} Deane R. Beman (born April 22, 1938) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

, golf administrator. He was the second commissioner of the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

, serving from 1974 to 1994.

Early years

Born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, Beman attended the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

in nearby College Park, where he was a two-time All-American on the

Terrapins Terrapins are one of several small species of turtle (order Testudines) living in fresh or brackish water. Terrapins do not form a taxonomic unit and may not be closely related. Many belong to the families Geoemydidae and Emydidae. The name " ...

golf team. Following graduation, Beman had a career in the

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

field. During his playing career, he qualified for the U.S. Open at age 17 in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

. He qualified for the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

fourteen times, won the

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

twice (1960, 1963), and the

British Amateur The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

(1959). He also lost a playoff to

Gary Cowan Gary Cowan (born October 28, 1938) is a Canadian golfer who has achieved outstanding results at the highest class in amateur competition. Biography Cowan was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He began to play golf at the municipal golf course ...

for the 1966 U.S. Amateur.

Pro career

Beman turned professional in 1967 at age 29 and won four times on the

between 1969 and

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

. He led for two rounds at the 1969 U.S. Open and finished one shot out of a playoff. Beman was considered short off the tee but complemented it with his short game. Injuries curtailed his playing career. He retired as a player and closed his business practice to become PGA Tour Commissioner.

PGA Tour commissioner

Beman was the second

commissioner A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

of the

, succeeding Joe Dey in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

. He introduced

The Players Championship The Players Championship (commonly known as simply The Players, stylized by the PGA Tour as The PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The P ...

concept during this time and developed the

Tournament Players Club Tournament Players Club (TPC) is a chain of public and private golf courses operated by the PGA Tour. Most of the courses either are or have been hosts for PGA Tour events, with the remainder having frequently hosted events on the Korn Ferry Tour ...

network of courses around the United States. Beman converted the Tour into a 501-c6 non-profit organization and introduced pension plans for Tour players. Under his watch, the Tour's board passed a policy requiring all tournaments to support a charitable initiative. Tour charitable contributions grew from less than $1 million a year in 1974 to more than $30 million in 1994. He formed the Senior PGA Tour, now the

PGA Tour Champions PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many years ...

, for players 50 and older in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

and the Ben Hogan Tour (now

Korn Ferry Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. Th ...

) as golf's developmental circuit in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. In 1983, the Tour expanded the number of exempt players from the top-60 on the season money list to the top-125. At a meeting on February 28, 1994,

The Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...

, an international competition in conjunction with Beman's retirement announcement on the twentieth anniversary of his appointment as Tour commissioner. During his tenure, the PGA Tour's assets grew from $400,000 in 1974 to a reported $260 million in 1994. He was succeeded as commissioner by

Tim Finchem Timothy W. Finchem (born April 19, 1947) is an American lawyer and retired golf administrator, who served as commissioner of golf's PGA Tour from 1994 to 2016. He served in the White House for two years during the administration of President Jimm ...

, who served for over 22 years.

Later years

After stepping down as tour commissioner in June 1994, Beman resumed his playing career, and competed in 69 senior events through the

Constellation Energy Classic The Constellation Energy Classic was a golf tournament on the Champions Tour from 1998 to 2006. It was last played in Hunt Valley, Maryland at the Hayfields Country Club. The purse for the 2006 tournament was US$1,750,000, with $255,000 going to ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. In 2003, Beman contributed to the design of Cannon Ridge Golf Club with golf architect

Bobby Weed Robert C. "Bobby" Weed, Jr. (born April 13, 1955), president of Bobby Weed Golf Design, is a golf course designer and builder specializing in design, renovation and repurposing. A protégé of Pete Dye, he resides in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Wee ...

, but the golf course was closed for play in 2012 and later again in 2017. Beman was inducted into the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...

in 2000 and was awarded the seventh

PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award Created in 1996, the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award honors individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the PGA Tour over an extended period of time through their actions on and off the golf course A golf course is the grounds ...

in 2007. A book chronicling his 20-year tenure as Commissioner was published in 2011, entitled
Deane Beman: Golf's Driving Force
" by Adam Schupak.

Amateur wins

*1959

*1960

Eastern Amateur The Eastern Amateur is an annual amateur golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does no ...

Trans-Mississippi Amateur The Trans-Mississippi Amateur or Trans-Miss Amateur is an annual amateur golf tournament. It is organized by the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association and was first played in 1901. It is played at a different course each year that are located near or ...

*1961

*1963

*1964

Porter Cup The Porter Cup is a 72-hole, medal-play elite amateur golf tournament held annually at the Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, New York. It was first played in 1959 and over the years has hosted some of the biggest names in golf. Past champions ...

Professional wins (6)

PGA Tour wins (4)

PGA Tour playoff record (1–1)

Other wins (2)

*1966

Maryland Open The Maryland Open is the Maryland state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Maryland State Golf Association. It has been played annually since 1921 at a variety of courses around the state. I ...

(as an amateur) *1971

Quad Cities Open The John Deere Classic is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in July, usually the week before The Open Championship, at TPC Deere Run in the Quad Cities community of Silvis, Illinois. History The tournament bega ...

(not an official PGA Tour event)

Major championships

Amateur wins (3)

Results timeline

Amateur Professional ''Note: Beman turned professional between the 1967 Masters and U.S. Open.''
LA = Low amateur
"T" indicates a tie for a place
R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play Source for The Masters
www.masters.com
Source for U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur
USGA Championship Database
Source for British Open
www.opengolf.com

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur *

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

(winners),

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

(winners),

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

(winners),

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

(tied, cup retained) *

Eisenhower Trophy The Eisenhower Trophy (World Men's Amateur Team Championships) is the biennial World Amateur Team Championship for men organized by the International Golf Federation. Since the tournament was first played in 1958, it is named after Dwight D. Eisen ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

(winners), 1962 (winners),

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

Americas Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

: 1960 (winners), 1961 (winners), 1963 (winners)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beman, Deane American male golfers Maryland Terrapins men's golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour Champions golfers PGA Tour commissioners Golf course architects Golf writers and broadcasters World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Golfers from Washington, D.C. People from Bethesda, Maryland 1938 births Living people

Early years

Pro career

PGA Tour commissioner

Later years

Amateur wins

Professional wins (6)

PGA Tour wins (4)

Other wins (2)

Major championships

Amateur wins (3)

Results timeline

U.S. national team appearances

See also

References

External links