Deane Beman - Part 1 (The Amateur Career)

Intro Music 0:06

It went straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle.

Mike Gonzalez 0:14

Welcome to another edition of FORE the Good of the Game. Bruce Devlin. I gotta tell you, the guest this morning, I'm not sure there's another man on the planet that has made a more profound impact on the professional men's game than our guest this morning.

Bruce Devlin 0:29

Well, not only that, but he took some money off me 61 years ago. He and Jack Nicholas together. That was that was uh that was my introduction to this man who has won two U.S. amateurs, a British amateur, four-time winner on the PGA tour, and uh, as you said, probably the the most significant man uh involved in the PGA tour. Second Commissioner Deanee Beman, welcome and boy, thank you for joining us today.

Deane Beman 0:59

Uh great to be with you, Bruce. It's uh been a long time since uh seen you or and talked to you, but uh uh this is great old times.

Bruce Devlin 1:09

Well, thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 1:10

Deane, great to have you this morning. And uh I guess uh we might as well just start first with your amateur career, and and before we get into the details of that, growing up in DC, I I would ask you to perhaps reflect a little bit uh on that and how you came to learn the game of golf.

Deane Beman 1:30

I got I got introduced to the golf uh by uh by my dad, who was not really a golfer, he'd played a little bit of golf, but both my mother and dad worked, and uh as uh and I'm now this I'm about 12 or 13 years old, and I had two older brothers, and in order to uh keep us out of trouble in the summertime, they decided the best thing to do was to join this small country club, Bethesda Country Club, so that we'd have a place to uh hang out in the summertime and stay out of trouble. So I think it was more to stay out of trouble than it was to learn how to play golf.

Bruce Devlin 2:14

Good place to stay out of trouble.

Mike Gonzalez 2:18

I think that story repeats itself across many of our guests. It seems like everybody sort of related the story of how they came to the game, and invariably uh it came from their fathers, either catting for them at an early age or or being tabbed by their father to come join them for a game.

Deane Beman 2:36

Well, I didn't uh my first couple of years I wasn't uh I didn't play a great deal. Uh I just sort of fiddled around with it. Um I really was uh I I I really enjoyed playing football. We had uh back then uh in uh there wasn't there wasn't high there wasn't junior high school football at all. We had recreational football, and uh I was uh I was on the local team and and a pretty good player. Of course, my aspirations were to be a football player, but uh I was a fairly I was not real small when I was 10, 11, 12 years old, but I didn't grow much after that. So uh uh it turns out that as everybody got bigger and I got uh relatively smaller, uh there are a lot of people that thought that I wouldn't survive with my interest. So my interest turned to golf.

Mike Gonzalez 3:36

I would think back in those days, because we're now talking uh, you know, when you were seven or so years old, the war was ending, World War II. You're in the DC area, the center of politics in America. It had to be an interesting time to to grow up in that part of the country.

Deane Beman 3:54

Yeah, it was. Um you know, it was in the uh early 50s when I when but you know, the war was over. Um and uh the the federal government uh my dad uh uh uh following the war and during the war uh did work for the federal government, and then he went into uh working for a private company for public relations. And my mother worked for uh uh uh a magazine. So uh they were busy. Um, you know, it's interesting, uh uh huge contrast to today because I can remember uh starting at the first grade, really, um when my mother started to work. Uh you know, school was a a little more than a mile away, uh, didn't have school buses where we were uh for us, and we worked walked to school every day for a mile, and we were sort of on our own till my mom and dad got home, starting at the first grade. So much different than it is today. Uh you learned early to uh either get in trouble or stay out of trouble, and uh it was uh uh I think uh you know I think the kids uh matured much earlier because they were on their own and had to and made a lot of mistakes. I'm not saying I didn't make any mistakes, but you learned by them, hopefully, the right way. So uh it was a different different age.

Mike Gonzalez 5:28

So tell us a little bit about how your game developed as a young man. At some point you must have decided to get serious about it, put some time into it. Take us through that.

