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He has played on a team that won the Stanley Cup, appeared in the NHL All-Star Game and helped Canada win two gold medals in the World Championships. The height of pressure-packed competition in the sport of ice hockey.
And yet Justin Williams (left) of the Los Angeles Kings found that his nerves were under power-play assault when he ventured into another competitive sport this past summer: golf.
For a lark, he entered the club championship at Whitemarsh Valley CC in Lafayette Hill, Pa., one of two clubs he’s joined near his New Jersey offseason home. What a revelation it proved to be.
“I had never played competitive golf,” the Kings right wing said. “I enjoyed it. It’s fun. But it’s such a different feeling playing competitive golf instead of competitive hockey, because you’re out there by yourself. I was more nervous over a 5-foot putt than I am when I’m playing in a hockey game. I guess that goes with confidence: You know about your hockey abilities, but not as much your golf abilities.”
Williams, whose 57 points last season ranked second on the Kings, has been a devotee of golf since he was 12 or 13 years old, having been involved in a strong juniors program in his hometown of Cobourg, Ontario. He admits to being completely hooked by the game today – in fact, when FORE magazine reached him by phone this past summer, he was driving to a course in Montreal to play a round.
“The better you get, the more you enjoy golf,” Williams said. “The worse you get, the less you play.”
At first examination, a golf swing probably bears very little resemblance to a hockey slapshot – unless you putt really hot. But the muscle groups are the same for each, and the leg power, body pivot and upper body explosiveness required for a shot on goal can translate to some monster power on the golf course. Especially for a guy who stands 6-feet-1, weighs 188 pounds and welcomes the opportunity to hit a stationary object when his feet aren’t sliding on ice.
“He’s very good, very athletic,” Adam Gerber, a frequent playing partner back east, said of Williams. “He is very long off the tee. He can hit a 3-wood where most people are playing driver.”
Williams chuckled and said that golf and hockey swings “are kind of similar. Hockey players can hit a golf ball pretty good. They may not always know where it’s going, but they can bang it.”
Williams is more than just a big hitter on the golf course, though. “He’s got good imagination getting up and down,” said Gerber. “He gets out of trouble a lot. And you don’t want him to make a pressure putt against you, because he always makes it.”
Williams says he doesn’t get much opportunity to play during the season, when “most of my focus is on hockey, which is where it should be.” If he has a day off when the team is at home, he likes to spend it with his wife and young children (3-year-old Jaxon, 8-month-old Jade), and also appreciates down time so that his body can recover from the punishing rigors of hockey.
But he has gotten out from time to time, sometimes with golf-playing teammates Brad Richardson and Jarret Stoll, to get in a few swings in L.A. Williams enjoyed Wilshire CC, and really longs to play Riviera CC or Los Angeles CC – he’s been invited but hasn’t been able to get to either.
It’s in the offseason that Williams is able to give full vent to his enthusiasm for golf. He’s a member at Galloway National CC in New Jersey in addition to Whitemarsh Valley, and usually plays a couple of times a week, plus practice. His growing family is putting the squeeze on that, however. He says the word he hears most often from wife Kelly is . . . “Again?”
Williams, who reached the quarterfinals of the Whitemarsh Valley club tournament, is a competitive soul, but although pro hockey can be brutally combative, he doesn’t carry the same mindset to the golf course.
“He’s very positive, rooting for other people to make a good shot,” Gerber said. “I think sometimes the game can get the best of all of us; we can lose our temper. But he usually keeps his cool. He’s absolutely fun to play with.”
Don't forget to purchase tickets to watch Williams and the other Kings in action this Thursday against the Minnesota Wild at SCGA Night at the Rink. Buy discounted tickets throughout the arena here.
