LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rich Beem: Tiger Woods
built 607 days ago
Rich Beem became an overnight folk hero with his victory at the 2002 PGA Championship, where he dazzled fans with fearless shotmaking and glib one-liners. By the time Beem had stared down Tiger Woods in an epic back nine and then danced a goofy jig on the final green, the sports world was clamoring to know, "Who is this guy, anyway?"
Source:
Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY) emerged as the 2002 major championship winner among golf ball manufacturers yesterday as Rich Beem scored a dramatic victory at the PGA Championship using the CTU 30(R) golf ball. Beem's thrilling one-stroke win over Tiger Woods at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., marked the fifth major championship won in 2002 by a player using Callaway Golf(R) balls. No other ball manufacturer compiled more than three victories in the 12 major championships contested across the PGA, Senior PGA and LPGA tours this year. Callaway Golf is ... the only ball manufacturer to record major championship wins on each of those three tours in 2002.
Source:
Beem produced one of the great USPGA moments when he held off a fast-finishing Tiger Woods to win last year's championship at Hazeltine. Beem had won the Sprint International on his previous start but few believed that the former cellular phone salesman could beat the world's best in the cauldron of a Major. Beem's ability to shock was first shown in 1999 when he appeared from nowhere to win the Kemper Open on just his 12th start on the PGA Tour. That sudden high proved impossible to follow and Beem suffered several years in the doldrums before he exploded again in 2002. A succesful defence seems unlikely given his moderate form in 2003 but with Beem it's foolish to rule anything out.
Source:
Guys such as Beem, 32 on Saturday, aren't the so-called "younger generation", but guys like Beem don't have any scar tissue from Tiger, either. They've been busy sorting out life's problems, figuring out how to turn a job as a cell-phone salesman into a dream of playing on Tour. It breeds, apparently, a great fearlessness. Why not go win the PGA? What's to lose?
Source:
Rich Beem is "insulted," he's insulted by the new AT&T National tournament to be hosted by Tiger Woods in DC on the week of July 4th. The previous tournament in DC had an open field, and that's what Beem and other are complaining about. "It's the most totally wrong thing I've heard of in a long time that's sticking it to the players," Beem said.
Source:
Beem, who won the 2002 PGA Championship, staving off a late charge by Tiger Woods, was expected by many to see his career lift off to greater heights. That... hasn't happened. After '02, when he finished seven on the PGA Tour money list, he fell to 71st in 2003, 183rd in 2004, 113th in 2005 and 126th last year.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Tiger Woods