Tour Rich Beem WITB – 2024 PGA Championship

[atursky]

 

[Valtiel]

Offset like...

[QuigleyDU]

 

[Binson]

I love seeing the offset and the PM grind. 

 

 

[Golfingfanatic]

Are these Scratch irons?

[gentles]

I recognise the font and hosel markings

 

@FairwayFred?

[BCULAW]

Throwback to the Scratch irons!!!  Love it!

[Pnwpingi210]

I would hit those iron straight to the moon

[phizzy30]

2 hours ago, Golfingfanatic said:

Are these Scratch irons?

Legendary protos.  I regret selling my AR-1 and SB-1 sets till this day..........😔

[zip7111]

It looks like all the clubs in his set are new or like-new condition.  Even the old Scratch irons look mint.  Does he not play golf anymore?

[phizzy30]

3 hours ago, zip7111 said:

It looks like all the clubs in his set are new or like-new condition.  Even the old Scratch irons look mint.  Does he not play golf anymore?

He was doing a commentary gig on one of the major networks for a minute.  That leads me to believe that he doesn't play professionally anymore. 

[ChrisATL]

Very curious how he performs this week - I heard Erik Anders Lang (of Random Golf Club) is caddying for him.  On his clubs - those PM grinds...🫣

[dfrautsch]

That is a lot of offset, probably blends nicely with the PM’s. 

[jaffabell]

7 hours ago, phizzy30 said:

He was doing a commentary gig on one of the major networks for a minute.  That leads me to believe that he doesn't play professionally anymore. 

He commentates on Sky Sports here in the UK fairly often

[B_of_H]

that is so much gratuitous offset that I wasn't even triggered.  He should just have some custom irons made in the shape of the cleveland vas at this point.  

[NoCalHack]

12 hours ago, ChrisATL said:

Very curious how he performs this week - I heard Erik Anders Lang (of Random Golf Club) is caddying for him.  On his clubs - those PM grinds...🫣

 

 

Beemer did not play so great in this vid.  I'm not expecting much from him this week.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ben Berube]

On 5/13/2024 at 2:32 PM, Golfingfanatic said:

Are these Scratch irons?

They sure are and was just about to comment how awesome they are!

[Pnwpingi210]

31 minutes ago, Ben Berube said:

They sure are and was just about to comment how awesome they are!

Does he have them bent about 6 degrees strong?  The offset almost looks photo shopped or cartoonish.

[Ben Berube]

19 hours ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Does he have them bent about 6 degrees strong?  The offset almost looks photo shopped or cartoonish.

Those did not come that way. 

 

They are certainly offset and I suspect custom made for him. 

 

I played several Scratch sets including 5-6 DW's and even Ari's own irons made just for him.

 

They never had that.

[Pnwpingi210]

Just now, Ben Berube said:

Those did not come that way. 

 

They are certainly offset and I suspect custom made for him. 

 

I played several Scratch sets including 5-6 DW's and even Ari's own irons made just for him.

 

They never had that.

I’ve never seen a set of scratch irons in person, but suspected they had very little offset and blended it well if they did.    
 

Those look like a 30 yr old set of ping I Os!

[phizzy30]

23 minutes ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

I’ve never seen a set of scratch irons in person, but suspected they had very little offset and blended it well if they did.    
 

Those look like a 30 yr old set of ping I Os!

AR-1's had a little bit of offset.  SB-1's had even less.  I remember there being limited edition custom sets that were zero offset that went for crazy money on the bay at one point. 

[bulldoggg]

The original Scratch blades have negligible offset. The AR-1s came with at least two different offset options, including no offset. They were pricey! I still have a set of each, not getting much use these days. That written, I wouldn't want to look down at that offset each shot, but Mr. Beem has a lot more talent than I. 

 

B

[Pastit]

On 5/14/2024 at 9:52 AM, jaffabell said:

He commentates on Sky Sports here in the UK fairly often

He mirrored that orchid which blooms only once in its lifetime.  He ended main tour Golf by playing on the ET and the Asian circuit probably. 
 

Presumably he was exempt for the Champions’ Tour on reaching 50YOA but for how long I don’t know. But that does not appear to have been a success either.  

Edited May 17 by Pastit
Spelling

[B_of_H]

On 5/14/2024 at 6:41 PM, Pnwpingi210 said:

Does he have them bent about 6 degrees strong?  The offset almost looks photo shopped or cartoonish.

 

If you took an iron with a lot of offset and bent them 6* strong then yes I think that is what they would look like.  and yes 'cartoonish' is a great description.  It looks like something on an old tiger woods ea sports pro shop selection.  

[GolfSW]

[Shallowface]

On 5/17/2024 at 8:37 AM, B_of_H said:

 

If you took an iron with a lot of offset and bent them 6* strong then yes I think that is what they would look like.  and yes 'cartoonish' is a great description.  It looks like something on an old tiger woods ea sports pro shop selection.  

I doubt that is what you're seeing there because if you were to bend an iron to that degree you'd eliminate most or all of the bounce and create a club with a real tendency to dig.

 

Many older players are used to seeing some degree of offset on their irons, so that's probably why Beem had these made that way.  It used to be that .100" offset was basically considered "no offset" because anything less was thought to look strange to the eye.  Same as how persimmon woods were generally made 2 degrees open as standard because that looks square optically.  That's why early metal woods all looked closed to those of us who grew up with persimmon, because they were mostly designed at 0 degrees and that looks closed to the eye at address.

 

I know the trend on tour today is to have all offset removed as well as having irons with short blade length heel to toe.  When I see an iron like that it strikes me as "all hosel," and could explain why rarely a telecast goes by where we don't see at least one hosel rocket from the best players in the world.  Used to be we'd see one about every 5 years, if that.

 

A couple of those and you might find yourself on Ebay looking for a set of 1996 Big Bertha irons. 

 

  

 

    

[Maine Golfer]

I play 88 Wilson Staff Goosenecks and love offset 

[B_of_H]

On 5/19/2024 at 10:55 AM, Shallowface said:

I doubt that is what you're seeing there because if you were to bend an iron to that degree you'd eliminate most or all of the bounce and create a club with a real tendency to dig.

 

 

  

 

    

I was talking hypothetically about what a hosel would look like bent 6 degrees strong.