home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

April 2, 2005

Rich Beem

DULUTH, GEORGIA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Rich, thank you for joining us in the media center here at the BellSouth Classic.

A long week so far, just trying to get this first round in, but pretty good results for the conditions that you had today. Why don't you just kind of talk to us a little bit about what you battled out there this afternoon and this morning.

RICH BEEM: Sleep deprivation. Waking up at 5:00 a.m. every morning the last three days, that will wear on you.

First got out to the driving range this morning, it was raining and it was about 38 degrees. Actually it felt like it was about 22 degrees. I actually stopped hitting balls and went down to the clubhouse for about 20 minutes; you know, this can wait.

Once we got out there, you just kind of accepted the fact that it's going to be blowing, it's going to be windy, it's going to be cold and it's going to be tough. I just kind of put my mind to it that there's nothing that I can do about the weather, so I might as well try to do everything I can to keep the ball in play, try to hit it in the middle of the greens every hole and maybe make a putt or two, and that's exactly what I did today. I missed one green I think today, and I just made a couple of small putts here or there. Other than that, it was just -- that's exactly the type of round you need in conditions like this.

Hats off to the superintendent and the rules officials, they did a fantastic job with not only the condition of the golf course but the setup of it. They took into account that it's going to be windy and it's going to be tough and they kind of made it, you know, by PGA TOUR standards, a little bit easier than they probably normally would, but I tell you what, they did a fantastic job.

Q. Was it a safety first attitude today?

RICH BEEM: I don't know about safety first, buy you're not going to be overaggressive either. You don't want to take unnecessary risks. This golf course sets up off the tees where, you know, it's fairly wide open. Where you get in trouble is when your approach shots into greens. You don't want to start firing at flagsticks that you don't really think that you can get at, but you certainly don't want to play away from them either. And you have 40-, 50-footers and undulating greens in winding conditions, and that's no bargain, either. You have to be aggressive where you can be and leave yourself in spots where you leave yourself the easiest putt and/or chip as possible.

Q. Obviously you want to win this week but knowing what's going on next week or this week --

RICH BEEM: You know, honestly, I've had a couple people ask me about that. I'm not -- I've thought about next week, at Augusta, and I'm anxious to get there, but I'm not so anxious that I'm bypassing this week, either. This is another great opportunity to play well and I'm happy to sit here on Sunday afternoon, Monday afternoon, I should say, whenever we finish, so be it. But I can't really start focusing -- a lot of guys, they like to focus in on Augusta now. I can't do that. I have a hard time focusing in on today much less something going on weeks down the road, you know.

So I'm looking forward to playing the next couple days here. I like the golf course. The fans are fantastic. It's a good track. I've had a little success here, maybe not -- I think I've played well here in the past, my numbers may not have shown it, but I enjoy coming back here. But I'll think about next week once I get there.

Q. What's the state of your game right now? How are you hitting the ball in general?

RICH BEEM: Today is probably about as ideal as it gets. I've been working really hard on my game the last couple of years. I had a really rough year last year. I just had confidence problems and I think a lot of people go through that, some to varying degrees, and I'm glad that -- I think I've been hitting the ball well this year. I haven't been able to take advantage of the good ball-striking rounds yet, as far as with good putting rounds as well, but I think my game is in ideal shape. I really like the way I'm hitting the ball. I like my short game. My putting could get better, but I'm working on it, who knows.

Q. When confidence is lacking, how do you overcome that?

RICH BEEM: If I could tell you that, I'm sure I could sell a lot of books now couldn't I, brother.

You just keep going out and banging into the wall and hopefully some day you'll break through it and get to the next hurdle. For me it's just kind of getting out there and keep doing what I've been doing, staying patient and trying to wait -- not wait for good things to happen, but certainly can't start forcing them, then you certainly fall into another hole. And when you do have an off-week or off-day or whatever, you have to blow it off and get right back on your feet and dust yourself off and go get it again.

Q. When you sit down to make out your schedule, you look at this tournament, Monday finish this year, they have had years where they have played 36 on Sunday, do you look at this and say, considering what's going on next week, is it really worth it to play this?

RICH BEEM: If I didn't think it was worth it, I wouldn't be here. I know the history that this tournament has got, but I view this tournament as -- this golf course I think -- guys skipping this event to go prepare for next week, are you kidding me? This is the perfect golf course to set up for next week, I think, fairly generous driving areas, very undulating greens. Usually they keep them a lot quicker than they have them right now. But like I said, the superintendents and the rules officials knew exactly what they were getting with the weather, so they slowed them down a little bit, but you know what, it's still really hard out there.

So I think playing this event, you know, as hard as it is right now, if we get out next week and there's no wind and it's rather benign condition, who is going to feel better about their golf game? You know, I think I'm going to feel fantastic, regardless of what happens the next couple of days. I'm still expecting great things to happen the next couple of days, but gosh, I know that I can play in this -- on this type of golf course in these conditions; what happens if I get it in good condition with no wind? That's how I look at it.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can you go through your birdies and bogeys?

RICH BEEM: No. 3, I ended up hitting a driver off the tee box where most guys hit to hit fairway wood to give myself a look; I had 58 yards to the pin and hit a beautiful shot about eight feet or so and made that.

The next hole, my bogey was on No. 5, the dogleg-left. I hit a decent drive, got lucky, kicked out of the bunker and hit a tough second shot. Went right back into my face about 165 yards, tried to hit a knock-down 6-iron and just drew it a little bit too much, wind got a hold in the bunker, just a real tough up-and-down, didn't get that done.

13, I hit a good drive up there about 15, 20 yards short of the green, thought I hit a pretty good chip down the hill and I came up just short. It's a really tough chip to get it all the way back, left it about 15 feet short. I was very fortunate, Jonathan and Joey putted almost the exact same line as I did right before me, so I had a perfect line and knocked that in for about 18, 20 feet maybe.

Then on 17 was probably the funniest one I've hit in a long time, great drive down the middle, had to take a drop for casual water and I hit a second shot. And halfway there, my caddie and I were looking at each other, "Where is that going?" We didn't think it was going to get to the green, and all of a sudden it lands on top of the hill 15 feet away and rolls down to a foot. It was really strange, one of the strangest shots I've hit in a long time where I had no idea where the ball was going to land, none. So you have to get those kind of breaks once in awhile.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: How many unplayables did you take today?

RICH BEEM: You mean casual water? I think that was the only one. I think because we had the club length, instead of placing it one side or the other pretty much all day, in our group, I think we only had to take like one apiece. So the course is in good shape and obviously the wind is going to help dry it out, but it's hard.

Q. What is it specifically that make this similar to Augusta?

RICH BEEM: It's a lot of things. Those that have been to Augusta, the undulations probably are more but I think it's the type of golf course that's fairly wide open off the tees, and the greens are I think similar in shape and in speed. Obviously I think Augusta has got more undulations to it, and obviously they are a lot quicker. But this is a great golf course to get warmed up on because you've got to use your imagination around the greens quite a bit, and there's a lot of -- I think the green surrounds are quite similar, as well, but the greens at Augusta are obviously a lot tougher to figure out than these are.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Rich, for joining us.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297