Notah Begay III

Notah Begay III
Personal information
Full name Notah Ryan Begay III
Born (1972-09-14) 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
Former tour(s) PGA Tour
Nationwide Tour
European Tour
Professional wins 5
Number of wins by tour
PGA Tour 4
Other 1
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-blood Native American[1] golfer on the PGA Tour.[2] He is currently an analyst with the Golf Channel.

Amateur career

Begay was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and graduated from a private high school, 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.

Professional career

Nike Tour

In 1998, Begay shot a 59 in the second round of the Nike Tour Dominion Open, to join the few golfers to ever shoot a 59 in a professional tournament. He placed 10th on the Nike Tour money list that year, earning a place on the PGA Tour for 1999.

PGA Tour

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 PGA Tour wins, with the third and fourth wins coming in successive weeks. Since then, he was plagued by back trouble which 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.

Personal life

Begay is a full-blood Native American; who is one-half Navajo, one-quarter San Felipe and one-quarter Isleta. He graduated from Albuquerque Academy in 1990 and earned a bachelor of science degree in Economics in 1995 from Stanford University.[2]

In January 2000, Begay was arrested for what he admitted, in court, was actually his second DUI incident. He was sentenced to 364 days in jail with all but seven days suspended.[3][4]

Begay was named one of Golf Magazine’s Innovators of the Year in 2009 and has also been named one of the Top 100 Sports Educators in the world by the Institute for International Sport. He owns a golf course development company, NB3 Consulting, and works with Native American communities to develop world-class golf properties.

Begay suffered a heart attack in 2014, while practicing on the putting green at Dallas National Golf Club. He was quickly taken by ambulance to Dallas' Methodist Hospital and a stent was placed in his right coronary artery.[2]

Notah Begay III Foundation

In 2005, Begay 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.

Amateur wins (1)

this list may be incomplete

Professional wins (5)

PGA Tour wins (4)

No.DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin of victoryRunner(s)-up
1 Aug 29, 1999 Reno-Tahoe Open −14 (70-69-63-72=274) 3 strokes United States Chris Perry, United States David Toms
2 Oct 10, 1999 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill −10 (67-70-69-68=274) Playoff United States Tom Byrum
3 Jun 25, 2000 FedEx St. Jude Classic −13 (66-69-67-69=271) 1 stroke United States Chris DiMarco, United States Bob May
4 Jul 2, 2000 Canon Greater Hartford Open −20 (64-65-67-64=260) 1 stroke United States Mark Calcavecchia

PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)

No.YearTournamentOpponent(s)Result
1 1999 Michelob Championship at Kingsmill United States Tom Byrum Won with par on second extra hole

Other wins (1)

Results in major championships

Tournament 1999 2000 2001
Masters Tournament 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
Yellow background for top-10.

Summary

Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made
Masters Tournament 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1
U.S. Open 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1
The Open Championship 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 1
Totals 0 0 0 0 1 3 8 4

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur

Professional

See also

References

  1. ↑ PGA Tour Media Guide profile
  2. 1 2 3 "About Notah". Archived from the original on April 19, 2014.
  3. ↑ Begay Sentenced For Driving Drunk
  4. ↑ Begay Begins Serving Sentence
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