NB3 Matchplay set for return with new field, same plan to showcase New Mexico

In the moments after Notah Begay III saw his concept become reality, he was asked a simple question:

Would you like to see it happen again?

“We just gotta go in and figure out what the next steps are,” the four-time PGA Tour winner said after the conclusion of the inaugural NB3 Matchplay last October. “But this was a success. And it would be great to continue to move forward.”

Move forward it has. After making its debut last fall, the NB3 Matchplay — a collegiate match play invitational created and sponsored by Begay, an Albuquerque native — is returning for a second year at Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo.

First announced in May, the two-day event (Oct. 7 and 8) will be broadcast nationally via Golf Channel for three hours each day. Begay, who also works as an on-course reporter for NBC Sports, said he received “a lot” of positive feedback regarding last year’s broadcast, one that prominently featured scenery from the coinciding Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

“We approached it from the show-as-much-golf-as-possible angle, (telling) great stories and (telling) people something that they don’t know,” he added during a news conference Monday. “For a lot of our viewers that aren’t from the Southwest … they learned something about New Mexico. And that’s something that’s very, very important to me as kind of a de facto representative (of the state) over the last 20 or 30 years.”

But if the broadcast approach remains the same, the teams have not: New Mexico and New Mexico State return to this year’s men’s field while Oregon and UNLV enter the fold. The women’s field will also feature both in-state schools and a pair of newcomers in Texas A&M and Arizona.

Last year’s field featured UNM, NMSU, Texas and Stanford’s men’s and women’s teams; the Aggie men and Longhorn women claimed the 2024 NB3 titles.

Begay said he wanted as “diverse” a group as possible for the 2025 field, with a lean toward schools that don’t play in New Mexico often. Schedule availability helped narrow the field down to its final form.

“Then it takes personal relationships and some discussions back and forth to sort of just get them to understand the importance of the event and just how big it is,” Begay added. “Many of the coaches across the country that did see our event thought it was the best broadcast event on the college golf schedule.”

Perhaps the most notable personal relationship: Begay’s longtime friendship with Oregon head coach Casey Martin. As teammates at Stanford, the two helped revive the program and led the Cardinal to its seventh national title in 1994.

Oregon’s Aiden Krafft — an Albuquerque native and Cibola High School graduate — is also set to return to the course where he shot a final-round 60 to claim his second NMAA 5A state title in 2022. Krafft earned second team All-Big Ten honors as a junior with the Ducks last season.

“My coach did it for me — Wally Goodwin brought me back to play in the Tucker Invitational (at UNM) my senior year,” Begay said. “That’s how I convinced (Martin) to bring the Oregon Ducks here. I said, ‘hey, you gotta pay it forward and bring Aiden back, because this is where he’s from.”