Notah Begay III is one of the NBC Sports broadcast team for PGA Tour events, but his association with the game goes back over three decades.
Here are 20 things you may not be familiar with about the former PGA Tour pro.
1. Notah Begay III was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on 14 September 1972.
2. In high school, he was captain of the Albuquerque Academy basketball team.
3. He told Golf.com’s SubPar podcast that the team won the state championship, and that inspired the watching Stanford golf coach, Wally Goodwin, to offer him a scholarship for the golf team. Begay III explained: “We won the state championship and then he’s like, well, if this kid’s half as good as he is on the basketball court, I want him on my golf team.”
4. He is a former college teammate of Tiger Woods at Stanford University and a three-time All-American.
5. He was a member of Stanford's 1994 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship team.
6. He left the amateur game behind in 1995 and claimed his first win as a pro at the 1998 New Mexico Open.
7. The same year, Begay shot a 59 in the second round of the Nike Tour Dominion Open, and earned his PGA Tour card later that year.
8. Begay picked up four PGA Tour wins in less than a year, starting with the 1999 Reno-Tahoe Open.
9. Following those wins, he reached his highest world ranking – 19th, which he achieved on 20 August 2000.
10. He was a member of the winning 2000 US Presidents Cup team.
11. His best finish at a Major came with eighth at the 2000 PGA Championship.
12. Begay used a putter with playing surfaces at the front and back of the head. That allowed him to use a technique that became known as switch putting, where he would putt right-to-left-breaking putts right-handed, and left-to-right-breaking putts left-handed.
13. He is one of only a few Native Americans to have played professional golf.
14. Begay’s first name in the Navajo language means "almost there."
15. In 2005, he founded the non-profit Notah Begay III Foundation, whose goal is to provide health and wellness education to Native American youth in the form of soccer and golf programs.
16. Begay has had business interests including founder of NB3 Consulting in 2002 and KivaSun Foods in 2010.
17. Begay is the uncle of US National Women’s Soccer League player Madison Hammond.
18. In 2019, a junior championship was established and named after him – the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship.
19. In 2022, he made his PGA Tour Champions debut, finishing with a T67 at the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
20. Begay has worked as an analyst with the Golf Channel and NBC Sports since 2013.
