"Notah Begay III has always had a gift for the exceptional. In 1994, he shot a 62 in the second round of the national championships — the lowest score in the history of American collegiate golf. In 1998, he became the first player to shoot 59 on the US Challenge Tour and a year later evoked comparisons with Tiger Woods, winning twice in his debut season on the PGA Tour. So it should come as no surprise that the things we admire most about him begin with the night he is most ashamed of.

The month is January, 2000, he’s out on the town in his native Albuquerque, catching up with friends at a place called Billy’s Long Bar. Life has rarely tasted sweeter for Notah Begay — he has just banked $1.2m in his first season on tour, he has just returned from a film-shoot with Nike in Hawaii, and his invitation to The Masters is in the post. “One for the road, boys?” Why not? He steps outside into the cool night air and slips a key into the ignition of a Ford Expedition. He doesn’t notice the old Jaguar in the bay behind and reverses into the bumper. There are no witnesses, the car park is deserted, but Begay has always had a gift for the exceptional. He returns to the bar and inquires about the owner.

The police arrive and place him under arrest. The charge is aggravated driving while intoxicated. For anyone else, it’s a regrettable and embarrassing mistake, soon forgotten. For Notah Begay III, the most successful Native American golfer in history, it’s a catastrophe. He has betrayed his heritage and nurtured the thing he most despises — the stereotype of his people as drunken layabouts.

On his appearance in court, to the surprise and dismay of his lawyers, he pleads guilty to the offence and informs the judge of a previous DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) conviction in Arizona during his college days. The judge is amazed. It’s the first time she can recall a defendant being so forthright, but there is no provision for honesty in New Mexico law and she is compelled to send him to jail for a week on a work-release programme.

“I didn’t want to be another athlete with a lawyer getting off on a technicality,” he explains. “That just didn’t seem right. I made a mistake. I didn’t need a court to hold myself accountable. I didn’t need a judge or a lawyer to tell me what I did was wrong. I made a decision, ‘Okay, I understand the context of my mistake, now let’s deal with it’.”

Get the Story:
An American dreamer: Notah Begay (The Sunday Times 6/7)