Sport

Begay is back on track

Notah Begay observed recently that "the road to any tournament goes through Tiger Woods's driveway

By DERMOT GILLEECE
Tue Jun 27 2000 - 01:00

Notah Begay observed recently that "the road to any tournament goes through Tiger Woods's driveway." Fortunately for him, the world number one was out of town when he successfully battled for the FedEx St Jude Classic title in Memphis last Sunday.

With a 13-under-par aggregate of 271, he won by a stroke from Bob May and Chris DiMarco. Begay, a native American who was a fellow student with Woods at Stanford University, was gaining his second US tour triumph, having broken through in the Michelob Championship at Kingsmill last October.

That particular effort earned him a place in the World Matchplay at Wentworth. Europeans observers were fascinated to see him use his unique, right and left-handed putting method to splendid effect in a 4 and 3 first round win over Jose Maria Olazabal, before losing to the eventual winner, Colin Montgomerie in the quarterfinals.

More recently, he gained notoriety for spending seven days in jail last March for a drink-driving conviction. "After going through my personal ordeal, I didn't know if I would ever regain my form," he said. "To be able to get back into contention was great, especially when it was nip and tuck over the last two, three holes."

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He went on: "It's very refreshing to have won this way. It lets me know I'm back to playing good golf again." He then attributed considerable credit to his younger brother Clint, who began caddying for him a month ago. "Clint doesn't help with yardages or read putts, but it's more fun just having him along," he said.

Through his victory, Begay became the 15th winner to come from behind on the final day in the US this year. And he and Paraguay's Carlos Franco share the distinction of being the only rookies from 1999 to have gained tournament victories in successive years.

As an interesting aside, former US Open champion, Curtis Strange, was set to play with a marker in the first group into action on Sunday. But he chose fellow ABC television broadcaster, Ian Baker-Finch, the 1991 British Open champion, as a marker and shot a one-under-par final round of 71.