Mr. George Williams

After being nonexistent for over a decade, the Coharie Invitational Tournament is making a return with some exciting changes.  Once a regular stop for many of the Carolinas’ top amateur golfers, this tournament is coming back better than ever.  Some of you veteran golfers may remember George, or perhaps even played against him.

With the invitational tournament returning this year, the tournament committee felt it appropriate to honor George by naming the tournament after him.  George serves as the honorary chairman of the George Williams 4 Ball Invitational Tournament and has been active in the planning and preparation for this event.

After completing his service to our country, George obtained his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He returned to Clinton to raise his family and establish a well-respected law firm.

George joined Coharie Country Club in 1947.  He won the club championship at Coharie in: 56, 59, 60-63, 65, 66, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75-79, 81, 82 and 87.  Altogether, he won 20 Club Championships in a 31-year period.

The responsibilities of raising his family and his work commitments made it difficult to find time for golf, but he did play sparingly in a few top amateur events in North and South Carolina.  George won at many of the invitational events he participated in against outstanding competition.

Amateur golf in eastern North Carolina in the 60’s and 70’s was largely defined by invitational tournaments.  George won multiple titles at the Jacksonville Country Club, Duplin Country Club, New Bern Country Club, Morehead City Country Club and Coharie Country Club.  At age 75, George won the Jacksonville Country Club Invitational over Keith Waters, a very prominent and successful golfer from Raleigh who was not even half George’s age at the time of the tournament.

In 1963, George faced Billy Joe Patton in the Carolinas Amateur Championship on Patton’s home course at Mimosa Hills Country Club in Morganton, North Carolina.  George defeated Patton on the first hole of a playoff.  In the 1954 Masters Tournament, Patton nearly made it into a playoff with golfing greats Sam Snead and Ben Hogan, missing out by one stroke. 

In his next appearance at the Carolina Amateur Championship he defeated Joe Inman, then an All American at Wake Forest University.  George twice recorded top 3 finishes in the Carolinas Senior Amateur Championship.  George enjoyed a remarkable amateur career and is indeed worthy of an invitational golf tournament bearing his name.