The Albuquerque golfer and analyst receives the 2026 Payne Stewart Award for his NB3 Foundation’s work supporting Native youth health and leadership.
Geoff Grammer, Journal Staff Writer
He’d rub a small strip of chiih across his cheek — just a little below each eye — before every match.
It was part of the routine for Notah Begay III.
The red clay (chiih in Diné bizaad) he donned in his youth was a symbol — an homage to a people he never asked to represent, and yet never shied away from when he was thrust into a position to do so.
So, when the narrative of that young golfing hotshot from Albuquerque started to grow to a level that reached thousands, maybe millions of people around the world — sometime around his All-America seasons and National Championship win at Stanford while teaming up with Tiger Woods — Begay had a decision to make about what he thought was a private, personal tribute.
“I stopped putting it on because the media started characterizing it as war paint, which it wasn’t,” Begay said.
Whether he asked for it or not, Begay realized he was one of the few — sometimes the only — actual representatives of a Native American community that hasn’t exactly always been afforded a flattering or fair portrayal in media, movies and history books.
