Beem, Lonard Wing It and Win

Rich Beem and Peter Lonard didn’t have much of a strategy entering the Hyundai Team Matches, they didn’t have much experience with match-play events and had never before played together as a team.

None of that mattered Sunday during the PGA Tour final of the team matches at Monarch Beach Golf Links in Dana Point, where Beem and Lonard overcame an early 2-down deficit and upended defending champions Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia, 2 and 1.

Lorie Kane and Janice Moodie defended their title in the LPGA matches with a 3 and 2 victory over Juli Inkster and Dottie Pepper. Allen Doyle and Dana Quigley defeated Jim Thorpe and John Jacobs, 2 and 1, for their second consecutive Champions tour title. But while experience helped the LPGA and Champions Tour players, the lack of it was key for Beem and Lonard.

“Our caddies had a strategy meeting Friday night at the bar,” said Lonard, a PGA Tour rookie. “We just showed up and did what we were told.”

Couples birdied the first two holes but Beem and Lonard went on a roll after that. They won three of the next four holes to take a 1-up lead, then made the turn at 2 up when Lonard made birdie at the ninth.

Beem made three consecutive birdies at No. 13, 14 and 15 to finish the rally. Beem and Lonard combined to birdie all five par threes Sunday, giving them nine birdies in 10 par-three holes for the weekend.

“It was a fun weekend more than anything else for us,” Beem said. “Neither of us take ourselves too seriously. We both have pretty laid-back styles.”

The early deficit Beem and Lonard faced brought about talk of the rally monkey, though Lonard, an Australian, wasn’t familiar with the Angels’ rally-starting primate. “We’re two down and now my caddie is talking about the rally monkey,” Lonard said. “And I have no idea what he is talking about.”

Kane and Moodie had five birdies on the front nine and took a 4-up lead at the turn before a couple of late birdies by Pepper closed the gap. The LPGA winners, unlike their PGA Tour counterparts, entered the event thinking about winning .

Said Kane: “$100,000 and a car is nothing to snub your nose at. I think there is a different approach from the LPGA side because of what we play for.”

Doyle and Quigley birdied Nos. 8 and 9 to take a 2-up lead at the turn, then closed the match when Quigley holed a bunker shot for birdie on the par-five 17th. At the time, Thorpe was waiting to hit a four-foot birdie attempt that would have extended the match.