Deane Beman 5:37

Well, I did uh I did uh started playing. We had a very active club, uh very active uh junior program in the Washington, D.C. area. Uh there's a man by the name of Frank Amit, and uh he had the uh he had the uh uh the most ambitious junior golf program of any place in the country. I can remember um during the summer, uh you almost couldn't didn't have enough time to play in all the tournaments that he scheduled. So you you we played, we had a we had events every week. And of course, living in Maryland, like where I did, which is right next to D.C. and Virginia, and pretty close to Baltimore and not too far away from Richmond, uh there was a junior tournament in Richmond. There's uh the DC Junior, the Maryland Junior, the Virginia Junior Championship. Um we had uh we had a lot of uh uh military bases around. Maybe there were three or four different junior tournaments at military bases. Uh Quantico had a junior tournament. Uh and so so uh there was there was competition from the very beginning, and uh I I was a competitor in football, and uh and that carried over into golf. And uh I can remember the first tournament I played in, uh, which was uh junior golf tournament at cook at uh Congressional Country Club, and I was 13 years old in my first tournament. I shot a hundred hundred and thirteen at age 13 in my first tournament, and I didn't think that was I I didn't have much fun doing that. I thought I'd have a lot more fun if I could play a little better. So uh I got off on the wrong foot with uh with the with a bad score, but uh it it uh I think incentivized me to put in the effort necessary uh in golf. And and I was always uh uh I was always a very competitive kid. I had two older brothers that uh that I wanted to uh you know, I didn't want to be on my own completely. And they were involved in lots of uh of uh activities, football and baseball and basketball, things like that. And uh and I was uh smaller than them. Um I was the smallest of the three. My my oldest brother was about uh 5'10 or 11, and my uh my second brother was about 5'9 or 5'10, and I was pretty small. And uh, in order to be able to uh to be with them, uh I had to I had to uh try harder to be able to compete at their level. And I think that that uh was a very big influence on me in my effort to uh to become a better golfer every day.

Mike Gonzalez 8:42

So who were the major influences on your game at a young man? Were you self-taught, read through the magazines, had a great teacher?

Deane Beman 8:51

Oh, I uh Bethesda Country Club had a uh uh a golf pro his name was Harry Grismer. He played in the wintertime in in some tour events in Florida. Uh so he was a very good player. Uh we had some really good players around our area. Um there was an assistant pro at uh Bethesda Country Club, a gentleman by the name of Gene Aldridge, who sort of took uh a lot of the juniors under his wing, and I would say uh and he was an absolute uh walk in the shadow disciple of Ben Hogan. And uh I think that had a great deal of influence over me. And uh as a matter of fact, uh I didn't break 90 till I was 13 or 14, almost 14. And between uh between uh that age and age 15, uh I I I became uh almost a scratch player. It took me about a year and a half to get there. Uh once I uh really uh stopped playing football and devoted all my time to golf, uh my game developed very, very quickly. And uh they had um, of course, there back then doesn't have it anymore, but the JCs um had a junior golf tournament, national JC tournament where you qualified and and wherever it was in the country you went, um the USGA had the junior championship. Uh so we traveled uh as juniors. I can remember going to California to play in the USGA junior um uh at Los Angeles Country Club. Uh I remember the JC's tournament was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We went there. Um I believe we went down to Georgia to play in the uh the um the uh JC's tournament. So we traveled. Uh it wasn't just local tournaments we played in. Competition was very high. And uh I can remember uh qualifying for the USGA junior uh at uh at Chevy Chase Club in Bethesda, Maryland. And uh we uh we I shot uh I think 67, three put of the last green, as a matter of fact, and I was national medalist, and that was 1953. And as a result of that, uh, you know, I was only I was 15, I just turned 15, and they had age brackets in those tournaments. Uh the middle that was the Middle Atlantic uh junior championship, which they used the qualifying for the Middle Atlantic Junior for the n for the USGA junior. So the same event qualified you for those two events, and I was low scorer, I believe low scorer in the country. Uh and uh qualified me to go to uh Tulsa, Oklahoma to play uh in the USGA Junior there, where I met Jack Nicholas actually, uh, for the first time. And uh we had uh as a result of being uh national medalist, uh Ben Hogan was just coming back from winning uh the British Open uh after his uh uh parade in New York, uh returning, and he had scheduled an exhibition in uh Virginia for a brand new golf course in Leesburg, Virginia. And uh I was chosen to play with him in an exhibition, so I got a chance at age 15 to play with Hogan.

