FEDEX ST. JUDE CLASSIC

June 29, 2002

Notah Begay III

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: We will go ahead and get started. Thank you Notah, for joining us. A round of 68 today. Probably not the way you would like to finish. But you still had a good effort. Good position still to hang in there. Why don't you make a couple comments about going into tomorrow.

NOTAH BEGAY III: Well, I have experience chasing down leads. Hartford last year. I think it was three or four shots, something like that. You would have to check the records. I really wanted to get into that last group. And that was really my focus going to the last hole, just to make a par. Because I knew that par would be a good score and I think 15. But I don't think I was the first 15 in or 14 in. I think Petrovic, right? So I mean, I'm going to be in the second group or second or third group. And that make as little bit of a difference. Because you know that somebody that hasn't won yet is going to be nervous. They're going to be trying to sort of achieve another level in their career. And so hopefully you would like to be there to capitalize on any mistake that they make. But I'm going to have to do it from a couple groups ahead or a group ahead. And so I guess a lot of that will be predicated upon the fact of whether Glen's a scoreboard watcher or not. If he's not, then he's just going to kind of the of let fate take its course.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions?

Q. Are you a score board watcher?

NOTAH BEGAY, III: Oh, yeah. Definitely. I like to know what I need to do when I need to do it. And I think if you're able to take in the information and not let it have an adverse affect on your performance, one way or the other. But I like to know where I stand. It helps me to get a better picture of what needs to happen in the next few holes.

Q. Somebody who hasn't won, can they ever be safe from somebody who has, from somebody who knows that, can they ever be safe from a guy like you or David Toms who has experience winning?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Well, I know for a fact that there's going to be nerves. It's just a fact of life. Everybody who has won, everybody who has been there knows that. Now it just depends on how Glen handles it. He handled it great today. It didn't look like it affected him in the least. But I know that there's going to be some times when he might have to deal with some negative thoughts. And we're sort of going to be chasing the rabbit, so to speak.

Q. Were you surprised to see his number just, it didn't diminish, in fact, it just kept going down?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Yeah, he played a tremendous round. Stayed composed and seemed like he really has a good handle on his game. So that's going to make it a little bit harder.

Q. Do you do anything extensive before your round, before you warm up in terms of your back any more?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Not really. It used to take me about 45 minutes of preparation to walk on the range. As far as some cardio, stretching and then a little bit of different exercises to try and get the muscles to fire. Now it's about 10 or 15 minutes and you just go. So it's, I'm at a point where I'm very happy.

Q. Have you had to give up other -- I know you grew up playing soccer and basketball. Have you had to give up those because of this injury at all?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Oh, definitely. But I think that the major reason why I gave those things up is because I was really bad at them. So I think that had more of an influence on that than my back.

Q. How pleased are you to be in this position, four strokes back and have a chance to try to chase it down tomorrow?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I'm elated. I've got nothing to lose tomorrow and everything to gain. So it's basically going to be a long day. I'm going to put myself in position. I'm playing well. And I'm going to try and give myself as many chances to make birdie as I can.

Q. What's the schedule from here on out after here?

NOTAH BEGAY III: I'll play next week and then I don't know, unless I qualify for the British Open versus the five tournament exemptions or the top eight non-exemptions next week, I'm not planning on going, so that would be the only change in plans.

Q. How does this compare to, your feeling, going into the final day compared to a couple years ago when you won?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Very similar. Except I was, I think, leading at that time. So I'm the hunter, not the hunted. And it's fun. Fun both places.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Can we go through your birdies and bogeys, please.

NOTAH BEGAY III: Yes. Birdie on 4 was a 6-iron to about 20 feet.

Birdie on 5 was a 2-putt from about 50 feet.

Bogey on 9, missed the fairway, tried to lay up, pitched out right of the green and didn't get up-and-down.

Let's see, birdie on 13 was a pitching wedge. To about 12 feet.

Birdie on 14 was a 4-iron to about six feet.

16 was up-and-down from the bunker.

And then 4-iron in and just hung it out right and didn't get up-and-down from the right bunker.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Any more questions?

Q. Just wondering, when you were going through the process of missing the cuts, did you get a lot of encouragement from fellow pros, from anyone?

NOTAH BEGAY III: Yeah. I think every single player out here has endured some sort of injury at some level. And they have been extremely supportive, and the ones that have sort of endured more severe injuries were even more supportive. And they knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel. And so that sort of gave me a little bit of inspiration. But also they would give me good feedback on my golf round after. Even though I was shooting like maybe 3- or 4-over, they would reassure me that it wasn't too far off. Which was a confidence builder for me. When you're trying to find any little positive thing.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, good luck tomorrow.

NOTAH BEGAY III: Thank you.

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