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WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 7, 2004

Notah Begay III

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

CHRIS REIMER: 2-under 70, bogey-free round today, two birdies, what was your mind set coming into this round, a couple of shots off the lead?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Aside from hoping that I don't have another train wreck. I just tried to keep it really simple, hit a lot of greens and fairways. I know I can hit fairways, and just putting the ball in the middle of the green, didn't go for a lot of pins. If it went close, it was just because of the contour of the green kind of pushed it that way. I hit a lot of great shots when I had to and evaded the trouble when I needed to. I'm happy with my position.

Q. Talk about the conditions today versus yesterday. You said you didn't go for a lot of pins, but as far as pin placements, maybe, and just overall due to the weather, the impact.

NOTAH BEGAY III: Well, the golf course is, like I said yesterday, is progressively going to become more difficult. I think that's just the nature of it, with the conditions getting dryer. I think scores around par or anything in that range is going to be a good score through the weekend. Obviously there's going to be good movement tomorrow. I know what I'm in for the next two days. I think everybody else does, too, especially when you've got a guy like Tiger that's a tremendous front runner and you know he's not going to back up. Everyone has got to go after him. That's the reality of the way he plays when he's in the lead.

Q. How is your health? How has it been over the last, say, 6 to 12 months?

NOTAH BEGAY III: The last 6 months it has been really well. My training program intensified and I've been able to play and practice as much as I want. I put my body under a lot of duress over the last 6 months in terms of trying to challenge it physically in the gym and on the range, and it performed very well.

I haven't had any discomfort or range of motion loss, anything like that, that I was used to for probably two and a half years. Now it's finally -- it's one thing to be healthy, and it's another thing to believe you're healthy. When you wake up so many mornings and you're afraid to know because you don't know what's going to hurt that day, you have got to do it so many times where nothing does hurt that, gosh, you can actually look forward to playing golf.

I was at a point probably the last year or so where this was the last place I wanted to be. I didn't want to be on the golf course. It wasn't a happy place, I guess. Hopefully that's making a turn for the better now.

Q. Wasn't it your back and something else mixed in, too?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Just a low back injury, L-4/5 disk problem, and it just took a problem to get through.

Q. (Inaudible)?

NOTAH BEGAY III: It was annular tear, which is a micro tear on the outer lining of the disk, and it was causing some bulging through compression and rotation that was aggravating the nerves that were located in that area. That was restricting range of motion, causing inflammation and a lot of discomfort, especially when it's in that lower area. I mean, honestly, I never knew how much your back works to tee the ball up. I had to do that a lot.

Q. The only resolution is rest?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Right, and I tried to play through it. It was pretty much a nightmare, when I look back on it. I'd come out of 2000 and I finished 20th on the money list, and I'm exempt for all the Majors, and as a kid you're just like, gosh, I want to play in the Majors. You're finally exempt, but you can barely -- honestly, you can barely tee the ball up. It's like, do I not play. I mean, when you have an invitation to the Masters, do you not play. I mean, I went to the Masters and I almost fell over teeing the ball off five or six times because I was in so much pain. It's nice not to be like that anymore.

Q. Do you have a medical mixed into your exemptions from wins?

NOTAH BEGAY III: No, the provision is -- the way the policy is set up, there was no, I guess, recourse for my position because I had won so many times. I was exempt for five years, so I couldn't take a medical. So I basically lost a year of exempt status because it was just -- I kind of slipped through the cracks. I mean, nowadays, when a year of exempt status is worth a quarter of a million to $1 million, that's a lot to turn down, potentially.

Q. What did you learn about yourself? What did you pull from that?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I guess you resort to all those cliches, God only gives you what you can handle. If it doesn't break me, it will only make me stronger. It was just a trying time.

Q. You were 5-under and you talked about the train wreck, how do you go through the process of stilling yourself against those negative thoughts creeping in when you go out to play your second round?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I guess preparation alleviates stress, right? I know I'm as prepared as anybody, I've worked as hard as anybody, physically and mechanically on the range, and I just have to trust my method, and trust the fact that when I do step into a putt or over a shot, that everything that I've done and the repetitions in practice are going to be there for me when I need to reach down for them. I know I can handle disappointment. There's really nothing for me to lose and I just really need to trust that.

End of FastScripts.

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