Beman recovering from quadruple bypass surgery

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Former PGA TOUR Commissioner Deane Beman is recuperating at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach following successful quadruple bypass heart surgery that was performed last week at the nearby Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

Deane Beman

"I feel very fortunate," said Beman, 70. "I didn't have a heart attack, so there was no damage to the heart. While the recovery process won't be easy, I'm making steady progress. I can walk now and pretty much take care of myself. Everything is going well."

Beman said the surgery, which was performed on Monday, Oct. 20, revealed that two arteries had 80 percent blockage and another 90 percent. "I haven't received the bill yet," he joked, "so I don't know if you get four for the price of three."

The first signs of potential problems first occurred in June while he and wife Judy were at their residence in Maine. He experienced chest pains during a workout, so he went to a doctor, who put him through a stress test. That came back negative, so he didn't think much more about it.

But when they returned to Ponte Vedra Beach two weeks ago and he was unloading the car, Beman again experienced chest pains. Later, as he was walking his dogs, the pains became more intense. He went to the emergency room, where it was determined he had to undergo definitive tests. But before that could be done, he had to be taken off a blood thinner. The tests finally were completed on Friday, Oct. 17; he was in surgery three days later.

"To have had such a major operation without any damage is a real positive," Beman said. "I start rehab in another week. In the meantime, I'm healing well. It's just a setback in time before I can go back to having fun and playing golf."

An immediate regret he has is that he likely won't be able to attend the World Golf Hall of Fame ceremony at World Golf Village on Nov. 10 as a 2000 inductee.

Beman, the TOUR's second Commissioner, succeeded Joseph C. Dey in 1974 and served until 1994.

Over the course of his 20-year tenure, Beman elevated the PGA TOUR to major sports stature and was the architect of the business structure upon which the TOUR has flourished. During his tenure, Beman oversaw an incredible period of growth in which TOUR assets grew from $730,000 to more than $200 million, while purses climbed from $8.2 million in his first year to $56.4 million at the end of his tenure.

The many areas of impact under his guidance included the structuring and growth of televised tournaments, title sponsorships; charitable focus and growth; the launch of THE PLAYERS Championship, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour; development of TPC Sawgrass and subsequent growth of the Tournament Players Club Network; the establishment of a player retirement plan that is widely recognized as the best in professional sports ... and the list goes on.

As current Commissioner Tim Finchem said, "Deane has done many things that others said could not be done. He is a man of unique talents who has never been willing to simply maintain the status quo. He has never seen a challenge that he would not meet and conquer."

This quality is quite literally spelled out on a plaque that is on display in the new clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass. After deciding to make Ponte Vedra Beach the permanent home of the fledgling PLAYERS Championship, Beman had encountered a major roadblock when Arvida Corporation, which owned Sawgrass Country Club, refused to sell the club to the PGA TOUR. Arvida Chairman Charles Cobb made an off-handed $100 bet with Beman that he would neither get the financing or PGA TOUR player support to build a TOUR-owned facility, and therefore would have to continue to rent Sawgrass Country Club for THE PLAYERS.

In March 1980, two years after the bet was made, Cobb paid off his loss by presenting Beman with a $100 bill mounted on the plaque, which has the following inscription:

"To Deane Beman, the man who did what we said couldn't be done. From Chuck Cobb and his associates at Arvida, who bet on the difficulty of the task, not on the capability of the man doing the task."

Prior to becoming Commissioner, Beman was an accomplished golfer. As an amateur, he captured two U.S. Amateur titles and one British Amateur title. After turning professional, he won four times on the PGA TOUR.

Last year, he was presented the PGA TOUR Lifetime Achievement Award.