(The Wayland Baptist Athletics Hall of Honor will induct Rosemary Brown Bowser, Alexey Carvalho, Johnny Cobb, Brett Cook and Andrew Williamson in ceremonies set for 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 in McClung University Center. The public is invited.)
Andrew Williamson considered himself a college golf project when he arrived at Wayland Baptist University in 2014. "My golfing achievements were nothing to write home about," he said. "I had a lot of room for improvement." But thanks to supportive parents, a dedicated coach and endless hours of hard work, Williamson transformed himself into not only a conference player of the year and four-time all-American but also an accomplished academic…in short, one of the most decorated golfers in WBU history.
Williamson's introduction to golf happened at a very young age due to his dad's passion for the game. "My father grew up right across from a golf course in South Africa. He used to jump over the fence late in the afternoons and go hit golf balls. I have a photo of him and I where I figure I could barely walk but I'm holding a set of golf clubs."
Williamson, however, grew to love field hockey and cricket. "As a boy I was convinced I would be a professional cricket player. In South Africa, you grow up playing pretty much every sport. I never really took golf seriously for a very long time. I really enjoyed it, but I only ever really played in the holidays." His interest in golf blossomed in high school. "I realized I loved practicing and loved playing, and I got into watching golf a lot more. That's when the seed was planted. I was hooked."
Williamson attended an "academically-demanding" high school and didn't get to focus on golf as much as he would have liked. "It wasn't so much that I didn't have the time to focus on golf. I was just so motivated to do well academically. Then when I finished high school, I was so excited for the opportunity to play more golf."
He enrolled in the University of Pretoria to pursue a general sciences degree, which he said is the equivalent of pre-med in the United States. But that plan didn't allow Williamson the opportunity to pursue his passion – golf. "My parents (Thomas & Naomi Williamson) could see I was itching to play golf, so they suggested dropping the course and just taking a year off in order to play golf and get better. They were so encouraging and instrumental. Without their encouragement … I don't think the opportunity to go to Wayland would have arisen."
Williamson liked the thought of playing golf collegiately in the U.S. where golf is "built into your schedule instead of the way it was when I started at the University of Pretoria . I thought that sounded really cool."
Just 2½ months later, Williamson was headed to Wayland after Coach
Tom Harp decided to take a chance on him. "My golfing achievements up to that point (weren't impressive), but for whatever reason, Coach was incredible enough to give me a shot. He could have very easily overlooked me and moved onto the next guy. I will forever be grateful to him for taking that chance."
Williamson was impressed with the program Harp had built at Wayland, including the roster of players when he arrived. "That first team was so experienced. Those guys were winners. I thought, 'What an adventure it would be to be a part of a team with those guys.' The culture of the team was one of hard work; there were no shortcuts. Coach had built this culture of wanting to achieve something collectively as a team."
That something was a national championship. "That's what we were always working for. With coach's competitive cycling background, he knows what it takes to perform at a really elite level. He did a really good job of making that (work ethic) fit into what we were trying to achieve."
Williamson said the competitiveness that existed between teammates – and friends – was both healthy and helpful. "Everyone wanted to beat everyone. We constantly pushed each other to be better."
Further, Williamson was driven by the fear of letting down the rest of the team. "All of us were such hard workers. If you didn't play your part you'd let the team down, and nobody wanted to do that. I think all of the individual accolades were a by-product of everyone pulling their weight to achieve as a team. We put in a lot of hours, but we also practiced with a lot of intent."
Not long after arriving at Wayland, Williamson's golf game started improving at an extremely rapid pace. He was named joint 2015 Sooner Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year (with teammate George Scanlon) before tying for 13th at the NAIA National Championships to earn the first of three all-national tournament honors. The Pioneers finished fifth as a team, still the second-highest placing in program history. Interestingly, the next three years WBU finished sixth, seventh and eighth at nationals.
One of Williamson's most memorable tournaments occurred his freshman year. The Pioneers had already won two of their first three fall tournaments and placed second at the other when they traveled to Florida to play at Trump Doral. "All of the big teams were there, including Oklahoma City. We won and were ecstatic. Flying home we were on the same plane as some other teams and had a big trophy we could carry onto the plane. It was a great way to close out the fall."
