The year Beem’s bravery got rich reward

RICH BEEM’S PGA Championship victory on the major’s last visit to Hazeltine National in 2002 may still seem unlikely, given his singular lack of success since, but the Beemer’s performance that week in Minnesota was definitely no fluke.

Not only did Beem emerge victorious from what was a record-breaking field, containing 98 of the world’s top 100, he did so having withstood a vintage final round from world No 1 and at that point two-time PGA champion, Tiger Woods.

For Beem, a couple of weeks short of his 32nd birthday, it was the third victory of an eight-year professional career and the $990,000 (€700,000) prize money from that one week has eclipsed his total money won in every year since, with the exception of 2003, when he pocketed $24,000 more from 26 tournaments he played.