.

I played in Europe in 2012 and I knocked about a bit with Tommy Fleetwood, it was his rookie year and I got to know him and his dad, a really nice kid, really enjoyed his company. Mainly I would hang out with the caddies and shoot the breeze with them.

You’re pretty well known for once being a car stereo and mobile phone salesman at Magnolia Hi-Fi – how good were you?

I have still got the ID card somewhere at the house. I was pretty damned good. I remember one time an older guy came in with this younger girl and you could get a free phone if you had a two-year service contract, $30 a month for 30 minutes.

So he comes in and he’s going to get what they called a penny phone, it was a Motorola Flip or a Nokia or whatever, and he starts asking some questions.

I showed him the service plans and then she says ‘I like that one’ and he asked if I was going to buy a phone for my girlfriend or wife what would I go for? So I said ‘no doubt about it, I’d pick out this one.’

It was a $800 phone and I took him through this entire spiel about the battery, the size, I threw everything at him. He goes ‘wow, that is a cool phone’. He came in for a free phone and he bought the $800 one.

My boss is watching this entire experience, it was 7.30pm on a Saturday night, and as soon as the customer left he starts a slow hand clap, he thought it was brilliant.

You did a book – Bud, Sweat and Tees: Rich Beem’s Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour with Alan Shipnuck. How did that come about?

He asked me, I thought it was a cool opportunity as I never thought in a million years this sort of thing would happen. I kind of marched to a different beat but I wasn’t doing anything different to anyone else on tour.

He just happened to pick me out the hat as I was a car phone salesman or an assistant at El Paso or whatever. He never paid me a nickel for my time so, prefacing it that way, I have a little bit of disdain for the guy.

How much travel do you do over the course of a year?

Around 35 weeks. I’d like to do less but the opportunities are always there and I hate to turn down work. I moved to Austin, Texas about 12 years ago and the time I have at home is precious.

What do you think you bring to the table as an analyst?

I think I bring insight to the courses in the US as I have played them so many times and some player insight as they have known me for so long.

You still have to find the fun in the game and I think I bring that to the announcement side of it. I want to keep it fun. I’m not one of those guys who wants to show off what I know.

Yes, I’ve done my homework and talked to the caddies and players but I don’t feel the need to say it on air if it doesn’t fit.

You see guys who want to show everybody everything and it’s not needed. Ewen Murray, who’s nothing short of sensational as a mentor, lets the picture breathe and tell the story.

I was listening to Bob Rosburg on Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf and it was all very simple, no stats, he described what was going on and that’s how it should be. Too many times guys chisel in information. Feherty always comes up with these witty sayings and only he could get away with it.

Do you have any big regrets?

I wish had played more abroad. I never felt like after I won the PGA I had very good guidance, I felt like I was a bit lost in how to deal with media or anything really. After winning the PGA my agent didn’t come to the next tournament.

Now you rarely see a player without their agent. The PR guy would help me out but I felt like I was wandering around aimlessly for a long time.

My wife and I had no idea how the PGA win would change everything. At times it got to be uncomfortable. I played 30 events the year after the PGA, I felt like I had an obligation.

At the Byron Nelson I asked about the Monday proam and they said ‘you don’t want to play that’ and I was like ‘yeah I do’. It wears on you. You know you have these obligations but you are not getting any support. Things might have been a lot different. You lose your time.