As a sophomore, Williamson secured the first of his two tournament titles against a loaded field at the San Antonio Shootout to open the spring season. He placed third at the SAC Championships and was named SAC Player of the Year before tying for 17th place at nationals.
Williamson remembers earning his first collegiate title in San Antonio. "I was starting to trend in the right direction but hadn't won yet, so that was special." But he remembers it more because the Pioneers also came away victorious as a team, one of the 10 times Wayland won with Williamson. This victory included finishing ahead of a "stacked" Oklahoma City University team featuring a fellow South African. "We were quite intimidated by (OCU), and we had quite a few new guys. Steven Diack (who won a tournament the week before) came down with food poisoning and couldn't play the final round, so we won with four guys. That was huge for our confidence."
As a junior, Williamson was second at the SAC Championships and tied for 12th at nationals, then as a senior won again at the San Antonio Shootout. "That was a lot of fun," he said of repeating his first victory from two years earlier at San Antonio. (By the way, Williamson also finished as a tournament runner-up an incredible nine times.)
In his final two tourneys at Wayland, Williamson led the SAC Championships after the first two rounds before settling for fifth place, then had his best career finish at nationals – a tie for sixth. It was at his last tournament – at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill. – where Williamson set the WBU record for lowest 72-hole score, a 2-under 282. Two tournaments before that he set the still-standing program mark for lowest 54-hole score, 14-under 196, at Primm Valley, Nev., where Williamson's lowest 18-hole score as a Pioneer – a 64 – came in the first round. He also recorded five 66s throughout his collegiate career.
Williamson finished his senior season as the NAIA's second-rated golfer with a 70.87 stroke average and – in addition to being a three-time finalist for the NAIA's Jack Nicklaus Award – was named to the All-Nicklaus Team representing the top 24 golfers across all collegiate divisions.
Williamson became WBU's second four-time all-American, after Michael Loppnow. In 2018 Loppnow became the second golfer inducted into the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor, two years after Kevin Stinson was the first.
Williamson, who graduated with a degree in business administration, also earned numerous national academic honors, including CoSIDA Men's At-Large College Division National Academic All-America of the Year in 2017 and twice Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete. He was named 2018 winner of the Roy McClung Award as WBU's top senior student-athlete.
That Williamson is the third Pioneer golfer in the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor is surprising to him. In fact, it's downright shocking considering where his game was when he arrived at Wayland.
"Somewhere in there I just became a better golfer. I adopted a mental mindset of working hard so I don't let the team down. Under the guidance and experience of Coach and the guys I was lucky enough to play with, I was able to benefit and started tapping into that and gradually getting better."
Williamson also attributed his success to his relationship with Harp.
"Coach and I had such similar approaches to the game, from a mental approach standpoint to practice to course management. They just aligned. I bought into his view 100 percent. Coach and I would have many discussions about course management, and he taught me a lot about not getting worked up on a golf course and how not to let a bad shot affect you. You just want to be unflappable. Someone looking from the outside in shouldn't be able to tell your score from your body language. It doesn't matter if you made an eagle or a triple-bogey.
"I also worked really hard on my game and started to see that pay off in (lower scores) and consistency. You need to have the full package: course management along with the mental and physical aspects. I controlled the controllables really well in college."
After graduation, Williamson played amateur golf for a couple of years then in 2020 turned pro, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. He played two years on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa and currently is playing on the Big Easy Tour, a development tour. "I'm still chasing the dream."
In the midst of pursuing pro golf he worked as a math and science tutor for high school and prep school students, and last year started his own tutoring business. It's called Optum, which stands for Optimizing Performance Through Understanding and Mentorship."
"I enjoyed (math and science) in school, believe it or not, and remember how rewarding those light-bulb moments were ."
Upon learning of his induction into the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor, Williamson said he was "speechless for a good few seconds. I had no idea what to think. I feel very honored and privileged to have been thought of by the committee. This is not something you intentionally work towards, so to receive the surprise phone call from Coach Harp was extremely special. If you told the 18-year-old me showing up to Wayland for the first time that he'd be inducted into the Hall of Honor 10 years later, I'm quite sure he'd have a hard time believing you."
