2002 PGA Championship Winner and Scores

The 2002 PGA Championship was the 84th edition of the tournament. A surprise winner emerged, and he held off a charging Tiger Woods to grab the trophy.

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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