Rich Beem
Golf Expert & Columnist
PGA Championship: Rich Beem reflects on emotional week at Bethpage
Last Updated: 20/05/19 6:28am
Rich Beem looks back at an impressive performance at the PGA Championship and reflects on an emotional week at Bethpage Black.
This week was so much fun and I'm not sure how you begin to explain rounds of 69, 82 and 69, but that's exactly what happened after an opening 75 on Thursday!
The whole tournament was strange for me as nothing went right for 27 holes and then everything went right with that back-nine on Friday, only for nothing to go right on Saturday but then being able to finish so well on Sunday.
That spell on Friday to make the cut all happened so quickly, mainly because I was alongside two quick players in John Daly and Y.E Yang! I made the putt at 13 and figured out how to get it close at 14, then all of a sudden 16, 17 and 18 happened!
It was awesome to chat with my family after I made it through, with even my young daughter over the moon. I can't repeat what my wife said on Friday when I answered the phone, but it was a good expletive! My son is 15 and just getting into the game and it was great to be able to talk to him and show him that the old man has still got it every now and then.
To get to play 72 holes this week meant a lot to me for a number of reasons but even more so alongside my caddie, Basil Dalberto, who played college golf for my dad and was at my dad's house when I won this in 2002.
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He was able to take a week off to come work with me and I'm over the moon for the both of us, but especially for him because he enjoyed it just as much as I did.
I went into the weekend not feeling great, but I made the best of it and wasn't too concerned about what I shot. Then on Sunday I gave myself a little pep talk to try and kick myself up the butt a little.
If I had missed the cut and I'd have been invited to play on Sunday morning I would've taken that opportunity a million times over, but I already had that opportunity and wanted to finish strongly.
I really focused in and went out there for that final round with the sole purpose of really trying to hit good golf shots. Not trying to think about the swing or being nervous, just trying to feel like I was at home playing with my buddies.
It wasn't easy and I was very fortunate that I made some good putts, made some good saves around the greens and drove it well again today, but it was just a really good round of golf.
I told my caddie that I really wanted to finish birdie-birdie and end the day with a 69. I hit a great 5-iron at the 17th to make birdie, made my best swing of the day off the 18th tee and then thought I half-chunked a nine-iron with my second, but it ended up four feet away and I buried it.
I'm just so pumped as this was as tough a golf course as I've seen and played but it was very fair, because you could advance it out of the rough if you wanted to and the greens were as good as any I've ever seen in a major championship.
My body hurts in places that I didn't even realise could hurt! I just don't play four days in a row anymore, especially on a big golf course like this, so I'm going to home and chill over the next week.
Next year we're going to the West Coast and I'll probably try to get out to TPC Harding later this year because I've only been there once and don't remember it greatly. I'll have zero expectations once again though as I'll almost certainly going to play exactly zero tournaments between now and next May!
