BUD, SWEAT, AND TEES by ALAN SHIPNUCK

Author:ALAN SHIPNUCK
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Published: 2003-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

BEFORE RICH BEEM had even left the grounds of TPC of Avenel it was apparent that he was driving into uncharted territory. Following all the interviews, autographs, and presentations, he was handed the keys to a shiny new Buick, a courtesy car to be used while he was hanging out in the Washington area awaiting eye surgery. Stenciled on the driver door was the message CONGRATULATIONS CHAMP. A nice gesture, to be sure, but the car held a deeper significance. This was the first little taste of the endless perks and privileges that would come with his victory.

From the Avenel grounds Beem, Wyatt, and Onick returned to their Best Western for much-needed showers and a change of clothes, and then they rendezvoused with Duplantis at a nearby Mexican restaurant. The four of them were cooling their heels in the bar when highlights of the Kemper flickered across the television. “Turn it up, we’re on Sportscenter!” they began screaming. Says Beem, “To tell you the truth, I didn’t actually believe it had all happened until I saw it on ESPN. That made it real.”

Beem ate enough dinner to make up for the entire day of fasting, but that hardly gave him the energy to hit the town, as he so desperately wanted to do. The spirit was willing but not the flesh. “I barely made it to midnight,” he says. “I have never felt so completely exhausted in my life. I didn’t fall asleep, I went into a coma.”

Late the next morning Beem placed a call to the PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Duplantis had mentioned in passing that he thought the victory earned them automatic entry into the British Open, and Beem was eager to follow up. Duplantis’s hunch had been correct, but it turned out that that Monday, May 31st, was the final day to register for the Open Championship. With the headquarters for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews located in St. Andrews, Scotland, all those time zones away, there was not a moment to lose. The rest of the morning dissolved into a blur of forms and faxes.

Early that afternoon Beem put Onick on a plane for San Diego, as scheduled. She was not happy to be leaving, to say the least (and not just because first class was full and Beem wasn’t able to upgrade her, as he had promised to do during his champion’s press conference). “The whole thing with Amy had been a strain from the time she arrived,” says Wyatt. “Her flight into Washington cost like a thousand bucks, and that was money that Rich didn’t have at the time. She also just didn’t get what a gift the eye surgery was. That procedure usually costs in the neighborhood of five thousand dollars. Again, when Rich agreed to do it, saving that kind of money was a big deal.”

“Amy wanted to stay and celebrate,” says Beem, “but it was better that she left. It was for her own protection.

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