MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 10, 1999

Notah Begay III

NOTAH BEGAY: Inexplicable, the emotions. Just overflow of emotion, anxiety, bordering on -- I mean, I told my caddy on the 16th hole in the playoff, I felt like I was suffocating, just with the rain, cloud cover, the situation, which possibly led to the errant shot. There were a lot of things going through my head. Matchplay situation, anything's possible. It was weird now it was advantage Begay, then I hit short in the rough, and who knows what kind of lie I'm going to get, it goes advantage Byrum. He needs to get up-and-down, I needed to get up-and-down. It was a question of who is going to do it. Fortunately, I hit a great shot out of the rough, almost made it. I wasn't at green level. Did anyone see how close that was?

NOTAH BEGAY: Felt like it was close. Tried to end it there. Overall, you hate to see Mike Weir finish up like that. He played so well all day; didn't make any mistakes. The one time he made a mistake, it ended up costing him. He definitely deserved to be in the playoff.

NOTAH BEGAY: I think it depends a little bit on the golf course. If the golf course really sets up for you, I think it's easier to play in the lead. If it doesn't necessarily set up for your game, it's a little easier to play from behind because you really don't have anything to lose. I was looking at the board. I mean, in the back of mind, there's a lot of things. I'm trying to qualify for The Masters next year, that's a top 40 exemption. I need to be in the top 40. I mean, I wasn't at all putting myself at all in any position to try and make bogeys. I was just playing good, solid golf because I knew even if I tied for third, I might sneak in the top 40 at the end of the year. So that meant a lot to me. I also wanted to play smart percentage golf and give myself some birdie chances. I did those last four holes. The only shot that possibly was a bit aggressive, I went straight for the flag on 17. I hit it right at it, just a little short.

NOTAH BEGAY: Definitely. If you were playing with those guys, the way they were playing today, Mike and Tom were just solid all day. I had to make something happen. You're walking up to the 16 tee hole. I have these three holes. If you get a little too aggressive on 17, you can go all the way down and you're staring at making five. That's spending a lot of money. I was standing on the tee talking with my caddie. I said, "Well, what are we going to do?" I go, "We're going right here to win." I said, "I'm going for the flag." That's just kind of my tendency. I lean to the aggressive side more often than not. Sometimes it hurts me like it did yesterday.

NOTAH BEGAY: The hell with it. "If I don't make it, I won't make it. I've never been there, so I don't know what I'm missing (laughter)." The only other shot where I really felt like I took a chance was on 3. I went for it with a 3-wood, ended up making birdie, so it paid off.

NOTAH BEGAY: I wasn't choking. I just felt like I had a lot of anxiety, a lot of nervous energy. I was just trying to calm myself down. (Change in audio volume.) There's really no way to overcome it; you just go right through it. It's like driving through smoke; you just know what's on the other side and you have to go through and trust yourself, that you're going to steer straight.

NOTAH BEGAY: I was just trying to hit it right on that ridge, roll it. Just missed it on the first one. Just sets up good for me. Probably I missed two tee balls left, that was one of them, all week. I just was trying to ride that ridge. Hit down there with a wedge. The conditions, the way they were, you could just fire right at the stick. I was looking to (inaudible) it and make 3.

NOTAH BEGAY: Oh, yeah. I mean, no question. I was going to make him beat me. I was going to do my darndest to make a 4.

NOTAH BEGAY: Playoff hole. You don't want to give it away like that, put him in a great position. You've got to execute.

NOTAH BEGAY: I'm going, "This isn't happening." I mean, it's like (inaudible) almost. It's not happening. Professional golfers very rarely do that. Granted, you've got to take into consideration that it was probably the toughest spot on the green. Coming at that angle, at that slope, not to mention the circumstances that he was under. He's 2-putting (inaudible). I don't know where he stood on the Money List prior to this week.

NOTAH BEGAY: 147. I can only imagine what was going through his mind.

NOTAH BEGAY: Coming down the stretch. I mean, he just performed great. That was his only slip-up today, getting up-and-down, tough positions today. I mean, when you're fighting for your card, it's tough, it's really tough. One shot, two shots can cost you a lot of change.

NOTAH BEGAY: The horse throws you, you get back on it. That's the bottom line. You know your strengths. Sometimes you're going to mess up, and that's just the nature of the game. I'll look back on that as a learning experience simply because that was the wrong shot.

NOTAH BEGAY: You've got to get a straight kick. If it careens left, it goes where I went. But if you hit a straight kick, you get level par, hit a pitching wedge in, go right at the flag.