Bruce Devlin 12:41

What a thrill.

Deane Beman 12:43

Oh man. It was it was quite something. Funny, funny story about that. You'll love this, Bruce. Um, I didn't have uh I didn't have a decent golf bag. I didn't have a decent pair of golf shoes. So a friend of mine, I found a name David Shedler, had a brand new pair of Foot Joy golf shoes. They were beautiful. Unfortunately, they were about a size and a half too big for me. So I wore three pairs of socks and his shoes. My brother was my brother, was a had a wonderful golf bag, and I borrowed his golf bag and and played in the exhibition. And interesting, 30 years later, Bruce, um as we were opening the our uh golf course in Washington, D.C., the uh Avenel, TPC at Avenel, uh we were getting ready to open that golf course. I was in a hotel and at the desk was a package for me. And uh David Shedler had kept those shoes and delivered that pair of shoes to me 30 years later. And the only problem was that he had been using them for 30 years. It was all unbelievable. Well, we we uh it was it was a great thing to think back on that uh on that match and and um and play my first uh my first uh at age 15 to play an exhibition with Ben Hogan.

Bruce Devlin 14:11

Boy, what a thrill.

Deane Beman 14:13

And that that inspired me, that inspired me to want to play in the U.S. Open. So um right about then I decided I wanted to qualify uh for the U.S. Open. And uh a year later, uh uh a year later, I uh you know, and this is probably will tell you a little bit about how I function as a as a person and how I uh look forward. I wanted to qualify for the U.S. Open. Living in Maryland, we don't have great weather in the wintertime. It doesn't get very very warm to play golf until in well into March, into April. So I thought if I could go to Florida uh and play in a tournament and have a week or two, I could get way ahead of all my competition. So I I I convinced my mother and dad uh that I that I could do that, and I wrote uh I wrote uh a letter to uh a lady who who ran the golf operation at the Breakers Hotel, uh a lady named Bessie Finn, who I later on, if I'm up here in Maine, she was uh absolutely one of the first um PGA ladies, PGA uh uh operations in in in the world. And uh and she then became head of the golf at that there. So I wrote her a letter. Can't imagine what I said, but probably oh the poor kid from Maryland and I mean I'd I'd won a few tournaments and I'd played with Ben Hogan and I thought, I mean, uh, couldn't I please get in her tournament? So she she invited me. I got an invitation. So now I sprung on my mother and dad, and I said, Hey, you know, I I really got an invitation to play in that in the South Florida amateur. And I and uh so I had an uncle and aunt that lived in Fort Lauderdale. The tournament was in Palm Beach. So my mother took off work. We took the family car, my dad had to take the bus to work, and and and and uh but that there was only one hitch. My mother said, Hey, listen, you know, your older brother Dell is a really good, better player than you are, okay? Um and and if we're gonna go down there, he ought to be able to go too. So now I have to write Bessie back and get him an invitation. And went down there. And um it was a big it was a big tournament in the in the in it was some wintertime for for amateur golf. Florida players who had a lot of new players to come down from New York to play. Um I'm thinking of uh some of the you know former U uh British amateur champion played in it. So it was a it was quite a quite a field. So I went down there at at uh now um it's it's in March. So I'm still in I'm still uh fifth sixteen. I'm not I'm not seventeen yet. And uh and I won the tournament. And uh and came back and and then went into US Open qualified and qualified for the for the US Open. So I that was my first US Open uh adventure at 1955, where Ben Hogan got got beat in in uh in uh in uh but Jack Fleck. Fleck. But uh I had uh I had that experience of preparation. Um and and I and I felt it really made a big difference in my personal confidence that I had taken the the time and effort to go down and get a couple of weeks practice in good weather that gave me the confidence that I was ahead of everybody else and probably played above my head. But uh I did that and and I qualified for the U.S. Open twice while I was in high school. And and learned early on that uh that there there was no way to have more preparation than you needed. You there were you the you it in golf, if you're going to be a real competitive golfer, you there's never enough time to work on all the parts of your game. Um and and and I uh learned very early on that uh that you had to be prepared to before you got to the first team.

