Healthy for the first time in years, Notah Begay III finally was on the winning side in his signature charity event, and it felt so good.

"Five years! Finally! Great!" Begay said Wednesday after teaming with Tiger Woods to shoot 9 under. "I had to get on my partner. He was getting a little lackadaisical out there."

Woods and Begay, longtime friends and former college roommates at Stanford, helped lead the American side to victory in the NB3 Foundation Challenge at Turning Stone Resort's Atunyote Golf Club in Verona, N.Y.

The 12-player field was split into two teams, with Woods and Begay serving on a West squad that also included PGA Tour players Rickie Fowler and Gary Woodland and LPGA Tour players Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson.

Woods and Begay took on K.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang in one of three stroke-play matches that were billed as an "East Meets West" challenge involving Asian and American players.

Woods and Begay beat Choi and Yang 9-7, Woodland and Kerr beat Danny Lee and Se Ri Pak 8-7, and Yani Tseng and former Cal player Charlie Wi tied Fowler and Thompson 7-7, giving the Americans a 2.5 to 0.5 victory.

The winning team shared $450,000, and Woods presented Begay a check for $500,000 for his foundation. Begay has raised well over $3 million for his foundation, which is dedicated to helping fight obesity and diabetes in the Native American community.

Begay has been plagued by back problems that have relegated

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him to playing only a few PGA Tour events and spending time in the broadcast booth.

Els' cause: Ernie Els finished up at The Barclays and hung around Long Island for a golf tournament equally important to him. Els, a regular in the fabled Pro-Member at Seminole Golf Club in Florida, wanted to start something similar to help raise money for "Els for Autism" and the $30 million Autism Center for Excellence he is building in South Florida.

He hooked up with Ogden Phipps II at Deepdale Golf Club to stage the first of what he hopes is an annual event. Els arranged for 40 professionals to play, from the PGA Tour and Web.com Tour, a group that included Cliff Kresge, who also has an autistic son. The players did not receive any money to play.

Sorenstam chosen: Annika Sorenstam has been appointed vice captain for the 2013 European Solheim Cup team.