KINDER, LA – Koasati Pines at Coushatta hosted the 3rd Annual Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship, featuring the nation’s best junior golfers competing for the top honors in their respective class. This year’s tournament has grown, expanding into two separate tournaments: junior girls played Nov. 3-5 and junior boys played Nov. 7-9. The tournaments will air on Golf Channel: girls’ tournament will air Dec. 7 and boys’ tournament will air Dec. 8.
“It was inspiring to see Tiger Woods embrace his role of being a proud father to Charlie during his visit to the Coushatta Tribe,” said Coushatta Tribal Chairman Jonathan Cernek. “The importance of family and the strength of the bond between father and son could be felt throughout the three-day tournament.”
The Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship also provided Cernek the opportunity to present Tiger Woods with a cultural handwoven pine needle basket from his tribe. Woods thanked Cernek for the artifact as they discussed the love and dedication that goes into the handiwork, as well as the similarities of the basket to the work of other tribes around the country.
“It was a surreal moment to know that I was meeting and having a conversation with the greatest golfer in the world,” said Cernek. “There was a level of reverence that is hard to put into words after having watched Tiger dominate the golf world his entire career. As parents, we put such a high emphasis on teaching our children the valuable tools they need to grow into adults. It was in this moment that I saw Tiger Woods as a dad doing the exact same thing for his son. The inclusion of family, mentorship, and competition with one of the greatest athletes of all-time made for an exciting week at the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana.”
The Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship is in its third year and aims to grow the game of golf by providing a platform for players to compete against the best juniors in the country in a true, open qualifying series. The National Championship, hosted at Koasati Pines at Coushatta Casino Resort, will be televised on Golf Channel in prime time that will be airing over two hours of broadcast time, which has never been done before. These players will have a chance to be recognized on a platform like no other, increasing the chances to get noticed by college coaches around the country.
The Notah Begay III Junior Golf National Championship is open to boys and girls ages 10-18 who compete in one of the age categories: boys 16-18; boys 14-15; boys 12-13, boys 10-11; girls 16-18; girls 14-15; girls 12-13 and girls 10-11.
