Columnist Dean Juipe: Beem slips away from his past

Dean Juipe

Monday, Aug. 19, 2002 | 9:54 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

For those who only saw him from a distance, Rich Beem always came across as a nice guy.

Smiling ... easygoing ... willing to exchange a little banter with those he passed on the golf course. There wasn't any reason to think he wasn't a friendly man enjoying the game he loved.

But another side of Beem was apparent to those who knew him better, and it's one that emerged and became public knowledge a year or so ago when he admitted -- at length -- to a number of personal failures.

He was drinking too much, nuzzling too close to danger and, worse yet from his fellow PGA Tour players' perspectives, annoying on the course. His attitude was out of whack and his reputation drifted to where some considered him intolerable.

He had a dark side, brought on in large part by frequently staying up until the light of day.

Sobering up was his first challenge, and even though he'll still take a drink he reportedly has that segment of his life under control. Perhaps not coincidentally, his golf game has never been better.

It was real sharp Sunday as he came from three strokes back at the outset of the afternoon to win the PGA Championship in Chaska, Minn., holding a startling five-shot lead at one time before finishing one better than Tiger Woods. It was also his second victory in as many events, having won two weeks ago at The International outside of Denver.

But this most recent win came under considerable pressure, given the prestige of the event and its lifetime of accompanying perks and pleasures. Win a major, as Beem just did, and everything changes -- particularly for a player who connects as easily as he does with the audience.

And Beem connects, in part because of his exuberance and in part because of the tamer side of his background. As sports fans are discovering, this is a fellow who as recently as 1995 was selling cellular phones and stereo equipment for a living and who thought his golf career was already past tense.

Fighting off the bottle, Beem got back into golf and made something of a living on the mini tours, earning a personal-best $5,000 for a 1998 win in New Mexico. By the following year he was on the PGA Tour, albeit struggling for all but two weeks of the season -- one of which was a victory at the Kemper Open.

In neither 2000 nor 2001 did he have much of an impact on the sport, getting by but still burning the midnight oil.

Now, he's turning 30 next week and is suddenly a star, and, to his credit, he's able to have fun without keeping the same hours as Dracula.

Beem could really capitalize, not just financially but in terms of widespread acclaim, if he continues to play at this newfound level. He's marketable.

His game is red hot, closing with a 68 to take the year's final major and $990,000. He won not only because of Justin Leonard's unexpected collapse, but because he was hitting precise shots that positioned him for a run of birdies (and an eagle) that compounded Leonard's grief.

Beem isn't the first guy to admit he once spent too much time at the clubhouse bar, nor is he the first to seemingly come out of nowhere and win a couple of tour events. He may, however, be the first to have done both.