Congrats to Rich Beem for his PGA Championship! Anyone catch the post tournament press conference?? This guy is a riot! Great, down to earth regular joe winning on one of sports' grandest stages... ya gotta love it! from CNNSI: CNNSI.com: Rich Beem did something today that Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia , all the other big names have not yet been able to do. How in the world did Beem do it? Sports Illustrated senior writer Alan Shipnuck: Rich is different. When he left Magnolia Hi-Fi in Seattle and headed back to El Paso, Texas, to make one more stab at becoming a tour pro, he took a job at El Paso Country Club as an assistant pro. He was making $400 a week. While he was there, he was playing money games just about every day for $300 or $400. That hardens you. That's how the old pros did it, guys like Lee Trevino, who grew up playing not for house money but playing for their own money. You do that often enough and you get a taste for the battle. So guys like Tiger Woods don't scare Rich. Guys like Mickelson are thinking about making history and breaking records and all that. Rich just wants to make birdies. He has a simpler view than a lot of the top players. He's just having fun, hamming it up for crowd, being himself. perhaps the Kurt Warner of the PGA??? unfortunately, probably not with that dude named Tiger still lurking around...
The thing I find funniest about Beem is his perpetual nervous stomach. He takes swigs of Pepto-Bismol before each tournament. And when the reporters asked him what he was focusing on today he replied, "not puking." Gotta love that kind of honesty. Although I was pulling for Tiger, I couldn't help but be happy for Beem. He earned this win.
you're right about the Pepto... he mentioned it quite a few times... perhaps there's a future ad campaign for him in there... he can pose with a pink pepto mustache (with the trophy in his hands)!!! in magazines and billboards around the nation!!! "Got Wanamaker?" anyone catch his birdie on the 16th today? it was a thing of beauty... i was actually out of my seat yelling in happiness! a person was actually cheering a golf tournament, insane, eh?
We were at the PGA all week except for Wednesday and Saturday. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed Thursday-Sunday so I could not post more pictures. Friday, we started following Fred Funk. There were just about 20 of us to start which steadily built to close to 100 before the weather sirens blew and suspended play. Fred was great. He was really enjoying himself and the attention he received. The talk he and I had on Monday must have really done him good. Today (Sunday) we got into one of the hospitality tents. We had prime rib roast, jumbo shrimp, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and a bunch of other goodies. We also received PGA hats and a sleeve of Titleists. Our only regret was neglecting to get into the tent earlier in the week. I was also able to get free beer so I never spent the $145.00 on beer in lieu of a nice shirt. When we weren't in the tent, we had a great location near the 17th green. If anyone was watching when Funk came through, you should have been able to hear someone holler "Knock it in Fred". That was me. Although most folks were rooting for Tiger (and it was exciting seeing him make his move), we were rooting for Funk and Beem. We did see history. It was the first time Tiger finished 2nd in a major.
Did you see that cheesy little dance he did when he finished? Man, that was awful. I'm happy for him, though. It was an exciting finish.
