BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 21, 2000

Rich Beem

RICH BEEM: Sounds good to me. Well, that first day, I was -- I can't tell you how nervous I was on the first tee box trying to -- I haven't been playing very well this year so far, and I knew I was hitting the ball pretty good and felt like I was rolling pretty good. Just, nothing happened. I just tried to make as few bogeys as possible the first day. Actually, didn't make any bogies. Yesterday, really kind of sparked my thinking back. I made -- I birdied on the first three holes, which really got me going. And, you know, each day, I seemed to finish real well on the second nine. The front nine, I do well, but especially the back side is when I make a lot of birdies, and a lot of birdies in a row. It's just been great. I can't explain what it -- there's not one facet of my game. It's just, I'm thinking well, I'm swinging good, and I'm putting great. The first three days have been awesome. I can't imagine I've been 20-under for three rounds in my life on any golf course, much less a TOUR event. I'm just pleased to be where I'm at.

RICH BEEM: I didn't know I had a record. I guess pretty good, now. It's hard to comment. The courses are just in perfect shape. I'm hitting the ball well. I'm a little surprised that I'm playing this well, to be honest with you. But when I do get on a roll, I seem to carry them along. I'm thrilled to death I've got the 54-hole record and maybe catch Mr. Kite and get the 108-hole record and carry home the trophy at the end. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and playing Indian Wells. I hit a few shots over there on Monday, but I'm going to go into that course blind as well, but it's the easiest course on the rotation. I'm certainly not going to take it for granted, still try to go out and make as many birdies as I can. Hopefully, I can play well tomorrow because you need to make a lot of birdies out here. I can't start letting up now.

RICH BEEM: Oh, I don't know, probably about the same as I thought they were at the Kemper. They are all right. I don't know. Like I said, I'm glad that I'm playing this well right now. You know, it sure would be nice to have a chance to win on Sunday. That's, you know, obviously, my ultimate goal. But right now, I'm just going to look forward to playing tomorrow at Indian Wells, see where I'm at after 72 holes and look forward to Sunday. I enjoy Bermuda Dunes. I play fairly well out there. You never know out here, it's just a shootout. Hopefully, I can make more birdies than I have been.

RICH BEEM: No, not really. If I played my best golf up to this moment in time, that's still pretty good. I can't obviously, you know, think about what I've done. I've just got to think about what's out there for me tomorrow, just try and do my best. I mean, that's all I was doing today up until 12, 13 holes, and all of a sudden, the birdies and chip-ins just start going in. You just take it as it comes. You can't start pressing any harder and start relaxing any more. You just have to go out and make as many birdies as you possibly can. If I don't make as many over the weekend, so be it. But I think they will still fall.

RICH BEEM: Are you kidding me, guys? (Laughs) I figured it out, I'm probably the only guy on TOUR that's gone from an 80 -- a 21-shot swing. The winds in Hawaii were a little brutal for me, a lot thicker winds than I'm used to in Texas. And with the Bermuda greens, I haven't been a very good Bermuda greens player. But I'll still play in Hawaii -- I'll certainly go back next year if I'm invited. I've got to go just because the tournaments are there, but I love the desert. Always have and always will.

RICH BEEM: No, are you kidding me, guys? I've got the best job in the world if you Love to play golf. I'm still living a dream. You know, obviously, it's a little bit of a reality check but there's a lot of guys that didn't play well over in Hawaii. Glen Day, I played with him the first couple of days. He gave me some great advice, "The first tournament of the year. You've got a ton more to go. Don't sweat it." At Kapalua, that's just not my style of golf course nor my style of playing conditions. And I knew that coming back to the desert, it would be my style -- a little warm, dry, and the greens are going to run out a little bit. I just enjoy the golf courses in the desert. I played well out in the desert here at Q-school in 1998, and I was looking forward to coming back to Palm Springs where I had some success. You know, reality check, no, not really. It's a long year. The first few tournaments, you know, they don't make the year. They just kind of give you something to look at and maybe look at a few things, and, hopefully I figured them out.

RICH BEEM: I think that winning last year is definitely going to help my mindset because I have been under the gun last year at the Kemper when I pretty much held the lead outright or shared the lead every round. You know, it just kind of made me focus a little bit more on what I was doing. Trying to really focus in on each specific shot and not let a whole lot of distractions bother me. I still think tomorrow, with playing at Indian Wells, there's really not going to be a large gallery. I think it will still be low key. Sunday will be different with the crowds and things like that, but I will feed off of what happened at Kemper probably quite a bit. But I think I'll feed off it more on Sunday than I will tomorrow. Tomorrow it's still just go out and have fun and make a ton of birdies with my amateur partners and see where I stand going into Sunday.