Mike Gonzalez 19:02

Now, Bruce, were you yet a scratch golfer at age 15?

Bruce Devlin 19:05

Oh no, sir. I I didn't start playing actually until I was 15. So I uh actually my my my journey in the early days was sort of a little bit like Deane's, although I started a little bit later than him. But uh after my dad lost his arm in an automobile accident, he wanted somebody to play golf with him, and and uh and he said that it was me. So uh yeah, I you know I couldn't play, I didn't play very well, but we had an old Scottish uh pro at the golf course that I grew up at, and he, you know, he taught me the basic fundamentals, and I went from uh, you know, somebody that never played golf to uh you know pretty good player in about two years. So uh very similar story really to to Deane, the way he uh, you know, in about 18 months became a very good player.

Deane Beman 19:56

Well, it's interesting, Bruce. Uh the one thing that I learned very early uh is that you have to be prepared and and uh you there was never enough time to practice everything. And uh in uh when I was a junior in high school before my qualified for the U.S. Open the first time, I started keeping my own stat.

Bruce Devlin 20:22

Um doesn't surprise me.

Deane Beman 20:24

And and uh and I every every shot that I hit on the golf course, whether it was in competition or not, I recorded. And I and I analyzed that, and and I always then worked on the the weakest part of my game. And uh and also learned uh how important uh your short game is to scoring. It's not necessarily the big drive. Uh I learned earlier that hidden the fairway was far more important than hitting it a little farther and hitting it in the rough. Uh of course that's changed today, but we'll get to. But uh but but um I think that that uh that even though I may not have been the most impressive ball striker that people watched, uh I I I learned early uh how to score better. And I beat a lot of players who were a lot better than me in ball striking. Um but uh uh I understood uh where the scoring came from. And uh and and I learned that through keeping my own personal stats. And I started that in high school.

Bruce Devlin 21:43

I might say also add here that uh of all of the players that I've ever played golf with, Deane had, I think, as good a short game as anybody that I've ever played golf with. Uh take a comparison between, you know, arguably. One of the greatest players of all time, Jack Nicholas, who uh from a driving standpoint, you stand and watch him hit those towering drives, Deane, back in the in the early 60s. Uh, and then you come along and you know you weren't as long as him, but boy, you sure competed.

Deane Beman 22:19

Yeah, well, I I learned early, I learned early that it was the score, not necessarily how you did it. It was the it was the ultimate score.

Bruce Devlin 22:29

The number on the card.

Deane Beman 22:30

Yeah, and the other thing that I did uh and and and after I learned how important keeping stats were, uh, in when I was a senior in high school, and really just starting to play really uh top flight golf, um, and moving out of the junior tournaments into uh the amateur tournaments, uh I I uh I started walking off distances. Uh I had a scorecard and I still have a I still have a whole box of scorecards from back um uh uh in the in the uh in the 50s, uh late 50s and the six sick early sixties, where uh I had I I walked off the golf course and I knew I knew the distances. And this didn't come about from till years later, but I I thought I had a you know I thought I had a huge advantage over everybody I played because I I wasn't guessing at the distance. Uh I knew I knew the distance. And uh caddies hated the caddy for me because I required them to go out before we played and find out where the pin was.

Bruce Devlin 23:47

So you could get the exact outage.

Deane Beman 23:56

Because I wanted to know where the pin was. I want to know how far it is from the front of the green to the pin, and from the pin to the back of the green. So I started that back when I was in high school. And uh, and uh, of course, you you know you know what it is today, everybody uses a laser or has a book and something like that. But uh but I did that in high school.

Bruce Devlin 24:20

What do you think about these books? That they're uh there's some discussion that uh they may be uh banned.

