Star Is Beem at Hazeltine

Rich Beem holds off Tiger Woods to win major golf championship ... now there’s one for the book.

You wouldn’t believe it except stuff like this happens all the time at the PGA Championship, sort of the Star Search of the four majors.

Bob Tway chips in to beat Greg Norman in 1986. John Daly comes from ninth alternate to win at Crooked Stick. Paul Azinger breaks through in 1993, Mark Brooks in ‘96, Davis Love III in ’97 and David Toms last year.

It happened again Sunday, at Hazeltine National Golf Club, at the 84th PGA Championship, on a pretty postcard/scorecard day.

Beem, a 31-year-old ex-car stereo salesman, a guy who six years ago was out of golf unless you count hitting drives off his second-floor balcony into Puget Sound, survived a furious rally by Woods on the last four holes to win his first major championship.

Beem shot four-under 68 in the final round and finished 10-under 278 for the tournament, one life-altering shot better than Woods, who shot five-under 67 and finished at nine-under 279.

“It’s almost indescribable,” Beem said of his win. “To win any tournament is unbelievable. I don’t know when this is going to sink in. Right now, I am so flabbergasted about this you have no idea.”

Woods, seeking to become the first golfer to twice win three professional majors in the same season, closed with four consecutive birdies to force Beem to reach often for his bottle of Pepto Bismol.

Beem had a five-shot lead on the field after he made birdie on the par-three 13th, a seemingly insurmountable lead, yet after Woods made birdie on No. 18, Beem stood in the 18th fairway with only a two-shot lead.

He still needed only a bogey to win, but Jean Van de Velde could tell you leads like this have been blown before.

Beem left his approach shot short but on the green, then knock-kneed home the most glorious three-putt of his life for bogey to collect his check.

Chris Riley, who started the day six shots behind third-round leader Justin Leonard, shot two-under 70 and finished third at five-under 283.

Fred Funk and Leonard finished tied for fourth at 284.

Leonard began the round with a three-shot lead, but finished six shots out after a wheels-came-off 77. Only 10 players in the field shot a worse round.

Asked how difficult it was to take, Leonard said, “I don’t know, the getting-over-it part is only about two minutes old. Ask me in another couple of weeks.”

Beem, meanwhile, was beaming.

He earned $990,000 for his victory and a free pass into major tournaments for years to come. Beem now has a lifetime exemption to the PGA Championship, five-year exemptions to the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open and a five-year PGA Tour exemption.

And this doesn’t even count the bragging rights he retains for having slammed the door on Woods’ bid to win his ninth major title.

At his post-victory news conference, Beem searched the crowd for an editor from Golf Week or Golf Digest.

“I’ve won twice on tour and I haven’t been on the cover of either magazine,” Beem joked. “Is there any way you guys can get me on the cover this time? Seriously.”

Beem’s story reads like the rough draft of “Tin Cup.”

He was born in New Mexico, but traveled the world as an “Army brat” with his serviceman father, a former All-American golfer at New Mexico State.

Beem returned home to finish high school in Las Cruces, then took a crack at eclipsing his dad’s shadow by playing golf at New Mexico State.

From there, though, his life moved fast into a cycle of booze, fast women and mediocre golf. He tried to scrape out a living on mini-tours in South Dakota and Nevada, but eventually quit the game and moved to Seattle, where he took a job in stereo sales making $7 an hour.

Beem was plopped on the couch on Easter Sunday in 1996 when he watched Paul Stankowski win the BellSouth Classic.

It was his clarion call to give golf another shot.

Beem moved back to New Mexico and honed his game while working as an assistant pro at El Paso Country Club. He was so lousy at his job that his boss told him to get serious about golf or get out the business.

Beem earned his PGA Tour card at qualifying school in 1998 and then earned a two-year exemption for winning the 1999 Kemper Open.

Beem called it a career-saving victory.

After the Kemper, Sports Illustrated writer Alan Shipnuck pursued Beem to do a book about life as an under-the-radar player on the PGA Tour.

