Walking to the
17th tee in regulation, Notah Begay was two shots behind Tom Byrum and Mike Weir
and prepared to play it safe.
With a good finish, he reasoned, he would climb into the top 40 on the PGA Tour
money list, qualify for his first trip to The Masters, and go home more than happy.
When he got to the tee,
though, his aggressive nature took over.
"I
told my caddie, 'We're out here to win. I'm going for the flag,' " Begay said
today after he made up two strokes over the last two holes of regulation to force
a playoff with Byrum, then won the Michelob Championship on the second extra hole.
Begay won with a 4-foot
par putt on the par-4 16th after he and Byrum took turns gaining the apparent
upper hand, then opening the door to the other.
"Inexplicable,
the emotions," said Begay, who won $450,000. "I told my caddie on the second hole
in the playoff I felt like I was suffocating with the rain and the cloud cover
and the situation. There were a lot of things going through my head."
Begay, the only American Indian on the PGA Tour, won for the second time in his
rookie season when Byrum drove left on the 427-yard 16th at Kingsmill, had to
chip it back into the fairway and left his 15-foot par putt short.
The playoff was the 10th of the season on tour, and the second of Byrum's career.
He also lost in a six-way battle in the 1994 Byron Nelson Classic.
"I thought I'd be happier going
into the week if I could just get in a playoff and have a chance to win. That
was my goal," he said after earning $270,000. "After getting beat in a playoff,
it doesn't feel as good as I thought it would."
Begay, whose drive was down the middle, left his approach just short, but chipped
out of the deep, tangled rough to about 4 feet and made the putt, capping a comeback
that started on the 71st hole.
Begay, two shots down heading to the par-3 17th, closed within one when he made
a 40-foot birdie putt while Weir and Byrum both two-putted for pars.
"I had to make something happen,"
Begay said of his aggressive tee shot.
On No. 18, Begay's drive stopped close to a lake on the left side of the fairway,
but gave him a flat lie and perfect angle at the pin, set on a tier on the back
right of the green. He again drew roars when he hit it to 20 feet.
Weir, who held or shared the lead throughout the round, had no choice but to lay
up after driving it right, then hit his approach to about 15 feet. Byrum's second
shot, from a greenside bunker, went about 10 feet past the hole.
Begay putts from both sides depending on the slope of the green, and he stood
over his right-handed, rolled it, waited and pumped his fist as it dropped, finishing
off an improbable 68 that turned the pressure onto Weir and Byrum.
Weir, a winner six weeks ago in his native Canada, then missed his to the left,
drawing groans from the gallery and ending his bid with a 70 and 275 total.
"I really let them in the
tournament. I had a lot of chances -- unbelievable chances -- to distance myself
and I didn't do it and they capitalized," he said.
"I
hit it close all day, but I just couldn't buy one," the left-hander said after
finishing third. "... I brought my 'A' game and I brought my 'D' putter."
Byrum, seeking his first
victory since the 1989 Kemper Open and assured a high enough finish to move him
into the top 125 in earnings, read his putt from the behind the hole, on the right
and behind the ball, then eased it in for a 68.
That sent both back to the 18th tee with 10-under 274 totals.
On the first playoff hole, Begay's drive came to rest on a sleep uphill slope
that left him no choice but to hit it back into play. He did, and after Byrum's
second failed to hold the back tier of the green, Begay's shot did the same.
Byrum had a chance to ice
it, but his first left-to-right effort up the hill reached the slope, rolled along
the edge and back down near Begay's ball.
"I
thought I took a fairly safe route," said Byrum, who could have won by two-putting.
"I just didn't hit it hard enough. ... It was a tough angle. I guess I was trying
to get it closer than what I should have been trying to get it."
Both then two-putted, sending them to the 16th.
Fittingly, in a weekend when the deep rough and hard greens of the 6,853-yard
River Course at Kingsmill made the event a battle of perseverance, Begay won despite
four bogeys, including the one on the first hole of the playoff.
Barry Cheesman closed with a 67 and finished alone in fourth at 276, with Nick
Faldo (67), Jay Don Blake (66) and Tom Scherrer (69) another shot back.