NOTAH BEGAY: Right.

NOTAH BEGAY: I'd say 25 feet.

NOTAH BEGAY: I'll tell you what, that's ecstacy (laughter). Lining it up, I asked my caddy -- I didn't ask him. I go, "Thom, to heck with good; I just want to be lucky once, just get lucky just once." I just said, "I just want to get lucky." I went out there and said, "Let's get lucky." It was magic.

NOTAH BEGAY: Don Thom, T-h-o-m.

NOTAH BEGAY: He's been with me all year. This is our first year together.

NOTAH BEGAY: No. The best way to hit that putt is not to be there. I mean, that's an awful putt to have. It's just at a bad angle because if you don't play the right break, it will hang out to the left. You need to have an eight- to 10-footer for par. If you try and ride the line, you run the risk of not making it up there.

NOTAH BEGAY: Oh, just exceeds my expectations by so much. I mean, I couldn't muster up a victory last year and four second place finishes. Lost in a playoff. To play against better competition, better golf course, to have two victories, I mean talented players in the field this week. I'm just overwhelmed.

NOTAH BEGAY: I knew I had the ability. The Nike Tour is a great preparing ground. I played 25 events last year, finished tenth on that Money List, four seconds, so I knew I had the ability to win. I know I have the ability to shoot low scores. That kind of equated to having the ability to compete out here. Better players, but I still think when I'm playing well, I can compete with most of the guys.

NOTAH BEGAY: You know, I know a lot of guys are in this game for different reasons. I've always been in it to win it. You prepare to win, you train yourself to be a champion, and when it does happen, you expect it to happen, you've been preparing your whole life for it to happen, and you're ready. Now, if it doesn't happen, that's fine, because everyone has to pay their dues. There's a learning curve involved. But I've got a great education. I could be doing a lot less stressful things right now (laughter).

NOTAH BEGAY: Economics.

NOTAH BEGAY: I want to win. Winning never gets old. You just keep working every week.

NOTAH BEGAY: That's just basically icing on the cake. It would be great, a great honor to be Rookie-of-the-Year, tremendous achievement, but there can only be one. I think I stated my case. It will probably come down to THE TOUR Championship.

NOTAH BEGAY: I began when I was six years old, just following my father around. He played in a business league after work, twilight league after work, nine holes every Thursday. That's how I got introduced to the game. In the summer, I would save up whatever spare change I could find until I got enough to buy a bucket of balls. I walked down to the course, which was about a half mile from the house, public golf course, buy balls, hit them, putt, whatever. It got to a point where I was about eight years old that I really wanted to work and practice more than what I could afford. I waited one night after the head pro got done closing the shop down, waited for him at his car in the parking lot. I said, "Mr. (Inaudible), my name is Notah Begay. You've probably seen me running around here. I'd like to work for you and you don't have to pay me any money. I just want to play and practice for free." All summer, I'd show up like 6, 6:30, when you're eight years old, you can get up at 6 (inaudible) unless the house is burning down or something (laughter). Got up at 6, walked to the course. 31 electric golf carts all plugged in. Pulled them all out, lined them up, arranged the keys in order in the shop, maybe pick up some buckets, make sure the range balls were there. That's it. I'd be done until the evening when everyone would be done using the carts, and they'd leave them in front of the clubhouse. I'd bring them in, take all the trash out, make sure they're clean, make sure the batteries had water in them, then park them in order, charge them. I did that all summer. It worked out ideally because I'd be done by 7, have breakfast, practice all day. Play, dink around. We had tournaments, one-day junior events. We used to car pool from the course at 7:30, so I could still work, go play in the junior event, get back by 6, do my job and go home.

NOTAH BEGAY: About 8, 8:30. In the summertime, probably closer to 9.

NOTAH BEGAY: L-a-d-e-r-a Golf Course, a public golf course (inaudible).

NOTAH BEGAY: I was like, "Wow." "Why don't you pull these carts out." We got one stuck in a ditch, but that's another story.

NOTAH BEGAY: Yeah, did it for free. I mean, looking back on it now, I got the better end of that deal.

NOTAH BEGAY: I did it every summer until I was about 15, then I started traveling, playing national junior events.

NOTAH BEGAY: I would say 14. I shot 65 when I was 15 years old in a tournament.

NOTAH BEGAY: He used to work for the Bureau of Indians Affairs. Now he's currently employed by the Indian Health Service, both branches of the Federal Government. It's basically a lot of his Native American coworkers were getting too old to play basketball, so they had to find something else.

(Audio lost.)