Sixty three years ago, two friends from Brooklawn CC hooked up in the championship match of the Connecticut Amateur on their home course. One of them, Alphie Winter, won the match and was inducted into the state’s Golf Hall of Fame in 1996. This year the other finalist, Art Williams, joins him in the Hall for his Distinguished Service to Golf.
In addition to his significant competitive achievements, Williams is recognized for his behind-the-scenes contributions to the CSGA and the game. He was CSGA president in 1981-82 and served the organization for more than 40 years as a rules official and had a one-year term as non-playing captain of the state team.
One of his most important contributions to golf in the state was his presentation of an amicus curiae brief before the Supreme Court of Connecticut that served as the foundation for special tax assessment relief for golf courses. The result was that courses are taxed less like condominum complexes and more like open space.
“Until then, the CSGA had not stepped outside its primary role of running golf tournaments to be proactive in matters relating to the health of the game,” Williams said.
Williams received word of his election to the Hall on the day before his 90th birthday. After surgery to replace a heart valve last year, he is slowly working his way back into the game. The operation halted his run of shooting his age every year since he was 74. Not yet officially retired, he has a limited law practice in Fairfield County.
Williams said election to the Hall was “a wonderful end to my golf career. You can’t imagine what golf has meant in my life. Along with my wife and law practice it’s meant everything.” He and his wife have four children, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild.
He is pleased to be in the Hall with Winter, whom he calls a long-time friend, partner and rival. The two qualified for match play in the Anderson Memorial at Winged Foot CC when Williams scored a 180-yard hole-in-one in a three-way playoff for two spots. The two often played friendly matches against two-time U.S. Open champion and fellow Connecticut Golf Hall of Famer Julius Boros, an amateur at Brooklawn at the time.
Williams won the Connecticut Junior Amateur title twice (1938-39), qualified three times for the U.S. Amateur, and captained the Yale golf team in 1940. He missed four golf seasons when he served in the Marine Corps as a Corsair fighter pilot in World War II. He was Brooklawn’s president in 1963-64, won the club championship four times, the senior club title twice, and was Greater Bridgeport District champ twice. He started playing at 8 when he would cut through his neighbor’s yards to the Brooklawn course.
Williams remembers his 1956 Amateur championship match with Winters. “I was five down after the morning 18, he said. “We both hit every green in the afternoon. I had no bogeys and one birdie but got no closer than 2 down.
