Williamson's single-minded focus: Playing at home
NORTON, Mass. -- It meant enough to Jay Williamson, once a board-banging bruiser as a college hockey player, that tears began to well up as he related his situation.
Saturday morning, after his frenetic, 15-month rally had almost certainly come to fruition, the emotion of the moment was evident in both the moist eyes and an Adam's Apple that danced up and down his throat.
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| Jay Williamson shot a 3-under 68 in Friday's first round before securing his place above the cut Saturday. (Getty Images) |
Last year, when Williamson heard that Bellerive Country Club would be hosting next week's tour stop, he was toiling on the developmental Nationwide Tour, having lost his card in golf's big leagues. Unrealistic as it sounds to the rest of us, looking back, Williamson vowed to do everything he could to find a spot in the Bellerive field.
Moments after finishing his second round at the Deutsche Bank Championship at 4 under, he exhaled like a guy who had just climbed an impossibly steep mountain and was running low on oxygen, which wasn't a bad analogy, really.
"You guys have no idea," he said, a phrase he used two or three different times afterward. "This was definitely the hardest round of my life."
After salvaging his career last year while playing on a rare sponsor exemption, Williamson shot a 1-under 70 on Saturday to all but clinch the most meaningful goal of his season -- playing a home game before his friends and entire family.
"For two years I have thought about this," he said. "It felt like Q-School on every shot."
Williamson, a glib guy who still lives in St. Louis and is the city's lone tour player, looked as though he had just been cross-checked into the boards by a sweaty defenseman. Blocking out the distraction felt impossible, he said, laughing.
"Unfortunately, I think too much," he said. "I'm not like one of these guys out here where that comes real natural for them. I have been doing this too long and am too old and I have too many kids."
Every shot was a nervous task. Consider the way he played the par-5 18th, while believing he was a shot or two inside the projected cut and unwilling to do anything reckless. The easiest hole on the course, he had 220 yards to the front of the green with his second shot, but instead grabbed a wedge and laid up with a 100-yard wedge, rather than flirt with the lake fronting the green. Then he knocked another wedge to within 16 feet and made the birdie effort.
Any other time, he was fully in green-light go-zone for an eagle, but not with this much riding on it. He played like a guy nursing a two-shot lead on the 72nd hole.
"I couldn't risk hitting 4-wood and hitting it in the hazard there and making a seven there. I don't know what I would have done with myself."
