Chris Williams Wins McCormack Medal


The Royal and Ancient (R&A) Golf Club of St. Andrews and United States Golf Association has announced that University of Washington senior Chris Williams is the sixth recipient of the Mark H. McCormack Medal. The award is given to the top-ranked amateur golfer at the conclusion of the amateur season and following the U.S. and European Amateur Championships.

The native of Moscow, Idaho, has spent several weeks as the World Amateur Golf Ranking's No. 1 player. He ascended to the top spot for the second time this summer before play began at last week's U.S. Amateur, and he held on to the top spot after tying for seventh in stroke play and advancing to the quarterfinals of match play.

The No. 1 ranking and McCormack Medal means Williams is exempt for both the 2013 U.S. Open and British Open. "I don't think about the rankings or look at them very often," Williams said. "This was a surprise and a shock to me when I learned that I had won."

Williams is the second Husky to win the McCormack Medal. His former teammate, Nick Taylor, took home the honor in 2009 after spending 13 weeks as the top amateur golfer.

This year Williams had several impressive victories, including the NCAA Southwest Regional, both the stroke-play and match-play portions of the Western Amateur Championship and a dominating victory in the Washington Amateur Championship.

Williams also sported a 3-1 record in the Palmer Cup, led the Sahalee Players Championship after 71 holes before losing in a three-way playoff, and had a top-10 finish in stroke play at the U.S. Public Links Championship before falling in the opening round of match play.

Williams is also currently ranked second in the Scratch Players World Amateur Rankings and third in the Golfweek/Amateurgolf.com rankings. For the Huskies, Williams has carved out an outstanding career in only three years. He holds the school record for career wins (six), is third in top-10 finishes (20), and his scoring average of 70.61 as a junior is the second-lowest in UW history.

His play has earned him first team PING All-America honors twice (2011 and '12) and third-team honors as a freshman when he took home the Phil Mickelson Award for national freshman of the year and Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Williams was a semifinalist for the Hogan Award in 2012.

During his time at UW, Williams has also represented the United States in the 2011 Walker Cup and has twice been on the Palmer Cup squad (2011 and '12). In 2011 he qualified for the U.S. Open and missed the cut by two strokes.

Previous Winners

Men:

2007 Colt Knost (USA)
2008 Danny Lee (NZL)
2009 Nick Taylor (CAN)
2010 Peter Uihlein (USA)
2011 Patrick Cantlay (USA)

Women:

2011 Lydia Ko
2012 Lydia Ko