2002 PGA Championship Winner and Scores
Winner: Rich Beem, 278
Where it was played: Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota
Tournament dates: August 15-18, 2002
Leader after first round: Fred Funk and Jim Furyk, 68
Leader after second round: Retief Goosen, Justin Leonard, Rich Beem, Fred Funk and Mark Calcavecchia, 138
Leader after third round: Justin Leonard, 207
What Happened at the 2002 PGA Championship
Tiger Woods made one of the best final-round, final-holes charges of his career in the 2002 PGA Championship — he birdied the final four holes consecutively. It just wasn't enough to intimidate or overtake journeyman PGA Tour pro Rich Beem for the win.Prior to this tournament, Beem might have been best-known as one of the wild-and-crazy golfers featured in the book Bud, Sweat and Tees: A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour (affiliate link). He wasn't winless on tour — he had two wins, including one earlier in 2002 — but he was No. 73 in the world rankings after starting the year at No. 284. Probably nobody would have expected Beem to hold off a charging Tiger, but that's what he did.
Justin Leonard was the leader after three rounds, three strokes ahead of Beem in second place. Woods was tied for fourth after 54 holes, two strokes behind Beem and five off Leonard's lead. But Leonard bogeyed the second and sixth holes in the final round, and doubled the eighth, and was not a factor after that. He shot 77 and finished tied for fourth place.
Beem began his march to victory with an eagle on the par-5 11th, the only eagle on that hole in the entire championship. That came with Woods just one stroke behind, giving Beem a nice cushion on the back nine. Down the stretch, with Woods draining his string of birdies, Beem holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the 16th to keep himself on top.
Beem bogeyed the final hole, but it didn't matter: He had a 1-stroke victory over Woods. He shot 68 in the final round, Woods 67. The indelible image is of Beem raising his arms after the final putt went in, then shaking his hips in a brief but joyous celebration dance. While it was the third win of Beem's PGA Tour career, he never won again, and he never finished inside the Top 20 in any other major.
Seven years later, the PGA Championship returned to Hazeltine National. And just like in 2002, Woods again finished runner-up to an unheralded golfer at Hazeltine. It was Y.E. Yang who beat Woods in the 2009 PGA Championship.
Two-time major winner Greg Norman tied for 53rd here, the last time he made the cut in a PGA Championship. Another 2-time major champion, Curtis Strange, played in a major for the final time here, missing the cut.
2002 PGA Championship Final Scores
| Rich Beem | 72-66-72-68—278 |
| Tiger Woods | 71-69-72-67—279 |
| Chris Riley | 71-70-72-70—283 |
| Fred Funk | 68-70-73-73—284 |
| Justin Leonard | 72-66-69-77—284 |
| Rocco Mediate | 72-73-70-70—285 |
| Mark Calcavecchia | 70-68-74-74—286 |
| Vijay Singh | 71-74-74-68—287 |
| Jim Furyk | 68-73-76-71—288 |
| Jose Coceres | 72-71-72-74—289 |
| Steve Lowery | 71-71-73-74—289 |
| Pierre Fulke | 72-68-78-71—289 |
| Ricardo Gonzalez | 74-73-71-71—289 |
| Sergio Garcia | 75-73-73-68—289 |
| Stewart Cink | 74-74-72-69—289 |
| Robert Allenby | 76-66-77-70—289 |
| Charles Howell | 72-69-80-69—290 |
| Stuart Appleby | 73-74-74-69—290 |
| Steve Flesch | 72-74-73-71—290 |
| Padraig Harrington | 71-73-74-72—290 |
| Peter Lonard | 69-73-75-73—290 |
| Heath Slocum | 73-74-75-69—291 |
| Michael Campbell | 73-70-77-72—292 |
| Jeff Sluman | 70-75-74-73—292 |
| Bernhard Langer | 70-72-77-73—292 |
| Adam Scott | 71-71-76-74—292 |
| Justin Rose | 69-73-76-74—292 |
| Retief Goosen | 69-69-79-75—292 |
| Tom Lehman | 71-72-77-73—293 |
| Kenny Perry | 73-68-78-74—293 |
| Kirk Triplett | 75-69-79-70—293 |
| Brad Faxon | 74-72-75-72—293 |
| Craig Perks | 72-76-74-71—293 |
| Phil Mickelson | 76-72-78-68—294 |
| David Duval | 71-77-76-70—294 |
| Mike Weir | 73-74-77-70—294 |
| Neal Lancaster | 72-73-75-74—294 |
| Ernie Els | 72-71-75-76—294 |
| Joel Edwards | 73-74-77-71—295 |
| John Huston | 74-74-75-72—295 |
| Scott McCarron | 73-71-79-72—295 |
| Chris DiMarco | 76-69-77-73—295 |
| Briny Baird | 79-69-73-75—296 |
| Shigeki Maruyama | 72-72-75-73—296 |
| Loren Roberts | 77-70-77-77—296 |
| Soren Hansen | 73-69-78-76—296 |
| Kevin Sutherland | 72-75-71-78—296 |
| Davis Love III | 70-75-76-76—297 |
| Tom Watson | 76-71-83-67—297 |
| Steve Elkington | 72-75-76-74—297 |
| Len Mattiace | 74-73-76-74—297 |
| Angel Cabrera | 71-73-77-76—297 |
| Lee Janzen | 70-76-77-75—298 |
| Tim Clark | 72-74-76-76—298 |
| Brian Gay | 73-74-78-73—298 |
| Cameron Beckman | 74-71-75-78—298 |
| Chris Smith | 75-73-72-78—298 |
| Toshimitsu Izawa | 72-73-75-78—298 |
| Greg Norman | 71-74-73-80—298 |
| Hal Sutton | 73-73-75-78—299 |
| Joe Durant | 74-71-79-75—299 |
| Nick Faldo | 71-76-74-78—299 |
| J.J. Henry | 78-70-77-76—301 |
| Don Berry | 76-71-80-75—302 |
| J.P. Hayes | 73-75-78-76—302 |
| Joey Sindelar | 77-71-78-76—302 |
| Matt Gogel | 74-73-83-72—302 |
| Dave Tentis | 76-72-78-78—304 |
| Jose Maria Olazabal | 73-75-77-80—305 |
| Pat Perez | 77-71-85-76—309 |
| Thomas Levet | 78-70-82-80—310 |
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