Beem finds his own utopia in latest comeback

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Rich Beem will make his latest comeback at the Knoxville Sentinel Open on the Nationwide Tour in two weeks.

Next time, he's negotiating a trailer.

Name on the door. Cable TV. Video Games. And, most of all, air conditioning.

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Inside 'Seven Days in Utopia'

Better than a director's chair under a tree, a view of the director and producers' monitors and a hint of a breeze. So much better than the folding plastic chair in the lunch tent with a huge fan pushing air in, oh, 100 degree-weather.

Rich Beem isn't complaining. He's kidding. And laughing his you-know-what off, as always.

He just spent several hours walking onto the 18th green as cameras captured it from every imaginable angle. He waved. He putted. He kept the crew on Seven Days in Utopia loose.

And, like everyone else, he wiped away the August sweat.

Life with Beemer, you must understand, is one fabulous experience -- a movie cameo, a chance to take batting practice with the Minnesota Twins, a debut as a golf analyst this week on PGA.COM's 3D and 2D broadcasts. And that doesn't count the old days when he hawked cell phones or got frustrated giving lessons on the range.

You name it, Beemer has done it. All while winning a PGA Championship, hitting a hole-in-one that came with a car and coping with the ups-and-downs of a career that's bounced him in and out of the top 125 and through a few injuries, a bit of "mental scarring" and down a road less traveled.

The past few months have tested the former PGA champion's gregarious glass-half-full personality once again. One more step back to take a couple ahead. Another obstacle, another opportunity to come back stronger.

A few days after the Masters (he didn't play) he got a pain in his neck that wouldn't go away. A week and an MRI later, he found out he had a problem between his C6 and C7 disks. Injections weren't going to help. Surgery would.

His nerves were atrophying. He was losing power in his right arm. "That,'' the doctor said, "is why it's hurting so bad."

Rich Beem on the set of 'Seven Days in Utopia.'

He underwent surgery, filed for his major medical exemption and put an X on six weeks later. That's when he would jump back into golf.

Um, not so much.

The family headed to Black Rock to get away, finish rehab and get Beemer's swing back in sync. As it turns out, that meant slowly.

"What I found out quickly was I had a long way to go,'' he said. "Originally my goal was to get out at the Travelers Championship. My doctor said that would be pretty remarkable if you did, but I won't say you can't. When I started playing, I found out very quickly that wasn't an option.''

So caddie Billy Heim flew to Idaho and they set out a new timeline -- one that includes jumping back into competition the week of his 40th birthday at the Knoxville Sentinel Open on the Nationwide Tour in two weeks.

In fact, he also plans to play the Utah Championship Presented by Utah Sports Commission and the WNB Golf Classic -- taking a week between events to assess his progress -- before teeing it up at the Viking Classic the last week in September.

Some players would by-pass the Nationwide and just jump back into a PGA TOUR schedule. Not Beemer. He's offered to do pro-ams and draw parties. He knows it's a chance to help some tournament directors who can boast a major champion in their field; another opportunity for him to see a new golf course.

"I'm not most people,'' he said. "The PGA TOUR lets you play up to five events (when you're coming back). I don't know why you wouldn't take advantage of it.

". . . We can see where we're at, what we need to work on. Because, as you know, you can't be out on the TOUR and not be 100 percent . . . I get why some of the guys just wouldn't play. The purses aren't big. But you can't just think about the money. You have to think about places you enjoy playing because the money will take care of itself.''

He feels good about his plan, even better about what he's doing. This time the last few years, he's been fighting his way into the top 125 and the FedEx Cup. Now, he's playing toward next year.

Talking to him, it's hard to think it's been eight years since he won the 2002 PGA at Hazeltine -- just the fourth major he played -- by one-upping Tiger Woods and dancing on the 18th green. He embraced the moment and engaged a usually tough media with his infectious laugh and humor. He set himself up, he said at the time, to have Tiger drum him at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

He hasn't won since. He's had 10 top-10s and a couple of almosts, notably the 2003 Western Open and the 2005 Bell South Classic, where he lost a playoff to Phil Mickelson on the fourth extra hole. This year, he played in nine events before the diagnosis, missing five cuts. His best finish was a tie for 14th at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

The recent surgery explained what has been an ongoing problem -- just one he didn't realize until the doctor found the disk problem. He now knows all the tweaking and work without results was only part of a bigger issue.

"Its been an eye-opening to see where I was, where I am now and I have almost two months to go,'' he said. "I'm going to get stronger. I know it wasn't the arrow, it was the Indian.''

It's been a slow comeback.

"The most frustrating part about this was when I would go out to play golf, I couldn't do what I normally did,'' he said. "I couldn't hit the shots I felt like I could hit. My body wouldn't allow me to do that. For the first six or seven rounds, I was ok with it, but as each round progressed, I would get more and more frustrated because I thought I could play better golf, but I wasn't capable of it.

"There was some time there where I didn't want to play because my body wouldn't let me do what I wanted to do. But once I started seeing progress, it was exciting and fun again.''

Then came the movie opportunity -- "I think my wife was more excited than I was" -- and the chance to dip his toe into broadcasting. Yes, he'd rather be playing Whistling Straits this week, but he's going with the flow.

"You've got to take it all in,'' he said. "It's a short life.''

In Seven Days in Utopia, he plays himself and winds up finishing third in the movie's final tournament scenes. He only had one line in the script, but he suggested they expand it so he could say what a TOUR player would say in that situation.

"The coolest thing is I feel I've given some input to the producers, directors, assistant directors,'' he said. "I feel like I've made a difference in some scenes. They might be the experts in filming things, but I'm the expert on the golf course and that's a pretty cool feeling. They say 'That's the way it would be done? Ok. We'll figure out how to shoot it.'"

He spent four days on the set then it was back to working on his game and prepping to call this week's PGA Championship, where he'll team with Vince Cellini. He will not be at a loss for words.

"The funny thing is for me it's very exciting for me,'' Beemer said. "As I have proved in the past I love a challenge and certainly this is one of them. It's exciting because now I know why I wasn't feeling good on the golf course, why I was losing distance. I know that I can hit and my misses were just off. For me, it's refreshing.''

So was five months away. Five months with his wife and children, 7-year-old Michael and 5-year-old Bailee.

"Spending (time off) with the family and the kids always rejuvenates you,'' he said. "I don't care who you are, if you can take time from any job spend time with your kids, travel with your family and be in their world, it's fantastic.

"I'm just now starting to miss the competitive nature of my job and what it is I do. On this movie set, it gets me thinking, ok, let's get back into this."

With that, he headed back to the set. Another take. Another angle. Another chance for the perfect shot.

"You get do-overs on the movie set,'' he said. "You don't get them on TOUR unless you're adding strokes.''

Or unless you're coming back. Again.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM and can be reached at melaniehauser@gmail.com. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.