Deane Beman 24:28

Yeah, the books on uh on greens, uh they they I don't think they ban the books on on distances.

Intro Music 24:35

Right.

Deane Beman 24:36

We're talking about uh reading greens and uh uh you know uh you still gotta even if you know how it breaks. You still gotta hit it. Yeah, you still gotta hit it. And actually, uh Bruce, if you look at the stats uh on the tour, and you look at uh how many uh uh what the percentage of putts are made from 15 feet, uh it's not a high percentage from 15 feet uh of the best players in the world. Uh with a book that tells you exactly how it breaks. So the answer is I I don't think that I don't think that has nearly the influence that other parts of technology uh that have uh that come into the game have.

Mike Gonzalez 25:24

Those fifteen footers are a little easier to make when the greens were rolling nine than twelve or thirteen, probably too, wouldn't you agree?

Deane Beman 25:32

Yeah, um the the the uh I g I don't know I until until uh I guess I played the first time at the at the uh at the US Open and and at the Masters we played on greens that were seven and eight speeds, really. Um and and actually um the the uh uh ruling bodies are keeping the green speeds as high as they are to try to protect parr. And uh I'm not sure that it doesn't take a better stroke to to to hit a putt with an eight speed than it does a twelve speed.

Mike Gonzalez 26:18

Now Deane, you you s you you set a pretty lofty goal for yourself at a fairly early age relative to golf, didn't you?

Deane Beman 26:25

Uh yeah, I had I had uh when I played football, I wanted to be the best running back ever, and when I started playing golf, I wanted to be the best golfer ever. So it was a pretty lofty uh uh objective. But everything I did on a day-to-day basis was uh was uh set at that goal, which is to be the best player in the world.

Mike Gonzalez 26:58

So you had a very good career for the University of Maryland, two-time uh all-American for University of Maryland. Uh you'd also had mentioned qualifying for the US Open twice uh as a high schooler. I wonder how many kids can say that.

Deane Beman 27:14

Not very many, I don't think so.

Bruce Devlin 27:16

No, not at all.

Mike Gonzalez 27:18

I would think that's a pretty small number. But just getting into some of your amateur career, uh uh, we're fast forwarding now a couple of years. I want to talk a little bit about 1960 because this is an experience that you and Bruce would have shared, and and uh uh we'll see if we have the sequence right. I think in 60 uh it might have been the Eisenhower trophy at Marion first, and then U.S. amateur at St. Louis Country Club uh after that. Is that was that the sequence as you remember it, Deane?

Deane Beman 27:49

I I think um I I think that the Eisenhower was after the U.S. amateur.

Bruce Devlin 27:56

I agree.

Deane Beman 27:57

I believe so.

Bruce Devlin 27:58

Yeah, it was after.

Mike Gonzalez 28:00

You better quick necklace on that then.

Bruce Devlin 28:02

Jack had it all uh back to front, but you know, you gotta remember now he's he's a lot lot older than uh Deane and I. Well, he really isn't, but but he did get it wrong. It was the amateur first, and uh we we played it uh in St. Louis, and of course uh Deane was the winner. Uh Nicholas and I both got our tails whipped, and we headed back to uh Columbus, Ohio for a few days, and then we went to Merion a little later that year. And uh boy. I know Deane played a fabulous tournament up there, uh, but Nicholas just uh that was probably one of the greatest scoring efforts uh ever by anybody, was Nicholas's score at Marion in in 19 uh 60 when at the Eisenhower Cup matches.

Deane Beman 28:53

Yeah, I think he beat everybody by 13 shots or something, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 28:57

Yeah, I know. It was he was uh he was quite remarkable. You and I know you finished second too, behind him.

Deane Beman 29:02

Yeah, I did.

Mike Gonzalez 29:05

And Bruce Devlin finished third individually, so you you guys were the top three individuals. Uh of course the U.S. won uh only by a few over Australia, wasn't it, Bruce?

Bruce Devlin 29:15

Uh I think I think they won like about 18 or something. It was actually 40. 40, wasn't it? Oh, that's that was pr well, that was really a butt whipping.

