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FUNAI GOLF CLASSIC AT WALT DISNEY WORLD RESORT

October 20, 2005

Notah Begay III

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Notah, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Funai Classic. Great start to the week, and I'm sure you and Tiger had fun out there today. Why don't you just talk about the round a little bit and then we'll go on to questions.

NOTAH BEGAY III: It's simply been I mean, I haven't played very much this year, and I lost my fully exempt status, and so just kind of coming into the week, looking toward Q school as kind of a final destination for me, and just trying to get some repetitions in. Practicing and staying at Isleworth with Tiger and being around him, it's hard not to have some of that rub off on you, so I've always enjoyed that time. Today was just very relaxed, and I was very composed with everything and it just turned out real well.

Q. He's described you as being like the brother he never had. Why do you suppose you two knuckleheads get along so well?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I think it just has to do with we grew up through junior golf together and then we went to college together. I think being part of the same team over the course of time just really creates good friendships and strong bonds. As he got there, he was a freshman and I was a senior, so I had already been there for the better part of four years, and so I just kind of made sure that he knew everything that was going on from an academic standpoint as well as a golf standpoint what to expect.

Once he teed it up, he knew what to do (laughing), but prior to that, I felt like as the captain of the team that year, just looking out for my guy because it's important that we stuck together and we were trying to win another national championship. I think that's what we were really kind of basing the strength of our friendship on.

Q. How about culturally because you guys aren't the standard white kid from the affluent suburban track, too?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Yeah, I was trying to dodge the whole race issue, but since you brought it up, I think that has something to do with it. I think growing up in some of the AJGA events or some of the other events, that's the socioeconomic breakdown of the game. It has nothing to do with anybody having any sort of animosity towards anybody, but it's just simply we were the two dark guys at the tournament, and I think that kind of created a sort of underlying current that we kind of drew upon.

Q. I heard you had a nickname for him, Urkel, or did I read that wrong?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Yeah, I think a lot of the big brother concept, because I used to just really ride him pretty hard. I used to give him a hard time, and everyone was so in awe of his game, which I had a tremendous amount of respect for, but he was a freshman, and I'm going to ride the freshmen regardless of who you are or where you're from. He wore contacts at the time but when his contacts weren't in on the trips, he wore his contacts during the day, but I was probably one of the few people who saw him in glasses. When I walked out he was a skinny freshman in glasses, and I said, "you look like that guy Urkel." The more he hated it, the more I called him that. That's just how nicknames go. I think once he stops fighting it, it kind of died out.

Q. Did you have any nicknames?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I don't think you can write those ones.

Q. The short story is that it's been back trouble almost exclusively for you for the last three, four years now?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I really haven't had a healthy year since 2000, and I think it's just the nature of injury and the nature of being a competitive athlete. You want to hope for the best and never give up the fight and you think you're healthier than you are and you usually come back too early, and I've proven that through extremely bad performances over the last five years.

I mean, I've retained my card most of those years, but it's just not the way I play. I mean, I'm worried so much every week probably, I bet you 90 percent of the time these last five years I've been worried about just getting through the tournament physically, and you just can't play good golf out here. The quality of play is so high that you cannot do it.

You know, I don't know what's going to happen this week. Obviously I'm going to continue to work hard, but I'm looking forward to going back to Q school because it gives me a chance at a fresh start. I know a lot of people don't want to do that, but if that's where I have to be, then that's where I have to be. I've never been afraid to earn my spot out here.

Q. (Inaudible).

NOTAH BEGAY III: Well, I think my range of motion in my lower extremities are staying loose. I don't tighten up throughout the course of a round. So it's not so much how I get through the round but how I come out the next day that's really an indicator of where I'm at physically. Now I'm able to come out of rounds like today with a short stretching routine a little bit later and then be able to practice and be fine in the morning. Whereas over probably the last 48 months, it's been I would just get tighter as the night went on, and then I'd wake up tighter than when I went to sleep. So it was just a whole 45 minute warm up to an hour warm up just to get loose to play.

Some guys are putting in four to six hours on the course. I had to put in an hour before to an hour after just to play. After a while it wears you out.

Q. (Inaudible).

NOTAH BEGAY III: I just wanted to go out and not give in to the golf course. I mean, I know that it's a so called easy course, but I didn't want to take anything for granted. I putted very well and I made the putts I had to make. I hit some great shots on the par 5s to make eagle. I mean, I didn't make any long putts. They were both about 10, 12 feet, and I drove the ball well. If you look at my stats, I think I missed one or two fairways today, and when you have ball in hand and you're cleaning it, preferred lie, that's a huge advantage, especially when the greens are receptive. Me putting the ball in the fairway is just a great way to set up a good round. But you do have to make the putts, and I did today.

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Can we go through your round? You started on 10. You eagled 14.

NOTAH BEGAY III: Yeah, I mean, I hit a great drive in the fairway and then hit a 3 wood. I mean, I'm not as long as Tiger who hit 5 and 6 iron in there, but I just hit it right at the flag and it landed just short of the green and rolled up there about ten feet, made the putt left handed.

