Beem basking in spotlight

PGA champion making rounds following win

? Rich Beem is starting to get an idea of how life changes after winning a PGA Championship.

One of his first stops after the biggest victory of his career was to the Magnolia Hi-Fi store in Bellevue where he used to sell car stereos and cell phones. Calls poured in from across the country, media wanting to talk to anyone who used to work with Beem.

He decided to take one call himself.

“Magnolia Hi-Fi, this is Rich Beem, how can I help you?” he said.

He is scheduled to appear on the “Today” show this morning.

“My wife absolutely loves Katie Couric, but I guess I’m on with Matt Lauer,” he said with mock disappointment.

He also went window shopping for exotic cars Monday, and found it amusing that the salesman had no interest in helping someone dressed in shorts, beat-up sneakers, a fleece pullover and Atlanta Braves baseball cap. Never mind that the customer was the PGA champion, who had earned $1.8 million during the last two weeks.

“No one recognized me, which was totally fine,” he said.

The golf course was another matter. Beem played his first practice round for the NEC Invitational at Sahalee Country Club on Tuesday and was practicing some long bunker shots, never one of his strengths.

“I actually skulled two or three over the green, and somebody snickered in the crowd, ‘That guy won the PGA?'”

Welcome to his new world of going from a virtual unknown on the PGA Tour to the toast of the game, a former stereo salesman who toppled the great Tiger Woods.

If his life around him has changed, Beem doesn’t look at himself any differently.

“I’m not going to wake up and fully expect to conquer the world of golf,” he said. “I’m a better player than I’ve ever been in my life, but it’s just golf. It’s not like I cured cancer. This is just a fun game, and I’ve been very good at it the last month.

“Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug,” he said. “And of late, I’ve been the windshield.”

He might not be the favorite when the $5 million World Golf Championship gets under way on Thursday.

Despite his first runner-up finish in a major, Woods remains the favorite in every tournament he plays.

This week, his focus is still on four.

He thought birdies on the final four holes at Hazeltine would be good enough to make up a six-stroke deficit and win the PGA Championship, although Beem rewrote the ending with a 35-foot birdie putt on No. 16.

Now, Woods will try to become the first player in 75 years to win the same tournament four years in a row. Walter Hagen won the PGA Championship form 1924-27 when it was a match-play format. Gene Sarazen won the Miami Open four times in a row, although it wasn’t played one year.

Woods tied for 10th in the ’98 PGA Championship at Sahalee, his power limited by the sharp doglegs shaped by tree-lined fairway.