Maginnes: The perseverance of Jay Williamson  PGATOUR.com Contributor If Hollywood had written the script Jay Williamson would have won the Travelers Championship on Sunday.  Jay Williamson banked $648,000 for finishing second. (WireImage) Unfortunately, though, Hartford is a long way from Hollywood. Not to take anything away from Hunter Mahan, who birdied No. 18 twice to earn his first victory, but the feel good story of the week was veteran Jay Williamson. At 40, Jay knew just how big a week this was. He had lost his PGA TOUR card a year ago and considered giving up the game. "But what was I going to do?" he wondered aloud. "Who was going to hire me?" So he rededicated himself and committed to the Nationwide Tour. Perseverance is as big a factor in professional golf as talent. Jay's perseverance paid off with his first career victory on the Nationwide Tour a month ago. Jay currently sits seventh on the Nationwide Tour money list and now he leads the non-member earnings list for the PGA TOUR. But Sunday wasn't about the practicalities of playing professional golf. For Jay it wasn't about earning a living and supporting his family. Sunday was about turning childhood dreams into real life. Sunday was about opportunity. After his third round 67, Jay said, smiling, "It is not like I have never been here before; it's just that I have never been here before." You certainly wouldn't have known that from his play. Jay shot his third 66 of the week in the final round. You would think that would have been good enough. After the round Jay graciously admitted that Hunter, "played better than I did today". But Jay Williamson fought bravely down the stretch. He took everything that Hunter threw at him. In the end Jay showed his true colors. While he may be playing the best golf of his career, no matter how accomplished he becomes he will always be a better person than he is a player. Unfortunately, this is not Hollywood. There was a touch of sadness in Jay's voice as he was interviewed after the playoff by Michael Collins of of the PGA TOUR Network on XM Satellite Radio. Listen to the XM interview He gave all the credit to Hunter for his great play. The sadness lifted from his voice when the interview was interrupted by Jay's children. "You guys want to go back to Flint -- remember the day care there," he said. The children cheered when Jay told them that they would be going there next week. Marnie, Jay's wife, and the kids were greenside on No. 18 when Jay's putt to win the tournament in regulation slipped past the hole on the left side. They were there 20 minutes later when his birdie putt in the playoff looked into the right side of the cup but didn't fall. They can be as proud as ever of their dad. He did great. Jay gives Marnie a lot of credit for the success. She has supported him for nearly two decades in this crazy life of playing professional golf on the fringes of success. The ending this week wasn't the ending that they, and countless more, were hoping for. However, they have each other to lean on to take the sting out. They have certainly endured harder times in Jay's tumultuous career. So, in the end, the hero of our tale didn't win the big prize. When the screen faded to black, he was walking with his family into a New England sunset while a celebration went on for someone else. But in true Hollywood fashion, he did get the girl. Of course, he would be the first to tell you that he couldn't have done it without her. |
