Beem Streaks To Kemper Win
Rookie Rich Beem, having no need for the stomach remedy in his bag, birdied three of the first five holes and cruised to his first PGA Tour victory Sunday at the Kemper Open.
Beem, who putted well all tournament, sank a 45-footer on the first hole, a 10-footer on the third and rattled one in from 25 on the fifth. By then he had a four-stroke lead, and he parred all but two holes the rest of the way for a 1-under-par round of 70 and a 10-under 272 total, one shot ahead of Bradley Hughes and two-time champion Bill Glasson.
Beem, the leader after each of the first two rounds and co-leader with Tommy Armour III after the third, spoke openly about his battles with nerves throughout the tournament. It seemed an ominous sign when a bottle of Pepto Bismol was spotted in his bag at the first tee, but Beem ended up giving it to CBS announcer David Feherty, who had complained Saturday of an upset stomach.
The first win on a PGA Tour is always a life-changing experience, but it's mammoth leap for Beem, who quit golf for a while in 1995 to sell car stereo systems and cellular phones. He had never played a single event on the PGA or Nike tours before this year, having spent 1998 playing for $5,000 winners' checks in unknown tournaments on the Sun Country PGA Section in west Texas and New Mexico.
Beem's biggest previous paycheck had been $25,000 for finishing ninth in qualifying school, earning him a spot on this year's PGA Tour. He had played in 11 tour events before the Kemper, missing the cut seven times, finishing no higher than a tie for 45th at the Buick Invitational and earning just $24,590. He had missed five straight cuts.
Now the 28-year-old player from El Paso, Texas, is taking home a $450,000 first prize and a two-year exemption on the tour. He also qualifies for January's Mercedes Championships, where last place was worth $25,000 this year.
Beem is the second rookie winner and third first-time winner on the tour this year. Rookie Carlos Franco won the Entergy Classic in New Orleans earlier this month, and Glen Day took the MCI Classic in Hilton Head, S.C., in April.
On a very hot, humid day at the TPC at Avenel course, several players in the pack tried their best to make it interesting. Hal Sutton shot a 65, Hughes and David Toms had 67s, defending champion Stuart Appleby a 68, and Glasson a 69. But all of them needed at least a minor collapse from Beem, and it never came.
Beem's caddie, Steve Duplantis, who used to work for Jim Furyk and joined Beem this week, gave his golfer pep talks on almost every hole and patted his shoulders before the drive at the first tee.
There were a few wayward shots. The most serious on the front nine was a tee shot that landed in the front edge of a steep sand trap on the eighth, but Beem laid up and saved par with a nice approach shot to 3 feet of the pin.
A string of seven straight pars ended when Beem's second shot landed in the water at the par-5 13th, leading to a his first and cutting his lead over Armour and Hughes to two strokes.
But Beem finished conservative, parring the next four holes and still leading by two at the 18th. His left his approach short on the final hole, made a 3-foot putt for bogey and thrust his arm high into the air in celebration.