Beem gives hope to golf's mortals

Rich Beem used to be renowned for enjoying a beer or three and selling mobile phones for a living.

Now he views himself as the man who gave golf’s journeymen a wake-up call and helped halt the Major-winning march of Tiger Woods.

Beem came out of the pack to stare into the eyes of the Tiger at last year’s USPGA championship, keeping his nerve over the back nine against the world’s best player to win his first Major and cause something of a stir in the sport.

Today he played a practice round prior to The Open at Royal St George’s before revealing his pride at becoming an inspiration for the ’Average Joes’ on golf’s circuit.

“I think in a way I might have helped other players who might have said ’Hey, listen, if this guy can do it, holy cow, anybody can do it,” said 32-year-old Beem, an affable American who left the tour briefly eight years ago to sell phones and car stereo systems in Seattle.

“That may not be the case but it gave a lot of guys an insight which said you don’t have to be top-five in the world to contend in a major. Anybody can do it. I’m proof of that. In some ways I inspired some guys a little bit. And I surprised myself quite a bit.

“I wasn’t really paying attention to what he (Tiger) was doing. I was paying attention to what I was doing. I knew I was playing well and if I didn’t falter then nobody could catch me. You’re out there playing the golf course and the tournament and that’s all I was thinking about.”

Beem’s struggle to overcome his penchant for beer and the many other distractions open to a professional sportsman has inspired a book entitled ’Bud, Sweat and Tees.’

But while he is proud to have beaten Woods, he is wary of reading too much into the fact that the world number one, once so dominant, has not won any of the last four majors – a statistic that has led some to suggest he is the middle of a slump.

“That’s very unfair,” said Beem. “He got on such a roll there in the 1990s and early 2000 that everybody expected him to win.

“We in the locker room know he’s an awesome player. He’s proved it time and time again. But he’s not going to be able to win everything. There are certain players capable of catching him, especially at a major championship, though I was by far probably the unlikeliest one to hold him off.

“To say ‘It’s four majors since he won, what’s wrong?’, that’s an unfair statement. I think he’s going to come out and thump us again in a major championship again before too long, but we’re going to give him hell.”