| | Following the Dream:
A Mid-Amateur's Diary
April 15, 2009
Editor's note: This is the first in a series of
first-person articles about one man's quest to compete in a
USGA national championship -- the U.S. Mid-Amateur
By Robert Williams
Chapter 1 - Deciding to Play
 | | One-week-old twins Rhys and Flynn
Williams have already been signed up as USGA Members, as
has his 2-year-old adopted daughter Josephine. (John
Mummert/USGA) |
I am about to be 40 and like many other golfers my age, the
dream of playing on the PGA Tour somehow never worked out. I
played in mini-tour events and was an assistant pro at
Callaway Gardens in Georgia in my college years, but came to
realize two things:
First, I wasn't good enough. Second, the lifestyle would have
required a lot of personal sacrifice I didn't want to make.
So in 1988 I put my muscle-back irons and persimmon driver
away and did not play golf again until 1999. My youthful
logic being, if I can't play on tour I don't want to play.
I learned to play the game of golf working out of the bag
room and caddieing at Ardsley Country Club in Dobbs Ferry,
N.Y., in the mid 1980s, typically playing and practicing in
the twilight of late summer evenings. At Ardsley, I was lucky
enough to meet Evan Schiller, a local pro, and become his
caddie. Playing well, with me on his bag, he won the
Metropolitan Golf Association's Westchester Open and
Monday-qualified for several PGA Tour events in the
northeast. It was during this time I was exposed first-hand
to the thrill of a USGA championship, when Evan applied to
play in the 1986 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
 | | Robert Williams will have the
challenge of balancing golf and his infant twins in
trying to qualify for the 2009 U.S. Mid-Amateur. (John
Mummert/USGA) |
The sites we went to for the 36-hole regional qualifier were
Old Oaks and Century, two great old country-club courses in
Westchester County, N.Y. It was a dawn-to-dusk
marathon, and I will never forget the electric atmosphere
created by all the participants, friends and families and the
USGA officials and volunteers. From the anticipation on the
range to the nail-biting scoreboard watching at 8 p.m., it
was a pageant of human emotion. When it became clear that
Evan would qualify for the U.S. Open, there were tears and
cheers from all around, even from strangers who had just seen
this unknown local pro qualify to compete with the best
players in the world in the toughest golf championship on the
planet.
It was that memory that brought me back to the game, when my
career as a consultant in the New York construction industry
settled down in the late 1990s. I started playing here and
there and caught up with the childhood friend who taught me
the game. Living in New York City, not the best golf
location, I joined the Golf Club at Chelsea Piers to
practice. For those not familiar, Chelsea Piers is a
multi-level practice range built on an old shipping pier that
extends out into the Hudson River 250 yards, surrounded by a
200-foot-tall net.
 | | Williams could not qualify in 2008
because he was in the process of adopting his daughter,
Josephine, from Guatemala. (John Mummert/USGA) |
My quest to play in the USGA Mid Amateur Championship came
into being by happenstance and/or fate. In 2002, I
encouraged the capital construction consulting firm that I
work for to pursue the management of the USGA's announced
museum project - a major renovation of the USGA Museum in Far
Hills, N.J., and the construction of the Arnold Palmer Center
for Golf History. After my firm was awarded the project, I
got to know Rand Jerris, the Director of the Museum, who
encouraged me to regain my amateur status and attempt to play
in the Mid-Amateur. He reminded me that if I won, I could
still live my dream of playing in the Masters.
In January 2007, I filled out the application to regain my
amateur status and was reinstated soon after. My immediate
goal at the time was, as it is now, simply to qualify for the
stroke-play rounds of the Mid-Amateur. I filled out
the online application
, carefully selecting a qualifying site that I thought would
best suit my game. I practiced, played and tuned my pressure
putting in member guests to prepare for my first competitive
round of golf since 1988. The qualifying site was Olde
Kinderhook Golf Club, near Albany. I started well with three
pars, and then went on to shoot 90. Not bad for a 2.0
Handicap Index.
Last year, my wife and I were in the process of adopting a
little girl from Guatemala, so I was unable to make the
qualifying dates. This year we had twins - last week, in fact
- but my wife has graciously given me permission to make
another attempt. Somehow I don't think this summer I will get
as much practice time in, so I will have to develop a plan to
maximize the impact of the little time I will have. You just
have to remember, it only takes one good round to get in.
Applications will be released later in April for the 2009
U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, which will take place Oct. 3-8
at Kiawah Island Club's
Cassique
course. I look forward to filling out the form and giving it
another shot.
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