Begay earns GWAA’s Bartlett Award
PGA Tour player Notah Begay III has won the Bartlett Award, given annually by the Golf Writers Association of America to a professional golfer based on unselfish contributions to the betterment of society.
And the GWAA could not have found a more deserving individual for the award.
Begay, 39, will receive the award at the GWAA Annual Awards Dinner, April 4 in Augusta, Ga. The Bartlett Award is named for Charlie Bartlett, the first secretary of the GWAA, which has almost 900 members.
Begay, the only full-blooded Native American to play on the PGA Tour, founded the NB3 Foundation in 2005 to fight Type 2 diabetes and obesity among Native American children. In 2012, the foundation will launch a two-year study on the impact of holistic interventions to reduce obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Begay’s family has a history of service. His grandfather, the original Notah Begay, was a Navajo Indian who served on the front lines in World War II as a radioman working in military intelligence. The story of the 375 Navajos who served the U.S. government during the war was told in the movie “Windtalkers.” His dad worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Begay, who was born, and still lives, in Albuquerque, N.M., is a four-time PGA Tour champion. He attended Stanford University, where he was a college teammate of Tiger Woods.
Begay’s website, which includes a Native American health blog, can be found at www.notah.com.
The other award winners who will be honored at the April GWAA dinner are:
Luke Donald, Yani Tseng and Tom Lehman will receive their respective players-of-the-year awards based on their stellar play in 2011.
Maj. Dan Rooney will receive the William D. Richardson Award, given to an individual who has consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf. Rooney, an Iraq War veteran, founded Patriot Golf Day.
LPGA player Sophie Gustafson will receive the Ben Hogan Award, which recognizes an individual who has continued to be active in golf despite a physical handicap or serious illness. Despite her severe stuttering problem, Gustafson gave a heart-felt interview prior the 2011 Solheim Cup.
PGA Tour player Brad Faxon will receive the Jim Murray/ASAP Award, which recognizes a professional player for cooperation, quotability and accommodation to the media.
Wisconsin’s Steve Stricker won the Jim Murray/ASAP Award in last year.
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Editor Rick Pledl joined Killarney Golf Media in 1995. A longtime member of the Golf Writer’s Association of America, Pledl is also an award-winning outdoor writer. He previously worked as a freelance journalist and as a reporter at various daily and weekly newspapers in Wisconsin. Email him at 