Mike Gonzalez 29:27

Uh well Deane, uh take us through a f uh few of your uh recollections of the 1960 U.S. amateur in St. Louis.

Deane Beman 29:36

Well, um I can remember um you know history-wise, that's uh that's the uh golf course where Sam Sneed failed to win the US Open. It was a rather tricky golf course up and a little up and downhill um and uh some a few blind shots. And I think uh probably my uh my ability to hit it in a fair way and at the same time um uh being uh I don't I don't I don't think anybody else in the field uh knew the exact distances of everything, uh, which I did and and as a matter of fact, you know, I used to pace off the distances, but where I lived uh there was a football field and I used to practice my pacing to make sure that my paces were uh exactly on a yard. So I used to practice on the football through walking on my pacing. But when you have uh when you have up and downhill shots and uh you know the exact yardage, and you know the effect of uh trying to hit a little higher when the green is up and uh and and the effect of it uh shortens it when it's down, and you combine that with knowing the exact yardage. Uh I had a clear advantage over everybody because I don't think anybody else uh had scorecards like I did. But I also putt a little bit, Bruce.

Bruce Devlin 31:10

Oh, I know, I know. I I've seen enough of that. You sure were you were a great putter. Of course, that was that's obviously as part of the short game, but uh you you managed to beat a very, very good player in the final, too.

Deane Beman 31:25

Uh yeah, Bob Gardner. Um Bob Gardner was in the finals, uh a Metropolitan New York player that uh played uh all of those uh uh players out on Long Island, and uh so he it was he very competitive, uh really great, really good player.

Bruce Devlin 31:45

I think you also did you beat Bill Heineman on the way up to the final too?

Deane Beman 31:50

Uh I might have beaten I might have beaten him there. I remember uh I'm not quite sure about that, Bruce, but I did beat I beat Bill in the finals of the British amateur uh in 1959.

Bruce Devlin 32:02

Uh maybe that's what that's what it is. Uh I knew you had beaten him somewhere, so it was at the British amateur.

Deane Beman 32:09

Yeah, something interesting about that 60 win, you know, I've been asked by a lot of people what uh what did I do in golf that was the most meaningful to me. And I think winning there at the U.S. amateur in St. Louis was probably uh one of my super highlights in my uh in my life because when I when when we went over for the uh Walker Cup and we had uh Nicholas and Tommy Aaron and Ward Wetlofer and Harvey Harvey Ward and uh I think Bill Campbell and uh all those players, and I won the British amateur over there. Um I think the the the feeling was that uh I was uh probably at the bottom rung of all those players that played in the Walker Cup, yet I won the British amateur. And it was uh I think there was a feeling that was sort of a fluke. And uh so when I came back and won the US amateur the next year, uh won the fluke. I felt yeah, what I felt that I had uh uh uh uh dunk dunked the flute.

Bruce Devlin 33:26

That's right.

Deane Beman 33:30

It was something that was very uh important to me to uh to to make sure I knew I knew how uh how well I could compete, and I I hope that that uh put an exclamation point on everybody else that I was somebody to be reckoned with.

Mike Gonzalez 33:49

That was certainly validation, no question about that. The 1959 British Am win uh was at Royal St. George's, where we just had the open championship. You must have fond memories of that golf course.

Deane Beman 34:02

Yes, I do. It was uh quite a quite a golf course, uh a lot of blind shots. Again, um uh the measuring off the distances, knowing exactly what uh I was confronted with uh when you had uh not only the the run out of the fairways but the uh but the up and downs and the uh the wind, uh knowing exactly what you're dealing with is a big, big advantage.

Bruce Devlin 34:34

Deane, I gotta ask you a question about that, knowing exactly the yardage. Were you ever one of the players that used to go to the edge of the fairway and ride in the first cut of rough and take your spikes and rake a little foot-long area where you used to step from? Or how did you w where did you find your point? I know you know it could have been trees or something, but sometimes, like at St. Rawls and George's, there are no trees. So how did you find your point?

