At some point, Anthony Williams might need a bigger room for his trophies and awards. But right now, he'll settle for simply being around to collect them, regardless of where he has to store the darned things.Two months after a helicopter ride from one hospital to another to keep a date with a heart surgeon, Williams was named the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association Superintendent of the Year.
The award was presented recently during the association's annual awards banquet at The King and Prince Resort on St. Simons Island.
Director of grounds at Stone Mountain (Georgia) Golf Club near Atlanta, Williams has won several awards throughout his career including the GCSAA Excellence in Government Relations Award earlier this year. The Georgia chapter win capped a tumultuous period that tested Williams' faith like nothing in golf ever could. In August, his stepbrother Terry McWaters died of a heart attack, and a month later his wife, Phyllis, suffered one as well while the couple was on the road for one of Williams' many speaking engagements. Thankfully, Phyllis is recovering quite nicely. Less than three weeks after her ordeal, Williams himself fell ill at work, was transported to a local hospital and later that day transported by helicopter to another Atlanta-area hospital for same-day open-heart surgery.
"We were in the Lord's hands," Williams said during the awards ceremony. "It seemed very unlikely that I would be able to attend the annual meeting. We set a goal to not let that happen. God was good and rehab went well for Phyllis and I. Everything worked out all right. I have never been so blessed to be with you all and soak it all in."
Williams has a closetful of awards for his service to the golf industry. The 2009 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year winner, Williams has served on the Georgia GCSA board of directors since 2001. He received the GCSAA President's Award for Environmental Stewardship in 2010, was the overall winner of the GCSAA and Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Award in 2006 and twice was a chapter winner, and in 2012 published "The Environmental Stewardship Toolkit," a collection of best practices and ideas for the environmental management of golf courses.
"Anthony Williams personifies the maximum of every criterion we weigh when we consider this award," said Georgia GCSA president Mike Brown of The Standard Club. "The work he has done for his facility, for his association, for this profession, and for golf as a whole, establishes a new standard that stands as inspiration and motivation for the rest of us."
The award ceremony was preceded by the induction of this year's class of the Georgia GCSA Superintendent Hall of Fame: William Shirley, CGCS at Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta, Ron Sinnock, who retired in 2005 after a nearly 40-year career between Chattahoochee Golf Course in Gainesville and Coosa Country Club in Rome, and the late Bobby McGee, who in 1976 was the host superintendent for the only U.S. Open Championship played in Georgia.