WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 24, 2002

Rich Beem

Q. Are you running on fumes at all? Guys that win big tournaments or a couple in a row and they've still got enough left to not --

RICH BEEM: Yeah, his name is Tiger, the guy that can do that, win a major and go from there. Yeah, I'm running on fumes. I'm not that bad. I'm not great, but I'm not bad. I guess I've just got the vision of home tomorrow night right in the forefront of my head. So I'm running towards that goal. Go home.

Q. Is it going to be hectic when you get home?

RICH BEEM: I'm sure it will be. I can't imagine it slowing down at all. I'll sleep in my own bed and I don't have to play golf unless I really feel like it, so that will be good.

Q. (Inaudible.)

RICH BEEM: I don't know. 10-under is leading it right now. I'm five back right now? I don't know. I'm playing pretty good. I'm driving the ball really well. I'm still hitting my irons pretty good. My speed with my putter is not as good this week as it was -- as it's been the last couple of weeks. But I'm playing pretty good still. I'm not going -- I think I'm going to have a good day tomorrow. I don't see why not. But we'll see, I guess.

Q. Are you taking a couple of weeks off?

RICH BEEM: I'm taking two weeks off, and then playing in the German Masters, and playing the next World Championship event over in Ireland. And I'm looking forward to getting back, and going back to San Antonio. It's one of my favorite tournaments and golf courses on Tour. Nobody likes it out there, but I do. It's a fun track. It has a lot of character.

Q. (Inaudible.)

RICH BEEM: Yeah.

Q. How long did you live in Germany?

RICH BEEM: I lived in Berlin from December of '83 to about May of '87, when the wall was still up.

Q. (Inaudible.)

RICH BEEM: I forget it all. I used to be able to function pretty good, but now I have no chance.

Q. It was '83 to '87?

RICH BEEM: Yeah.

Q. Why were you there again?

RICH BEEM: My dad, he worked for the government. My dad used to work for the government as a golf pro. We lived in Panama for three and a half years, and in Berlin for three and a half years.

Q. Did you talk about that last week, and I missed that?

RICH BEEM: No, nobody asked. My dad used to work for the government as a golf pro for 25 years and retired.

Q. You've got graphite shafts in your irons. One of the few guys out here. Why? What do you like about them?

RICH BEEM: I use them because I like my clubs light. D0 to D1 at the most. When you put a 120-gram steel shaft in there, you lose some of the head weight and you can't feel them as much. I found a 100-gram graphite shaft works great. And I like the feel of graphite. I like it soft. I didn't put it in there because it beat up my elbows, but I just like the way it feels. It feels nice.

Q. Is this the first tournament for you overseas, will it be?

RICH BEEM: Yeah, besides the British Open, but yeah, yeah. It will be fun.

Q. Do you like the way you've come back these last two rounds?

RICH BEEM: Well, yeah, absolutely. I didn't come here even after I won the PGA to lay down. I have a long way to go between now and the first week of November. But I didn't come here to lay down and take my check and go home. There's an opportunity to make more money here, and I think that's what we're all trying to do. We're trying to win, but I had no -- I had no realistic, I think, realistic chance of winning this week. So I'm here to try to go home on a good note. I didn't want to come out here and shoot a bunch of 75 and 76s all week, which I could have easily done. But I wasn't interested in doing that.

Q. How do you plan to celebrate your birthday?

RICH BEEM: I'm going to go home and sleep first, and then go downtown and kind of bum around for an hour before dinner, and then go have a nice dinner with 15, 20 people, maybe. And then come home, crash and -- actually, I'm going to pack, too. I have to get ready to leave tomorrow. And then come home, maybe pack up a few remaining items and then that's it. Pretty boring stuff.

Now, tomorrow, I'm probably going to celebrate a little bit more.

Q. Is Steve Lowery one of your buddies on Tour?

RICH BEEM: I know him. He's a nice guy, but not somebody I hang around with, no. Just somebody I know out here. He's a nice guy, super guy. I say hi to him all the time, maybe have lunch with him. But never go to dinner. But then again, I don't do that with 99 percent of the guys out here.

Q. Are you renting a house or staying in a hotel?

RICH BEEM: This week? They gave us hotel rooms, staying in a hotel.

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