RICH BEEM: I've got a different caddy this year. Good friend of mine, college buddy, Steve Duplantis was my caddie and we parted ways at the end of the season. We both wanted to go different ways and I hired a new caddy. My caddy's name is R.C. Ordish. I took him down to Mexico last fall with me and he did a good job. He's still learning as we go along. It's nice to have him with me because we can talk between shots. We're still best friends. When I'm on the golf course, it's obviously a boss-and-him, I guess, so to speak, relationship. He keeps me relaxed, and once we get done, you know, we talk about a lot of things. And he's getting better as a caddie, and that's going to help me as a player, staying loose and staying focused.

RICH BEEM: I upgraded my car stereo. I traded it in December and I ripped it out. I haven't had a chance to put it back in, but, hopefully, I'll have a chance to put it back in after I take a break from the West Coast Swing. Life in general has been great. It's awesome. You can't -- can't put into words what it feels like to walk around and say you're a TOUR winner, caring the gold money clip with you. I've got the greatest job in the world, if you love playing golf. It's still a lot of fun and always will be. Some days will be better than other, but overall, it's a pretty neat deal.

RICH BEEM: Started off on No. 10 today. Got my first birdie on 13, hit a driver and a 3-wood to about -- about 15, 20 feet and just 2-putted there. Didn't really get the good speed until about the 5th or 6th hole. I guess it would be No. 17, which is my 7th hole of the day. I just missed a real short birdie putt on the last hole. And just got up on the next hole -- and so I got up to the next hole and I just hit a great drive, an 8-iron, to about 25 feet or so and had a little double-breaker, and just happened to pick the right line with the right speed and it just happened to go in, which kind of got me motivated again. Then just made a bunch of pars until the 2nd hole. The 3rd hole, my 12th hole, had about 187 to the pin, 177 front, and I hit a really big 7-iron, landed it just short and bounced on the green about 10 feet away and made that. Bogeyed the next hole, which kind of left a sour taste in my mouth. Thought the birdie would get me going, but I got to No. 5, the dogleg-right par 5 and hit a perfect drive. Hit a really good 5-wood, just hit on the fringe, kicked a little right, stayed on the fringe and had a fairly easy chip up the hill and just kind of got luck and it went in the hole. It barely went in, but, I mean, it went in. Wasn't going too fast. And then the next hole, No. 6, hit a perfect drive out there and hit a really good 3-iron. Caught the top left of the bunker and plugged, and I just -- the only thing I could do was just blast it out to the front edge about 30 feet away. One of my amateur partners was right behind me and he rolled it up about 10 feet behind the hole, and I got a pretty good read off of it and got lucky it was going pretty quick when it hit the back of the cup and went in. That really kind of motivated me. So on the next hole No. 7, the pin was tucked a little bit left and had a good 8-iron to about 165 yards out. Hit it to about six feet and made that. And then on No. 8, I hit a 5-wood out in the fairway, had about 135 yards to the pin. I didn't think I could hit wedge because the wind was in a little bit. Hit a 9-iron pin-high about eight or ten feet, and just dead straight putt, and I hit it right on the heart. And that was all my birdies and eagles.

RICH BEEM: You know, I had not made a whole lot of birdies at all this year. So far I had gotten off to some rocky starts on my round, and just basically lack at birdies more than anything else. After I started making a few, especially on Thursday at Palmer West, I finally started feeling like, hey, I can make these. Today, I was a little apprehensive for a while, but once they started going in, they just all went in at once, it seemed, like, four or five in a row. That's a little bit why I'm surprised, just because I haven't made a whole lot of birdies in a while. It's nice to, though. It's real nice.

RICH BEEM: Yes, it does. At the time I thought I had one of the better jobs around, then, which is pretty funny. Yeah, you know, I mean, I had to do what I had to do at that time. I was really burnt out on golf at that moment in time, and I really didn't want to be in the golf business; didn't want to play. I didn't even touch my clubs for about six months; so, it was actually a good time for me. I just took a lot of time off, thought about what was really important to me and what I really like to do in life, and found I really liked to play golf and be around it. And the best thing I could have done was go and sell those car stereos and cell phones. I know what the good stuff is now. I don't get burned when I walk into a car stereo place.

RICH BEEM: Take care.

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