Beem's Refusal to Back Off No Major Development - golf - Column

Byline: Leonard Shapiro

Three years ago, I walked most of the final 36 holes of the Kemper Open watching Rich Beem write one of the more incredible scripts in the history of the tournament, and perhaps even the sport.

He was a totally unknown rookie golfer back then, a man who'd never before earned more than $5,000 in any tournament he'd ever played and had actually given up golf four years earlier to sell cell phones and car audio systems. He was ranked 209th in the world at the time, and yet, somehow managed to summon up enough moxie to lead from wire to wire and win his first event on the PGA Tour.

This past weekend at Hazeltine National in the Minneapolis suburbs, I watched Beem pull off one of the great final rounds in major championship history, a four-under 68 that included a three-putt at the final hole to prevail by a shot over Tiger Woods.

That's what made this PGA so special. Finally, a player refused to back off in a major against the greatest golfer in history, and actually beat him with some of the same medicine Woods usually forces his foes to swallow. Bob May almost did that in the 2000 PGA, but eventually lost to Woods and has since virtually disappeared.

That's not likely to happen to "The Beemer," who seems to revel in the searing heat of the spotlight on a Sunday afternoon. He did it three weeks ago, withstanding an eagle and double eagle on the back nine by Steve Lowery. Beem finally prevailed when Lowery missed a 12-footer for birdie at the 72nd hole at the International in Colorado.

Beem seemed like a different young man last week than when I first met him three years ago. He's still brash, still likes to have a good time, still spices up interviews with profane words that don't usually appear in family newspapers.

The big change has been in his game. At the '99 Kemper, it was obvious that he had plenty to work with. He also had a new caddie, Steve Duplantis, a similar free spirit who'd recently been fired by Jim Furyk, mostly because he couldn't get to the course on time.

But once he was actually on the premises, Duplantis was a terrific guy to have on Beem's bag. From day one, when it appeared some good things were kicking in to his player's game, Duplantis rode Beem like a jockey, mixing sugar cubes with an occasional crack of the whip to spur his man to the finish line.

I can still vividly remember Duplantis on the elevated and isolated 13th tee at Avenel in the final round. Beem was nursing a small lead at the time, but looked like a child just awakening from a bad dream.

Duplantis alternately stroked and stoked his man in preparation for a tricky tee shot on a reachable par 5. He somehow managed to calm him down, assuage his fears and even picked the club he wanted him to hit, showing him exactly where he wanted him to aim by helping him line up in his stance.

Beem executed the shot, and would go on to win a tournament that clearly changed his life, what with an automatic two-year exemption on the PGA Tour that would allow him to continue to hone his game without having the pressure of earning enough to keep his card.

Not long after that Kemper, Beem and Duplantis parted ways. In many respects, they were almost too much alike in their zest for the party, good-times life. They both knew they'd be bad for each other in the long run. But they also stayed friends, instinctively knowing it might not get any better than that again in either of their lives.

For Beem, it has, but he clearly seems to be far more in control of his game and his personal life than he was three years before. He is newly married to a lovely young woman. "I've matured," he said last week at Hazeltine. "I just want to see how good I can get."

He got his first glimpse over the weekend, when he was the one calling the shots. His second shot at the 15th hole, a 7-wood onto the green, resulted in a six-foot eagle putt and got him four shots clear of Woods. It was his decision to for for the green.

He had thought about laying up to a heavily bunkered green, but later said he told his caddie, "We got this far being aggressive, why stop now?"

There was a similarly bodacious decision to hit a driver on the devilish 16th, with water, water everywhere. He blasted it in the fairway, and walked away with another birdie after putting in a miracle 40-footer.

The confidence gained by what he did Sunday against Woods, who had his own remarkable finish with four consecutive birdies, should be seared into The Beemer's brain forever. Next time he shows up at the Kemper, I'll have no reservations in picking him to win, with or without Woods in the field.

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