Deane Beman - Part 2 (Tour Life and Becoming Commissioner)
World Golf Hall of Fame member, Deane Beman recounts his decision to turn professional after a very successful amateur career, his Tour wins and the hand injuries that ultimately led him to accept the job as PGA Tour Commissioner in 1974 at age 36. Deane tells of the early transformation of the Tour that included becoming a non-profit, creating value in television for corporate sponsors, adding a charitable focus to the Tour and developing a robust player's pension scheme. From golf professional to golf administrator, Deane Beman tells his story, "FORE the Good of the Game."
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"FORE the Good of the Game” is a golf podcast featuring interviews with World Golf Hall of Fame members, winners of major championships and other people of influence in and around the game of golf. Highlighting the positive aspects of the game, we aim to create and provide an engaging and timeless repository of content that listeners can enjoy now and forever. Co-hosted by PGA Tour star Bruce Devlin, our podcast focuses on telling their life stories, in their voices. Join Bruce and Mike Gonzalez “FORE the Good of the Game.”
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Beman, Deane
PGA Tour Commissioner and Professional Golfer
If Yankee Stadium is the House that Ruth built, then the World Golf Hall of Fame is the House that Beman built, and now he will live there as a permanent resident. Deane Beman was a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame’s Class of 2000, selected by the World Golf Foundation board of directors for his Lifetime Achievement in golf.
While Beman is certainly best remembered for his work as the commissioner of the PGA TOUR, his resume as a player isn’t too shabby, either. Beman, who left a successful practice as an insurance broker to pursue the tour, won four PGA TOUR titles, a pair of U.S. Amateurs, The Amateur Championship and competed on four U.S. Walker Cup teams.
“As an amateur, I’d like to be remembered as being at the top of my competition,” Beman says. “I was right there with the best of them.”
After succeeding Joe Dey as commissioner in 1974, Beman grew the tour’s assets from approximately $500,000-$700,000 in 1974 to an estimated $500 million-$800 million when he retired in 1994. Much of this new profit and growth was due to television. A direct result of the popularity of golf on television was the escalating tournament purses that made players millionaires many times over and raised the profile of professional golf to new heights.
During his tenure, Beman ushered in the creation of the SENIOR PGA TOUR (now called the Champions Tour). No sport has bottled nostalgia as successfully as golf’s SENIOR TOUR, considered by many the sports success story of the 1980s. The SENIOR TOUR arrived just in time to encompass the magnetism of Arnol… Read More
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