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WACHOVIA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 6, 2004

Notah Begay III

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA

CHRIS REIMER: Notah Begay with a 67. Great score to open the tournament. You've missed a couple of cuts lately. It's got to be good to go out and get a solid round under your belt.

NOTAH BEGAY: You're being nice. I've missed quite a few cuts and really only played well once this week. I think it's sort of the culmination of acquiring a healthier back. I mean, I injured it at the end of 2000, and my gosh, it's taken forever. It's just been a struggle, but I just try to keep my head up and nose to the grindstone. It's nice to get off to a good start like this. I know it's not a guarantee to play well the rest of the week, but for me it's a building block.

Q. On 18, that second shot, what did you hit there and how did it feel to finish off with a birdie on the final hole?

NOTAH BEGAY: It's interesting, when you get momentum going certain things seem to fall into place. That second shot was a 5-iron, and it just as easy could have stuck up on the fringe, because it rolled on the first cut of fringe. The way things were going this year, I was expecting it to stay up there, and it rolled right back to the hole. On top of that, Scott McCarron was perfectly on my line. He had a perfectly judged putt. His putt rolled three or four inches past the hole and it gave me a perfect read, so I didn't even have to read my putt. It was nice to have things fall into place like that for me and I took advantage of it.

Q. I gather what you're saying is, you didn't see this round coming. Can you talk a little bit what felt different today than in some of your previous tournaments?

NOTAH BEGAY: I guess coming back off an injury, your mind has experienced success and higher level performance, and then once the body can't follow what the mind is used to, you start to lose confidence and you start to acquire this negative database of shot outcomes and score results, and it just eats away at your confidence.

There are a few things -- there's nothing to rely on. Out here, against the best players in the world, you need to have a little confidence. I just have been struggling with that part of my game. I've literally been trying to go out and put two nine hole sides together, because it's usually one or the other. I had a great side, front nine today, and I come out and double bogey the 10th hole. All I wanted to do was get back to even par, play my own little game within the game. It feels really, really good to shoot a good round.

Q. Have you regained any of your length? It looked like last time you played you lost a little bit of your length off the tee, and how does this course suit your eye?

NOTAH BEGAY: The last two years I've been in the Top-30 in driving accuracy. Any time the course demands accurate tee shots, I really like it, even more so when you're required to think and position your ball in the right spot. I feel I'm very comfortable with course management and that aspect.

As far as my driving distance is concerned, last week -- the last week I played Houston was the first time I was in the top 100 in driving distance for the week. Granted I missed the cut, but that was an indicator to me that my strength and speed was coming back. And now I feel like I'm over the ball and can make a comfortable move through it and produce adequate distance and not feel I was jumping at it all the time, which I was when I was hurting.

Q. (Inaudible)?

NOTAH BEGAY: Well, actually, it's not anything I worry about anymore. I started working with a new trainer two years ago and we've implemented a strong base of course strength exercises that secure my ab muscles through a range of motions. In fact, we've actually taken the program and helped out Stanford's golf team with it, because I feel that -- what we did is we reverse-engineered it. When I got hurt, what were the steps leading up to the injury and how can we prevent that from happening in future golfers.

Now I'm training harder than I ever have in my career, I'm in better condition, I'm stronger, and so I'm producing the distance I need to with a controlled effort.

Q. A lot of people were saying this course was playing really long. Are the greens more receptive? Are they soft?

NOTAH BEGAY: The greens are soft. From what I understand, they had a lot of rain this weekend. Unfortunately, that's going to cause the scores to go lower, but I think it will all even out once it dries out a little bit.

Q. There's been a lot of analysis and overanalysis about Tiger's game. Supposedly he's a little bit down right now. Talk a little bit about how he responds when he's either -- people are doubting him. Whenever somebody challenges him or people doubt him, he always seems to have an answer in the bag somewhere.

NOTAH BEGAY: I don't know how a guy like that -- I mean, I think the media, in general, has tendency to overanalyze and they continue to ask this question when time after time he's proven that when his back is against the wall he plays great. He's a performer. He is a fighter. That's what's afforded him to use his talent to revamp the game and reinvent certain things that none of us -- I mean, I've seen him hit shots no one else can hit, not even if they wanted to.

Q. In light of what you just said, do you expect a little flurry out of him soon, whether it's this week or at the U.S. Open?

NOTAH BEGAY: I never worry about him. He will take care of business when it needs to be taken care of. That's how he's always been, and that's how he was at Stanford and that's how he's been when he's out here. If he weren't out here, we wouldn't have anything to talk about.

Q. What is the hardest U.S. Open course you've played?

NOTAH BEGAY: Pebble Beach in 2000, no question, the hardest golf I've ever played in my life.

Q. What made it harder than say Southern Hills or --

NOTAH BEGAY: Well, when the person you are trying to catch is like 20-something ahead of you, that makes it hard. But it was like a combination of two things, the fairways were fast, and when they're pitched like that at Pebble, you've got to work the ball. And the greens and the rough, the greens were at adequate speed, but the rough was so thick. If you couldn't hit the fairway, there was no way you were going to hold the green.

It really was a tremendous test of golf. Obviously if you take -- there's a couple of Major Championships that if you would have taken Tiger's score out of it, when he set the record at Augusta and in 2000 at the U.S. Open, and possibly St. Andrews, as well, it would have really been a great tournament, because par was a significant accomplishment.

I remember on the Friday of that week I think I shot even par to finish at like 6 over or something and I made the cut on the number, because the wind kicked up and -- I mean, it was a hard, hard venue that year.

Q. (Inaudible)?

NOTAH BEGAY: I just didn't give up. I mean, just mentally I kept playing golf and I didn't analyze shots. I mean, there was quite a few bad shots I hit, but I didn't really get down on myself, and I think that's the one thing that's been hard for me in the last few years, is I've been so hard on myself.

Q. (Inaudible)?

NOTAH BEGAY: I don't even remember. I've only played here once. I don't remember the hole too well.

CHRIS REIMER: A birdie on 2, par 3.

NOTAH BEGAY: 7-iron to about 12 feet.

Par 5, No. 6, I laid up, hit a pitching wedge to about eight feet, made that.

No. 8, par 4, I hit driver off the tee and then hit a little pitch shot in there about a foot.

10, I hit my drive way right, got an okay lie, and then tried to get too cute with it and hit it about 20 yards and then pitched out into the rough and then just short of the green and chipped past the hole and lipped out for 6.

CHRIS REIMER: 13, 14 15, three straight birdies.

NOTAH BEGAY: 13, 4-iron to about six feet.

And then 14, hit a wedge about 10 feet.

And then 15, hit a pitch shot about three feet.

18, hit driver, 5-iron, to about 15 feet, something like that.

CHRIS REIMER: Thanks so much.

End of FastScripts.

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