Q. Are you back to switch putting?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I am. Actually everything is left to right. Anything outside about 25 to 30 feet is all right handed.

And I three putted the next hole from about 35 feet.

It's a new putter that was designed by a guy from Vancouver or just outside Vancouver. It's a mallet style. It's got a really good center of gravity. I don't want to get into the technical part of it. Basically it allows me to set up very square to the target, has great lines on it and really puts a good roll on the ball.

It's reversible. It's a dual side putter. It's a perfectly symmetrical putter.

Birdie on 17, 115 yards to the flag, hit a three quarter wedge in there about ten feet, made the putt left handed.

No. 1, chipped it from just short of the green in the rough to about four feet.

3, birdie, 6 iron to ten feet. I made all my birdies left handed. That's strange.

Hit a 9 iron in there about four feet. Made it left handed.

Eagle on 7, 5 iron to ten feet, my only right handed putt I made today.

Bogey on 8, great bogey. Obviously I had a good round in a long time, so depending on that tee and nerves get going and you just start feeling things and I just hit the most horrible shot. I don't know if I hurt anybody, but it went right in the hazard and got up and down from I had to take a drop from the hazard and made a ten footer for bogey, which was probably my best putt of the day.

9, pitching wedge to about 15 feet and then made that left handed.

Tomorrow is a right handed day. Make a note of that.

Q. What's the breakdown again, the length

NOTAH BEGAY III: Anything inside about 20, 25 feet I go strictly off break. So left to right putts are left handed and right to left putts are right handed. When speed and distance are more of a higher priority outside that 25 feet, then it's just a right handed putt. More often than not you'll see even with some of the best players in the world that when you get fast greens, left to right putts, they miss them low. I don't know what it is, but every time I watch them, it's a continual kind of pattern. Not that I don't ever miss them low, but it just kind of lets me get under the break.

Q. Golf has become such a big time high profile sport. To a lot of us the scorecard rule seems a little archaic, having to keep your own score, sign your scorecard. What do you think about that rule?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I think this game has been and I hope it always will be grounded in integrity and honor. Keeping score is a symbol of that. It's a cornerstone of the game. It's what we pride ourselves on and is a self governing spot in terms of the players having the ability to call penalties on themselves. Keeping score is a symbol of us holding onto that tradition, and I hope it never goes away.

Q. You used the term "dark guys." Was there ever a time when you were playing junior golf or college golf that you would think that the two No. 1 money winners in the history of this game would be the dark guys, a Maori would be the U.S. Open champion?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I just think it's great how golf has grown to become international. I think that's the appeal of the game. I think there's really only two true international sports in the world, soccer and golf, where you get truly international players. We've got tremendous international presence here now, and I think that it's a great testament of the access that people have to the game across the countries, and I guess economic brackets. So now you're getting guys that play our Tour to make our Tour better and it makes our product better and it makes us play better. It's better for everybody.

Q. With the advent of the Asian player, are we over the hurdle of race in this game?

NOTAH BEGAY III: We'll never be over the hurdle of race anyplace. I think there's always a tendency for people to want to feel a certain edge or a certain sort of superiority, and historically that's been evident across many, many cultures and generations. But I don't know so much that it's prevalent out here or in golf because I think race and racism has to do more with the individual.

Q. What are your thoughts on there was quite a controversy in college football with using American Indian nicknames; the NCAA banned that. What were your thoughts about that?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Stanford changed in the '70s. I think it comes down to more the portrayal of the image. I think if it's a dignified portrayal, I don't see any problems with it. It kind of goes back to what I just talked about. It's not really what you call your team, it's how you conduct yourself through sportsmanship and goodwill because that's what sports are about. I think we miss that message with all of the money and all of the media that's associated with our sporting events these days.

It's not what you're called or who you represent, but it's how you treat each other on the field of play and how you conduct yourself when you represent those institutions. I think that's a little bit more important than whether you're the Indians, the Braves or whatnot. I think kind of like the Cleveland Indian, I don't agree with that portrayal of native Americans. But I think that the Florida Seminole does give a dignified representation of a Seminole Indian.

Q. Kind of a lighter note, I was wondering if you could walk us through your morning, what time you guys got up, if you had breakfast at the house, did you commute down here together and how the whole kind of frat boy/animal house thing is going at T Dub's mansion?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Well, at Chez T Dub as I call it, we've gotten up at 5:30 in the morning the last three days, because as you know he likes to like at 0 dark 30, and his house, his rules. That's what I always try and live by. So as a good guest, I got my butt up at 5:30 in the morning and we're out here. I'm looking forward to a nap this afternoon.

The routine goes like this: Everybody gets up, they try and appear like they're awake. Usually your shirt is not ironed, it's too early. Then we head to Starbucks to get a little bit of jolt there and a little Einstein bagel for the golf course, play our round in like three hours and we're out of here.

Actually we've just been caravaning, trying not to get sucked into that whole thing from high school. But it's tough sometimes.

End of FastScripts.

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