Deane Beman 35:04

Mo mostly sprinkler heads, uh, Bruce, uh was what I dealt with. They were most course courses we played had 150-yard markers uh to the middle of the green, and there were usually some trees or uh sprinkler head. I I you know you have to find something. Uh at Roll St. George's, my my recollection is the bunkers were the biggest thing. There are 110 bunkers out there.

Intro Music 35:32

Right.

Deane Beman 35:33

You could uh mark the either at the front or the back of one of the bunkers and find the exact almost the exact yardage.

Bruce Devlin 35:39

Gotcha. Yeah, it'd be interesting for the people to understand how you know you you were definitely one of the first, and uh the very first time that I saw anybody doing that was uh with you and Jack, to be quite honest. Jack Jack picked up on uh on your way of measuring too.

Deane Beman 35:59

Well, Jack was you know the a lot of players used to scoff at it, and and Jack was one of them. But uh we played a lot of practice rounds together and uh in the uh in the uh amateur at um at Pebble Beach, I guess it was. Um when uh when uh Jack and I played together out there uh and and practiced a lot together. Uh that was the first time I believe he uh he u used the ortages and it was and he just walked away with it.

Bruce Devlin 36:35

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 36:37

You mentioned players scoffing at that at the time, probably not much different than the players scoffing at Gary Player for his fitness routine.

Deane Beman 36:45

Well, that's right. Yes indeed. Yes, indeed. Well I I when I when I went on tour, uh uh I had uh my caddy uh I I bought my caddy a car, and uh I had uh exer I had exercise equipment in the car, he drove it for me. And so I worked out all the time, uh w from from an early age.

Bruce Devlin 37:13

Interesting.

Mike Gonzalez 37:15

That's something maybe many people don't know.

Bruce Devlin 37:18

No, absolutely not.

Mike Gonzalez 37:19

Reminds me of the story of of Bruce Litsky, who, you know, is always had the reputation of sort of laissez-faire as it relates to practice and more family-oriented and played golf uh when he needed to. And uh there was a story of uh him uh practicing uh uh next to someone who shall remain nameless uh on a T for a while, and he made that guy promise never to share with anybody that he was actually out there practicing. Just our little secret. So, Deane, you had quite a few individual championships. You were four-time winner of the Eastern Amateur, uh, won the Trans-Mississi Amateur in 60, the uh the Porter Cup uh champion, Niagara Falls, 1964. Of course, two-time winner of the U.S. Am. Actually, uh I believe lost in a playoff, didn't you, one year as well uh in the U.S. amateur?

Deane Beman 38:12

Uh yes, I lost in a playoff. That was probably the best I ever played under the circumstances at Marion uh in 66. Um I I was I was literally disabled. Uh I had injured my right hand uh and uh in uh practicing that in in back in 1963. So I had been uh literally for three years wearing a cast on my right hand, a removable cast. So I didn't use my right hand for anything except playing golf. And I was restricted to hitting maybe 25 or 30 practice shots, uh uh at or else I couldn't play, and I could only play in three or four events a year because my hand uh kept swelling and the tendons were were damaged. And uh I could not hit a bunker shot. I didn't get in very many bunkers because I hit it so straight. But uh I could not uh I could not flex my right wrist, and uh and I couldn't hit it very far at all. And uh I was not very I wasn't very long anyway. And once I injured my hand, but I played my first round at the uh that was a metal play when the amateur was metal play. Uh I remember my first round at Marion I hit 18 fairways and 18 greens and shot I think 67 or 66 in my first round. But I I'd never gotten any bunkers. And uh I put it in uh I put it in a bunker on 17 and made bogey, and uh put it in another bunker at 18, made double bogey, and uh and and then lost on the playoffs. So I had a couple shot lead going into the last two holes and and blew it because I put it in the bunker.

Mike Gonzalez 40:12

Well, you also had uh probably a lot of fun with with several team events, being uh a participant in the Walker Cup in 59, 61, 63, 65, the Eisenhower trophy at least four different years. Uh the America's Cup, which was a team event as well back then. What were some of your favorite memories of the team events?

