Big congratulations to Notah Begay III, who was just named the recipient of the 2026 PGA TOUR Payne Stewart Award — golf’s most respected humanitarian honor, given to a player whose career reflects character, sportsmanship, and a real commitment to giving back. If you’ve followed his work off the course, this one’s been a long time coming.
What to Know
- The award. The Payne Stewart Award recognizes a golfer’s character and charitable impact, not just their playing résumé. Begay is this year’s recipient.
- The foundation behind it. Begay founded the Notah Begay III Foundation in 2005. What started as a local golf program near Albuquerque has grown into a Native-led national nonprofit focused on physical activity, nutrition, youth development, and cultural connection. The foundation reports investing more than $10 million in Native communities and supporting over 85,000 young people over two decades.
- His background. A member of the Navajo Nation with San Felipe and Isleta Pueblo heritage, Begay captained Stanford’s 1994 NCAA championship team and remains the only full-blooded Native American to play on the PGA TOUR.
- Where the money’s going. The award comes with a $500,000 charitable grant. Begay directed $300,000 of it himself — $200,000 back into his own foundation, and $100,000 to the Albuquerque Community Foundation to support education, health care, and economic opportunity in his home community.
- The junior golf pathway. Begay’s foundation runs the Native Youth Golf Championship, a culturally centered national event where division winners advance to the Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship. A partnership with the PGA of America adds PGA Professional-led programming, PGA Jr. League scholarships, and career-development opportunities for Native youth across New Mexico.
How JGH Is Celebrating
This is exactly the kind of mission we care about at Junior Golf Hub — making sure talented junior golfers get seen, no matter where they’re from or what resources they have access to. So when this milestone hit, we wanted to do more than say congratulations.
As part of our ongoing partnership with the NB3 Foundation, we gave every junior athlete who competed in this week’s NB3 Native Youth Championships in New Mexico a free Player Development Index (PDI) assessment and membership, along with a Premium Junior Golf Hub membership. It’s the same technology thousands of junior golfers already use to measure their game, track their progress, and get in front of college coaches — now in the hands of every athlete at Begay’s event.
Roger Knick, our Founder and CEO, put it this way: “Notah Begay III embodies everything the Payne Stewart Award stands for — unwavering character, sportsmanship, and an extraordinary commitment to giving back. Notah’s vision for Native youth perfectly matches our core commitment to long-term athletic development. By putting PDI assessments and Junior Golf Hub technology directly into the hands of these talented young athletes, we’re helping demystify the college recruiting process, providing them with crucial visibility, and catching the attention of college coaches nationwide.”
For a lot of families, the hardest part of the recruiting journey isn’t talent — it’s access. Not knowing what a coach is looking for. Not having a way to put your game in front of someone three states away. Not knowing where you stack up. That’s exactly the gap PDI and JGH exist to close.
Congrats again to Notah Begay III — and to every young athlete now equipped with a little more visibility on the road ahead.
Photo: PGA Tour