Golf: Paul Williamson adjusts game, remains one of County Am favorites | Sports

One thing time hasn’t changed about the Holmen man, however, is the high level — he remains as good as anyone in La Crosse County — at which Williamson continues to play at.

When the first swing of the La Crosse County Men’s Amateur Golf Championship is taken at The Golf Club at Cedar Creek Saturday morning, “Willy” will be on the favorite’s list once again.

And when the 36-hole tournament wraps up late Sunday afternoon at Drugan’s Castle Mound, it’s a good bet his name will be near the top — or perhaps even at the top — of the leaderboard.

When you’re a seven-time County Am champion — aka the Tiger Woods of area golf — being a favorite comes with the territory.

With two-time defending champion Joe Weber trying to make it three straight titles, and young guns Josh Dirks, Ben Skogen and Tyler Church in the 29-player championship flight field, Williamson knows he’s for a stiff challenge.

“I still have the competitive edge. Anybody I play, I want to beat them,” said Williamson, whose first County Am championship game in 1993, and his latest in 2015.

“I would like to win some more. My mind says, ‘yes,’ but it’s if the body can do it. I was playing recently with Joe Loomis and I hit a bad shot. He said it was ‘part of age.’ I don’t want to hear it.”

Williamson admits his distance off the tee is about 260 with “an occasional 270 or 280,” but that’s considerably shorter than the younger players, who bomb it 300 to 310, even 315, off the tee. It has forced him to modify his game, certainly his strategy, in order to remain competitive with players 30 or more years younger than himself.

“It is kind of funny. I have been hanging around zero handicap again, so my game is right there. My game is totally different than the young guy’s game. They hit it a mile,” Williamson said.

“I am 50 yards behind these guys on the tee shots, so my focus is on the short game, the irons, making putts. Even though it’s fun to watch them bomb it, I have to play my game versus those guys.”

Williamson, who tied for seventh in last year’s County Am, said when playing a par 5, he can’t get on the green in two shots like the younger, more power-laden players. Instead, is able to get up and down with a short game that remains as impressive as when he was in his 40s.

“I am putting well, and that makes a difference,” Williamson said. “My short game is still good and I am able to get up and down. Good players do it (recover from bad shots). Weber, Dirks, they get themselves out of jail and get a par.”

Williamson, who is coming off a runner-up finish at last week’s La Crosse County Seniors Amateur Golf Championship at Forest Hills where he finished two shots behind Michael Bistodeau, said that while his game has changed, his passion for golf has not. He won his first tournament at age 14, and with seven County Am titles on his resume, he has the most victories in the history of the longstanding tournament.

Don Iverson, who went on to play on the PGA Tour, won six County Ams, while Rich Jungen and Ryan Quinn — who is Williamson’s nephew — each won five.

“It (golf) was part of my upbringing. My dad (Harold) was a good player and I enjoyed playing with him. My son (Marcus) likes playing with me,” said Williamson, a 1973 Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau graduate.

“When you are playing with older players, you see how they played and you learned from them. Hopefully my son, who is 33 now, has learned some things from me.”

There is one thing Williamson knows he must forget rather quickly, however, when he tees off Saturday.

“This last week my wife and I went up with Ryan Quinn’s mom to a cabin up north near Winter, Wis.,” Williamson said. “We went musky fishing, but caught more sunfish off the dock than muskie. I had my musky cast going; now I’ll have to lose that.”