Notah Begay III (Navajo/San Felipe/Isleta Pueblos), Founder and Board Member

Notah Begay III, the only full-blooded Native American to have played on the PGA TOUR, was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Notah secured a scholarship to Stanford University where he earned a degree in Economics in addition to earning All-American Honors three times and leading the golf team to a National Championship in 1994.

In addition to winning 4 PGA TOUR tournaments, Mr. Begay become only the third player in the history of professional golf to shoot 59 in a professional event and partnered with good friend Tiger Woods in the 2000 President’s Cup.

When Mr. Begay is not on the golf course, he dedicates his time to positively impacting the Native American community. In 2005, Notah launched the Notah Begay III (NB3) Foundation. The Foundation works to battle obesity and diabetes in the Native American youth. In addition, Mr. Begay owns a golf course development firm and works exclusively with Native communities to develop world-class golf properties.

Mr. Begay was named one of Golf Magazine’s Innovators of the Year in 2009 for this philanthropic work through the NB3 Foundation and has also been named one of the Top 100 Sports Educators in the world by the Institute for International Sport. In 2012, he received the Charlie Bartlett Award from the Golf Writers Association of American for his contributions to philanthropy and his community through the NB3 Foundation. In August 2012, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation honored Mr. Begay and the NB3 Foundation with the Steve Patterson Award for excellence in Sports Philanthropy. He has recently become a golf commentator for NBC Sports and Golf Channel. Mr. Begay is also Foundation and Chief Executive Officer of KivaSun Foods.