Had someone told Mason Williams he’d finish tied for second prior to the start of last week’s Southern Amateur, the 2018 Bridgeport High School graduate surely would’ve accepted it.
Yet Williams described his feelings as “bittersweet” as he walked off The Plantation Course at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga.
Holding a three-shot lead entering Saturday’s final round, Williams carded an even par 71, which wasn’t enough to hold off North Carolina rising sophomore David Ford, who shot a final round 65 to finish 20-under par and best Williams by three shots.
“Going into the last round with a three-shot lead, I really wish I would’ve been able to pull it out, but at the same time, David played great golf,” Williams said. ‘I didn’t necessarily lose. I more got beat. Both are not fun, but it is what it is. You have to take the positives away from it.”
Through two rounds of one of the most prestigious events in amateur golf, Williams was without a bogey and at 14-under par. He shot an opening round 65 with six birdies, then followed it up with perhaps the best competitive round of his career — a 63 that featured six birdies and an eagle on the par-5 14th.
Although Williams made two bogeys during the third round, birdies on the 14th, 16th and 18th holes allowed him to get in with a 68 for a three-shot lead with 18 holes to play.
Williams made three bogeys and three birdies in the final round, during which he fired a 2-over par 37 without a birdie on the front nine.
“I hit it pretty much the same all tournament and hit it pretty well. In that final round, the putts just wouldn’t go in,” he said. “I only made a few putts over 5 feet. I didn’t hit it badly or manage my game badly or any of that stuff, but I missed some makeable putts and lost some momentum in that regard.”
Although Williams was unable to come out on top in his Southern Amateur debut, the Georgia Southern standout left with fond memories of the event in just about every way imaginable. A year ago, he had planned to play in it before suffering a broken wrist, which left him to caddy for a friend.
“It was a top notch event and one of the more fun events I’ve played in,” Williams said. “The Southern Golf Association does a really good job of running it and they treat the players really well. Food at the golf course, waters on the course, plenty of hospitality and everything is done in a really high class manner. The event was stacked with the caliber of players that were there. They do this new elite Amateur series that’s basically a culmination of seven events and this was part of that, so that was a great deal, too.”
Despite having won a college event each of the last two seasons for the Eagles, Williams felt his performance on a course that’s played as part of the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic was his best to date.
“Even though I finished second, it was probably the best I’ve played in an event pretty much up to this point,” he said. “If I would’ve won, it would’ve been the biggest win of my career. Even though I didn’t win, I still think it’s probably the best full tournament I’ve played, which definitely gives me confidence going forward.”
Not that Williams was exactly lacking confidence ahead of the Southern Amateur.
In his fourth and most recent season at Georgia Southern, Williams had six top 10 finishes in nine events, including his second career victory at the Thomas Sharkey Individual Collegiate.
Williams qualified for the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona by virtue of a sixth-place finish in the New Haven Regional, which featured an opening round 65. The first-team all-Sun Belt Conference selection finished tied for 20th at the NCAAs and was the 38th rated golfer .
“I’ve definitely gotten better each year I’ve played,” Williams said. “Taking that little break last summer to fall [with the broken wrist] definitely helped me in a sense that it gave me some time to think about where I wanted my game to go and how I wanted to rebuild.
“My game has definitely transformed a little bit into a more solid, consistent game rather than I got hold and cold there for a little while and was kind of sporadic. I’m still a little sporadic. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not afraid to make a few bogeys. But it’s definitely gotten a lot better in that regard and keeping myself to a standard about how I practice has helped me do a lot of nice things.”
More than any nagging pain, upon returning from the wrist injury, Williams’ main concern had more to do with rust and feel.
“Coming back after you take so much time away from a sport or anything, it’s going to be way different when you start again,” he said. “The biggest thing was getting my expectations down. I played 11 or 12 months in a row going up to whenever I broke it. I was just so wound up with everything going on that I had such a high expectation for myself to perform well, even though I hadn’t been performing as well as I had hoped to leading up to that point.
“After I came back, my expectations were completely gone and I didn’t really expect myself to play well, which I think freed myself up to allow good scores to come instead of me chasing good scores.”
Williams will not participate in the West Virginia Amateur starting next Sunday at The Greenbrier as he’s instead off to Illinois to play in the Western Amateur from August 3-6, where he will have an opportunity to improve his current position of No. 129 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
The following week, Williams starts his fifth and final year at Georgia Southern and will be one of four fifth-year seniors on an Eagles’ team that has high expectations.
“At the end of last year, I was thinking about how that would’ve been my last year and it was really weird,” Williams said. “Coming into this year, it’s kind of the same feeling. I’ve been there for four years and this is going to be five. Four years is a long time to spend at a program and a long time to do one thing. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re just excited to get rolling. We have a couple young guys coming in that are playing really well right now, so it’ll be a good year for sure.”