Throughout his 12-year professional golf career, Auburn's Lee Williams would return to Alexander City each winter, refining his game at his home course, Willow Point.
"I'd be out there and it'd be freezing cold, and I'd see a fisherman fishing, I'm thinking, 'What in the heck is that guy doing out there fishing?' Williams said. "He's probably thinking, 'What in the heck is that guy doing out there playing golf?'"
After starring at Auburn from 2001-05, Williams won the 2012 Mexico Open on the Web.com Tour before earning his PGA Tour card from 2014-15.
"I loved it," he said. "It wasn't ever work for me."
Williams enjoyed a decorated career on the Plains. A three-time All-American, he was the runner-up at the 2003 NCAA Championships and helped the Tigers win the SEC Championship in 2002, Auburn's latest until this spring, when Wells Padgett's 20-foot birdie putt on 18 clinched the Tigers' title over Alabama.
"That was amazing," Williams said. "Ours wasn't that dramatic."
Williams closely follow Auburn's golf program.
"I follow everything [Auburn men's golf coach Nick] Clinard sends out," Williams said. "I keep tabs on them. They won like four or five times this year, which is amazing. Seven years in a row making it to nationals. Coach Clinard and [associate head coach] Corey [Maggard] have just done a fantastic job with the program."
Making a living playing golf wasn't always glamorous. PGA Tour stars may fly private jets, but many pros get from place to place like the rest of us.
"I'm driving back from Texas to Alabama on a Sunday night, after walking and carrying my own bag for seven days in a row," Williams said. "And I'm driving for 10 or 11 straight hours.
"They were great days, but you're like, 'What in the world was I thinking?' But I loved it. At the end of the day, it was passion.
"All the travel. All the sweaty days, and the stress of the instability of when you're going to make a check. Weeks that you're losing money. You don't really think about it from that standpoint when you love something a whole lot."
Back pain caused by a spinal disorder called Scheuermann's Disease ended William's professional golf career, but Lee is embarking on a new opportunity in wealth management with the same gusto he brought to the course on those frigid mornings in Alex City.
An economics major at Auburn, Williams always had a passion for making money grow.
Williams won the Mexico Open in 2012
on the Web.com Tour
"When I wasn't reading a golf book, I read about investing," he said. "In golf, you manage risk all day long in terms of calculating odds of me being able to hit certain shots or firing at certain pins. While it's not the same in what I'm doing now, it's still risk management.
"Those factors helped me see the correlation of wealth management and playing golf. When the opportunity came, it was a natural fit for me."
Williams' opportunity came through a fellow Alexander City native, Justin Craft, president of Nowlin & Associates Wealth Management. Lee employs the same principles in his new career that brought success to his previous one.
"No. 1, I always tried to surround myself with high-quality people who were better than me, and pick their brains," he said. "I'm carrying that into this.
"The second thing is, I worked really, really hard. You would not find anyone in my opinion who would outwork me. I'm bringing that same level of dedication to wealth management.
"The third thing is I always tried to conduct myself in a professional manner. In doing that, I was not only representing myself well, but I was also representing the people who were aligned with me. I felt like that allowed me to align myself with those high-quality people, and it would attract more of them.
"I worked that process over and over and over, and that was what made me successful in golf. And that's the same thing I'm doing in this business. My goal is, just like it was in golf, I want to get to the highest level in wealth management. I believe that model will get me there, because it did it in golf and it's a universal model. I think it'll work in anything I do."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeff_shearer.
