MICHELOB CHAMPIONSHIP AT KINGSMILL

October 9, 1999

Notah Begay III

NOTAH BEGAY: It's a great day. The last two days have been great. I've just been playing very, very solidly, making good swings, making good decisions. Just a couple unfortunate incidents which you don't like to dwell on, but hopefully I've gained some experience from those and I will use that in the future.

NOTAH BEGAY: Yeah. But, you know, I just like to test myself and see if I can come from behind (laughter). No, I would love to have a lead. There's only one word that can summarize that, and that's "rookie," rookie mistake. You don't deserve to have a lead making decisions like that. You're going to get unlucky. It's just the fact of the game. But don't make it worse on yourself is what I try to emphasize. I made it worse for myself. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

NOTAH BEGAY: Exactly. I'm a very aggressive player. I've always been aggressive, which is one of the primary reasons I can shoot such low scores at times. It bites you every now and again. If you can live with the disappointment and the disgust that comes with it, because it's easy to live with the 59s and 62s and 3s and 4s.

NOTAH BEGAY: That hole puts you in the mind set you want to make an easy birdie. There's no gimme's out here. On any given day, you got to still hit the shot and make the correct decision. I don't make any excuses for myself. I just made a bad decision. That's the way it is.

NOTAH BEGAY: I admit the night before Tahoe was a little tough. I had to really focus on what I wanted to do, mind set I wanted to have going into Sunday. But having been through that, I'm very comfortable right now with my game, my mind set and where I stand in the tournament. It's anybody's tournament. I mean, there's guys 5 or 6-under that might have a chance to win. They've got to have a great day. If I go out and play some solid golf, I'm in a position to --

(Audio lost.)

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