Deane Beman 40:31

Well, actually, the my my biggest memory is a joke, really. Uh we're playing in the America's Cup, and Jack Nicholas and I are partners. And uh we're uh in the afternoon round uh playing against uh I'm I'm trying to remember the players, but anyway, we get to the fifth hole, it's a par five hole, and uh and and uh uh uh I hit I hit it off the T not very far, and then Jack hit a big three wood or something uh up and we were about eighty yards uh from the from the pin. And uh and I'm looking down at the ball, and and and Jack's wondering what the heck is wrong? Why aren't you, you know, it's a pretty simple little shot. And he turns around to me and says, uh, you know, Deane, it's only a wedge shot. And I said, Yes, but he said, I said, it's not Charlie Coe's web shot. He said, What do you mean? What and at at after we played the first round, went in for lunch, and the caddies had the things and they cleaned the clubs. Somebody put Charlie Coe's wedge in my bag and I had 15 clubs. So we go.

Bruce Devlin 41:48

Oh boy.

Deane Beman 41:50

We walked to the I think it was the fifth hole, four down to both players, to both. Oh my. And I think we ended up beating one of the players and uh one of them and tying the other one after being four down after four holes.

Intro Music 42:04

Oh boy.

Deane Beman 42:05

But it was I can always remember today Jack saying, it's only a wedge out. I said, Yeah, but it's not Charlie Coe's wedge. Back then he had a McGregor club, and I I used McGregor and Jack did, and so Charlie Coe, but and you had your name on the it was a it was on the back of the club, so I I knew it was Charlie Coe's.

Mike Gonzalez 42:27

That's something. You know, a couple of your uh Walker Cup experiences early on, the first couple of 1959 at Muirfield, which was a win for the team, and then uh 61 at Seattle uh Country Club. You had uh, I think singles wins both years over a guy that you probably would have had of a lot of interaction with later in your career, and that was Sir Michael Bonalek.

Deane Beman 42:49

Right. Yeah, Michael um got a chance to play him a couple times in competition, and uh he was he was a good player, quite a guy, uh and and a very a very keen competitor.

Mike Gonzalez 43:05

And I assume there would have been some overlap between your days as commissioner and his days as secretary of the RNA.

Deane Beman 43:10

Yeah, there w there were, but uh we didn't have too much interaction, you know. Those those uh, you know, I I used to go to the British Open and he used to come over to the uh to the US Open and uh and and the uh players' championship. So we did have some inter interaction, but uh and he was a good friend. And uh I went over to play in Scotland with my wife uh Judy to play golf several times and we played some golf together.

Mike Gonzalez 43:41

So early on in your amateur career before you turned professional, I suppose you must have had a day job as well.

Deane Beman 43:48

Yes, I was in the insurance business. I started uh I started my whole life early, uh competitive golf as as well as living. And uh while I was uh Going to the University of Maryland in school, I got in the insurance business and uh and uh uh formed a partnership with uh with a good golfer named Billy Buper, who was a fine amateur golfer. And we were in uh business together for several years uh in the insurance business.

Mike Gonzalez 44:23

So looking ahead then to turning professional, uh you had a pretty good uh tour qualifying school class in nineteen sixty-seven, didn't you? Some fine players came out of that qualifying school.

Deane Beman 44:36

Yes, uh uh I th I'm trying to think of the you know, maybe Tony Jacqueline and Bob Murphy and uh Ceruto and Lee Elder, I think, uh Orville Moody. So we you know, we c clearly had a a a bunch of good players then. That qualified us that we became a uh uh we didn't become a voting member, that qualified us to go and try to get in a tournament on Monday qualifying. That's what it got us.

Intro Music 45:07

Right.

Mike Gonzalez 45:12

Thank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game.

Outro Music 45:16

That little bit.

Mike Gonzalez 45:17

And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word straight down the middle, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.

Intro Music 45:34

It went smack down a fairway. And it started to slight just smitch off line. It headed for two, but it bounced off nine. My caddix, as long as you're still in the state, you're okay.