“Bud, Sweat & Tees” was published in 2001.

Shipnuck was drawn to Beem because of his personality and a raucous, week-to-week lifestyle that was light years from the glamorous life Woods was carving out.

“It was the antithesis of that,” Shipnuck said by phone Sunday.

Shipnuck thought Beem had the talent to win. “The only question was whether he could keep his head on straight.”

Beem’s head was locked on target Sunday.

Everyone kept waiting for the collapse after Beem bogeyed the par-three No. 8 hole and dropped to eight-under, only one shot ahead of Woods, who blistered the front nine with a 33.

But it was Woods who faltered, first when he whacked his tee shot right and had to scramble for par on the par-five 11th.

Playing with Leonard in the group behind Woods and Funk, Beem followed Woods down the 597-yard hole with two mammoth shots that put him on the green.

Beem then rolled in his eagle putt from six feet to widen his lead over Woods to three shots.

Beem extended his lead to six shots at one point after he birdied the par-three 13th and Woods fell to five-under with a bogey on No. 14.

Woods then put on a final, punishing push.

After Woods jerked his tee shot left on 15, he turned to caddie Steve Williams and said, “If we birdie in, we’ll win the tournament. Let’s just suck it up and get it done.”

Woods got it done, making birdies on 15, 16, 17 and 18. But it wasn’t quite enough.

“I didn’t miss a shot coming in,” Woods said. “I gave it absolutely everything I had.

“That’s the way I play each and every time I tee it up, and this was no exception.”

Beem wasn’t really out of the woods until he cleared his tee shot over Hazeltine Lake at the par-four 16th, the toughest hole on the course. Beam said Saturday he “might puke” if the tournament came down to No. 16, yet he knocked his tee shot on the fairway, found the green with his second shot and rolled in a 35-footer for birdie, then hurled his ball in the water.

“What can I say about the putt, it was unbelievable,” Beem said.

Some guys play their whole life trying to win a major. Phil Mickelson has tried 42 times and failed, yet Sunday, Rich Beem held up the Wanamaker Trophy in only his fourth major tournament appearance.

Funny how life goes.

Beem knows his life has forever changed.

For years, he has kept the work identification card he had while working as a stereo salesman in Seattle.

Time to lose the card?

“Absolutely not,” Beem said. “Don’t ever forget where you came from, and that’s where I came from.

“I came from a job that served its purpose, but not a chance. I’m going to keep that card forever, just as a reminder it could always be worse, you could be working for Magnolia Hi-Fi.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

*--* A Major First Rich Beem is the 12th PGA Championship winner in the last 15 years whose victory in the tournament was his first major championship, more than in any other major during that stretch. A look, including total majors: Year Winner Total 2002 Rich Beem 1 2001 David Toms 1 1998 Vijay Singh 2 1997 Davis Love III 1 1996 Mark Brooks 1 1995 Steve Elkington 1 1993 Paul Azinger 1 1992 Nick Price 2 1991 John Daly 2 1990 Wayne Grady 1 1989 Payne Stewart 2 1988 Jeff Sluman 1

*--*

*--* The Stretch Rich Beem was one stroke ahead of Tiger Woods after they completed the front nine Sunday. How they fared on the back nine (Note: Woods was playing one hole ahead of Beem): No Par Beem Up Woods 10 4 4 1 4 11 5 3 3 5 12 4 4 3 4 13 3 2 5 4 14 4 5 5 5 15 5 5 4 4 16 4 3 4 3 17 3 3 3 2 18 4 5 1 3

*--*

*TOP FINISHERS

278 (-10)--$990,000

Rich Beem...72-66-72-68

279 (-9)--$594,000

Tiger Woods...71-69-72-67

283 (-5)--$374,000

Chris Riley...71-70-72-70

284 (-4)--$235,000

Fred Funk...68-70-73-73

Justin Leonard...72-66-69-77

285 (-3)--$185,000

Rocco Mediate...72-73-70-70