Coaching golf has been Chris Williams’ gig since 2019, when he started his role as assistant coach of the men’s golf team at Marquette University. In 2021, he went to Auburn University to serve as its assistant coach, and was instrumental in building the team that would win the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship, the Tigers’ first ever.  

But he hasn’t always donned the metaphorical headset.  

If his name is recognizable, it’s probably because he spent some 46 weeks as the World No. 1-ranked men’s amateur player between 2012-2013 as an anchor to the University of Washington men’s golf team, becoming the school’s all-time individual wins leader. He played in two U.S. Opens and won the 2012 Mark H. McCormack Medal as the world’s top amateur.  

Hailing from Moscow, Idaho, his exceptional amateur career was supplemented by four individual Idaho high school state championships and as many North Idaho Golfer of the Year awards.  

He won the WJGA Junior State Championship, Sahalee Players Championship, Pacific Coast Amateur, Washington Men’s Amateur, and the Western Amateur. He was selected to the U.S. Team in the 2011 Walker Cup, the 2012 Eisenhower Trophy, and the 2011 and 2012 Palmer Cup. He was named the PNGA and WA Golf Player of the Year in 2011 and 2012.  

Not bad, right? It’s a gem of an amateur career that traces back to Williams’ upbringing in the Gem State, and the support that was around him. 

Ten years older than Chris is his brother Pete, himself introduced to the game by their father, who Chris described as “an addict” to the game. Pete went on to play at the University of Idaho, giving Chris a high-level playing partner with whom he could practice his own skills. 

Chris had casually played golf prior to his ninth-grade year and shifted his athletic focus there from baseball around that time. Living in Moscow with an Idaho Vandal brother provided him near-unfettered access to the University of Idaho Golf Course during the summer months, with its predominantly student clientele out of town. 

“I’d bike to the course at 6:00 to be there at 7:00 in the morning, play 18 holes, have lunch, go back out and play 18 more,” Williams said of those youthful days, adding how he always had full support of his parents when it came to tournament transportation later on. 

Through it all, he remained under his brother’s wing, whom he credits for developing his skills when he was a decade older and on a college team. 

“They say iron sharpens iron,” Chris said. “Well, he was iron, and I was warm butter. He was just so much better than I was.” 

Progressing and winning just about any tournament in his path naturally caught the attention of Husky Head Coach Matt Thurmond, who’s proven to be invaluable in Williams’ collegiate excellence and beyond. 

“What he provided me was exactly what I needed at the time,” Williams said, giving an example of how Thurmond always allowed players to visit home for any reason. “He cared about us, he pushed us, he gave us everything we needed.” 

Playing on the same roster as guys like Nick Taylor, Richard Lee and C.T. Pan – each of whom would later go on to PGA Tour careers, after Taylor and Pan also holding a spot as World No. 1 while on the UW team – contributed to the “greatest four years” of Williams’ life. 

“Just to be around those guys on a daily basis and watch them perform and practice, but also watch how they treated people” he said. “They’re the most upstanding guys I still know to this day.” 

Williams said he recalls more success as a team than through his UW record six individual wins, by a squad that was always ready to tussle with the perceived giants of the college golfing world. 

“We were just kind of the forgotten guys up there in the Northwest,” he said of his former team. “But we were going to do it together, and we’re going to practice every single day, play every single day and do everything we can to be the best we possibly can.” 

Those days eventually came to an end, of course, and the time came for Williams to embark on the oft-unseen grind of launching a professional golf career. 

Struggles arose. Traveling alone meant no longer having the team environment from UW and being away from his girlfriend for weeks at a time. He began to make changes to his equipment and swing mechanics, which unfortunately were better in theory than practice. All the while, he remained based out of the Northwest, but the constant need to practice his game required him to relocate south during the winter months. 

Such factors accumulating over three unsuccessful years gave Willams the impression he was in a blender. 

“I’d start the next year where I ended the previous year,” he recalled. “It was a challenging time for me.” 

He began to contemplate retiring and concluded his internal desire to do so before a second stage Q-School event in California. Playing while knowing it was likely his last professional outing, he birdied his final hole.  

Upon returning to his girlfriend the next day, he recalls saying the stress-relieving words, “I’m done.” 

“I know I have to go back and get my degree,” he said of what to do next. “But it was just a weight lifted off my shoulders of ‘I don’t feel like I have to do this.’” 

Stepping away allowed him to complete his degree in 2019 and contemplate coaching. He reached back out to the always-available Thurmond, and the two shared a three-hour conversation in Williams’ car in the parking lot of the Bellevue Library, after which time his former coach concluded Williams had a coaching future. 

The opening for an assistant coaching position came at Marquette, and he eventually landed it under longtime Head Coach Steve Bailey. After 18 months in that role, and loving everything there but Wisconsin’s inherently frigid winters, Williams found his way to the Auburn Tigers, whom he helps guide today. 

The experience of having been a player at the top collegiate level factors into his coaching approach. He advises course strategy and decision-making more so than the finite details of swing mechanics, which are primarily handled by 17-year Head Coach Nick Clinard. 

Put another way, Williams’ voice is meant to guide players on how they can be their best caddies for themselves, in NCAA tournaments where he knows stakes and nerves are high. 

“Mostly it’s just a conversation of, ‘Hey, what are you thinking here? What are you trying to accomplish on this shot?’” he explained, adding how instilling comfort in such high-pressure situations is a priority. “You put so much pressure on yourself as a player, and to me the message I want to impart to the player is, ‘Let’s just golf like we’re gonna be fine.’” 

Passion for coaching is rooted in Williams’ continued love for the game, and his desire to help its next generation develop the mentality in addition to golf ability, tenets Thurmond was right there to help him with over a decade ago. 

“We’ve had some really good success, have brought in some really good players,” he said. “And have developed them from a golf game standpoint, but also a mentality standpoint, and the bond they all have, and we have together. It’s extremely satisfying.” 

Through it all, he maintains a strong bond to Seattle, recruiting for Auburn on the West Coast during the offseason, and going to as many Mariners and Seahawks games as he’s available for.  

“That’ll always be home,” he said. His roots are still strong, even as he reaches new, and other, heights.