| Notah Begay III | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Born | September 14, 1972 Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight | 195 lb (88 kg; 13.9 st) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Career | |
| College | Stanford University |
| Turned professional | 1995 |
| Current tour(s) | PGA Tour |
| Former tour(s) | Nationwide Tour European Tour |
| Professional wins | 6 |
| Number of wins by tour | |
| PGA Tour | 4 |
| Other | 2 |
| Best results in Major Championships |
|
| Masters Tournament | T37: 2000 |
| U.S. Open | 22nd: 2000 |
| The Open Championship | T20: 2000 |
| PGA Championship | 8th: 2000 |
Notah Ryan Begay III (born September 14, 1972) is an American professional golfer. He is the only full-blooded American Indian (Navajo/Pueblo[1]) golfer on the PGA Tour.[2] He is currently an analyst with the Golf Channel.
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Begay was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and graduated from a private high school, the Albuquerque Academy. He attended Stanford University where he was a three-time All-American and a teammate of Tiger Woods. He was a member of Stanford's 1994 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship team. After graduation, Begay turned professional in 1995.
In 1998, Begay shot a 59 in the second round of the Nike Tour Dominion Open, to join the handful of golfers to ever shoot a 59 in a professional tournament. He placed tenth on the Nike Tour money list that year, earning a place on the PGA Tour for 1999.
Begay had a pair of wins in each of his first two seasons on the Tour. From late September 1999 to early July 2000, a period of just over nine months, Begay recorded four Tour wins, with the third and fourth wins coming in successive weeks. Since then, he has been plagued by back trouble which has put his future as a professional golfer in doubt. In 2005, he played under a "Major Medical Exemption" with little success. In 2006, he played on the Nationwide Tour. At the end of 2006, he successfully earned a card for the European Tour from their qualifying school. In December 2008, he regained his playing card for the 2009 PGA Tour season at Q-school.
Begay has been featured in the top 20 of the Official World Golf Rankings. He successfully utilized a unique putting method. Using a putter with playing faces on both the front and back of the head, he putted right-to-left-breaking putts right-handed, and left-to-right-breaking putts left-handed. Begay is the first top player to use such a technique and putter.
In January 2000, Begay was arrested for what, he admitted in court, was actually his second DUI incident. In this second incident, he drove into a parked car while leaving a bar in Albuquerque and was subsequently arrested. Begay was sentenced to 364 days in jail, with all but seven days suspended.[3][4]
In 2005, Notah established the non-profit Notah Begay III Foundation. The immediate goal of the foundation was to provide health and wellness education to Native American youth in the form of soccer and golf programs. The broader purpose of the foundation was to stand as a catalyst for change in the Native American community. On August 26, 2008 the foundation hosted the first Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino, a skins golf match to raise money for the foundation. The five players for the tournament were Begay, Stewart Cink, Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas and Mike Weir. On August 24, 2009 the foundation hosted its second annual Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino.
this list may be incomplete
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning Score | Margin of Victory | Runner(s)-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 29, 1999 | Reno-Tahoe Open | -14 (70-69-63-72=274) | 3 strokes | Chris Perry, David Toms |
| 2 | Oct 8, 1999 | Michelob Championship at Kingsmill | -10 (67-70-69-68=274) | Playoff | Tom Byrum |
| 3 | Jun 25, 2000 | FedEx St. Jude Classic | -13 (66-69-67-69=271) | 1 stroke | Chris DiMarco, Bob May |
| 4 | Jul 2, 2000 | Canon Greater Hartford Open | -20 (64-65-67-64=260) | 1 stroke | Mark Calcavecchia |
PGA Tour playoff record (1-0)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1999 | Michelob Championship at Kingsmill | Tom Byrum | Won with par on second extra hole |
| Tournament | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Masters | DNP | T37 | CUT |
| U.S. Open | CUT | 22 | CUT |
| The Open Championship | DNP | T20 | DNP |
| PGA Championship | DNP | 8 | CUT |
DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
Amateur
Professional
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