Deane Beman - Part 3 (Transforming the PGA Tour as Commissioner)
World Golf Hall of Fame member and Commissioner of the PGA Tour from 1974 - 1994, Deane Beman completes his life story by reflecting back on his time leading the Tour through transformative change. He remembers the early challenges as the Tour set out to rebrand itself for the global game and recounts, in vivid detail, the "Coup Attempt" by prominent players of the day which nearly ended the Tour as we know it. The "Square Grooves" litigation with Ping stands out as the Tour's right to set its own rules was confirmed. Deane shares his most significant accomplishments as Commissioner, of which there were many and is quite candid regarding his biggest regret. Deane Beman, in his twenty years at the helm, put his mark on the Tour, "FORE the Good of the Game."
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About
"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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