Rich Beem on PGA winners’ gifts and details on the champions’ dinner

Twenty-two years ago, Rich Beem had the biggest win of his career, and his only major, the 2002 PGA Championship.

One of the best benefits of winning the PGA is the lifetime exemption that champions can enjoy, and in the 21 years since Beem’s victory, he has missed only two championships.

Now 53 years old, Beem told Subpar executives Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz that he wasn’t planning on playing this year, but his family convinced him to make it happen, with the promise that they would come along to support him.

In this week’s episode of Subpar, taped at the Bardstown Bourbon Company tasting room on downtown Louisville’s Whiskey Row, Beem shares his take on many of the game’s latest stories, but also shares an insider’s account of what it’s like to attend the annual PGA Championship. . Dinner.

The format of the dinner has changed over the years, Beem said. What was once a great crowd-pleaser has since been split into the PGA Champions themselves and elected representatives from the PGA of America.

While Beem was having his dinner, the men were in one wing and the wives in another. While the men’s side was buttoned up, “the wives were following and cracking up,” Beem said. They were even treated to an unexpected speech by Paul Azinger.

These days, Beem says the dress code is casual — no tie required.

He said: “It has been very humbling.

Unlike the Masters Champions Dinner, last year’s winner isn’t on the hook to pick up the tab, although he does choose the menu. There is also a tradition of giving gifts to the champions, the winners get some money.

Beem said he chose ostrich leather boots with the PGA of America logo on them. Former champion Vijay Singh donated fishing gear, Shaun Micheel donated a guitar, and Justin Thomas walked away with a “really nice” bottle of bourbon.

And last year? Beem couldn’t tell you. Although he didn’t make it at Oak Hill, he did attend the PGA Champions Dinner. But he admitted that the night was gone.

“I wasn’t playing, so I thought, I’ll just go in and have fun. And the wine they kept releasing was just lovely and lovely,” said Beem. “And when they told us what he got as a present, I was like – as they say in the UK – I wasn’t even fairies.”

For more from Beem, including his thoughts on John Daly, Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler, check out the full episode of Subpar below.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of women’s varsity golfers, Jessica knows how to beat everyone on the golf course. He can pass them through the office, too, where he is primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s first Style Issue, which began in February 2018. His first interview series, “A Round With,” released in November 2015, and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.