George Williams 4 Ball Invitational Tournament

History of the Tournament

During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Coharie Country Club played host to some of the most competitive invitational golf tournaments in North Carolina. Golfers from all over the state would travel to Clinton to compete for the trophies in individual and four ball formats. The landscape of golf tournaments would begin to change in the 1990’s and other local invitational tournaments at clubs in eastern North Carolina would soon be a memory of years gone by. Veteran golfers at Coharie Country Club would reminisce about the glory days of the Coharie Invitational and how much they missed the competition and the friendships made on the course. On occasion some of the younger golfers around Coharie would remark how great it would be to revive the concept of an invitational tournament.

This was the topic of conversation on many afternoons playing in “The Group” at Coharie Country Club. After years of hearing this conversation, I decided it was time to do something about this topic or to put it to rest forever. I would spend many rounds of golf playing with Bob Yow and others discussing the possibility of making a return of the invitational tournament a reality. During these discussions many reasons as to why it could and couldn’t be done were bantered around. Finally, one afternoon in the fairway on the eight hole at Coharie, I asked Bob, “Why can’t we do an invitational and name it in honor of Mr. George Williams?”

Mr. George Williams was always in contention for the championship trophy in all of the invitational events held at Coharie fifty years earlier. A decision was made to approach Mr. Williams and ask his permission to use his name in association with the rebirth of an invitational tournament. In true Mr. George style, his initial response was: “No, I do not think that would be appropriate. There are many more golfers that are much more deserving of that honor than me.” I asked that he think about it for a few days and discuss it with his family. His daughter Venetia and Bill Nance talked to him. A week later, his response had changed to: “If it will help get the invitational started back and it will help promote the event, I will be deeply honored to allow you to associate my name with it.” That afternoon in June 2018, the George Williams Four Ball Invitational became official.

Now that we had an invitational tournament with an official name, I felt like the dog chasing the truck. Now that I have caught the truck, what am I going to do with it? Bob suggested that the Carolinas Golf Association already had the template in place as to how tournaments should be conducted. He suggested a meeting with Jack Nance to discuss ideas. This was special given that Jack and his brother Bill had grown up next to George in Clinton. On a rainy December morning, Bob and I traveled to the CGA Office in Southern Pines to meet with Jack Nance and Rusty Harder. During the nearly three hour meeting as to how the CGA was conducting its championships many things were discussed. It was evident that this was more complicated than I had imagined, and it became revealing as to why some of the invitationals were no longer being conducted. The world of competitive amateur golf has changed in the last half century. On the way back to Clinton after the meeting, Bob asked me: “Now do you see why you can’t pull this off?” Without a second of indecision, my reply to Bob was, “Nope, we are going to make this happen.”

From that day forward with the help of the CGA staff, fellow golfers and staff at Coharie, and some highly accomplished golfers to spread the word about what we were trying to accomplish, the George Williams Fourball Invitational was off and running. A date for the invitation was set for September 14-15, 2019 and the preparations began. By the end of August, 38 teams of the 40 team events had entered, and we were looking forward to the event in two weeks. All of the planning and work was then challenged with the arrival of Hurricane Dorian on Wednesday, September 5th. Dorian left tree damage and dumped excessive rain thus making the course unplayable. The tournament then had to be postponed until October. This date change caused nearly half of the field to withdraw due to scheduling conflicts. Much work was done to schedule additional entries, and the event was played with 32 teams participating across three divisions.