MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 7, 1999

Notah Begay III

NOTAH BEGAY: Just pretty surprised. Playing that well under those conditions. If you look at the scoreboard, everyone is struggling. When you have players of this caliber not able to shoot low scores and the greens are that receptive, you know that the condition must be windy and swirling winds and gusty, and a little cold, too.

NOTAH BEGAY: I just stayed away from bogeys. I only made one bogey, which was on the 18th hole. And looking back on that, that's a great day when the conditions are unpredictable as they were today, and you can walk away with one bogey. That's a successful round, in my opinion.

NOTAH BEGAY: Quite a bit more. You start getting paired with other winners, and major winners, and the last few weeks I played with guys that have won like Elkington and Faldo and Strange. And that elevates your game, because you know you've earned the right to be there. And it gives you a little bit more confidence standing over particular shots that may have presented you with a little difficulty, if I hadn't have won, and if I was still struggling to retain my card or something like that.

NOTAH BEGAY: Well, probably on the first hole when it was a little cold, hadn't quite woken up yet and I hit a great drive and then I had the 4-iron about 30 feet short of the pin, and it was just -- it woke me up.

NOTAH BEGAY: No. I turned to my caddy and told him, "It's going to be a hard day, let's bare down and see if we can shoot right around par somewhere." I made a birdie on the par-5. And made a great birdie on 16, hit it in there about 4 feet and just played great.

NOTAH BEGAY: I had an 8-iron.

NOTAH BEGAY: 15 I hit a driver and then a 5-iron to about 40 feet and 2-putted. And 16 I hit a driver, 8-iron, four feet. And par-5, three, hit -- laid up, had about 75 yards and needed about 25 feet past the flag and made it. And par-3, five, hit a 5-iron three feet. . .

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