Harry Llewellyn Williams

A tragic end to a brilliant career

SATURDAY, July 22, 1928, is a date of enormous significance in Australian golf and of equal importance in the history of Victoria Golf Club.

On that day, dressed in knickerbockers and with his school cap set squarely on his head, 13-year-old Brighton Grammar School student Harry L. Williams astounded the golf world by touring Commonwealth's demanding layout in 78, a score which equalled the standard scratch score and won him the clubs monthly medal. In those days Commonwealth's monthly medal was decided against bogey and the young Williams demolished the "Colonel" with a score of four-up. As far as we are able to ascertain it was the first time the performances of the child prodigy were given any publicity, but in the next 12 years his name was rarely out of the newspapers.

Those years were a mixture of tragedy and triumph for Williams, a golfer blessed with incredible talents on the golf course, but a youngster who grew to manhood unable to cope with the realities of life away from golf. On that fateful Saturday back in 1928, Harry Williams, not only won Commonwealths monthly medal in the afternoon, but on the morning of the same day, had competed in a nine-hole open backmarkers event at Elsternwick public course which he won with a score of net 29 from his handicap six. A golf star of rare quality had taken his first tentative, steps into a spotlight he was to dominate for over a decade. The young Williams was only 12 years old when he was elected to junior membership of Commonwealth on June 13, 1927, and he resigned from the club on July 20, 1931 only a few weeks before he was to win the first of his Australian amateur championships.

He was a junior member of Victoria when he downed NSW amateur George Thompson 3-2 in the 1931 amateur final at The Australian GC in Sydney, but he only just made it. While at Commonwealth Williams tried several times to join Victoria GC, but on each occasion was refused. The records show that his first application was discussed by the clubs directors on October 31, 1930 and was "held over". On January 14, 1931 his application was again before the board and it was resolved that "junior membership being full that he be not admitted". On July 30, 1931, just 10 days after he had submited his resignation to Commonwealth, Williams application for junior membership was again before Victorias direciors and this time it was "refused with regret and a reply to the applicant to be sent to that effect". Following what appeared to be a quite adamant refusal, only a fortnight later on August 13, 1931, the application of H.L. Williams for junior membership was once again raised at board level and it is obvious that our directors had undergone a swift change of heart. Williams application for junior membership was discussed at length by the directors and it was unanimously decided to place his name on the board for election.

There then occurs one of the most baffling developments in the Harry Williams saga, as on August 27, 1931 it was announced that the nomination of Harry L. Williams be held over until September 3. By then the Australian amateur championship was in full swing in Sydney. All the relevant records show that Williams was a member of this club at the time of his Sydney triumph, but his exact date of entry into Victoria Golf Club remains a mystery. Harry Williams "last hurrah" on the major Australian golf scene came in the 1939 Australian Open Championship at Royal Melbourne won by his old foe Jim Ferrier. Over Royal Melbournes West Course Ferrier returned a total of 285 with rounds of 71, 73, 71, 70 to take the title for the second successive year. Still an amateur, Ferrier defeated Norman Von Nida and Victorian professional Martin Smith by two shots, a loss which prompted Von Nida to smash his putter across his knee as he walked off the last green.

Williams finished sixth on 292 after rounds of 75, 74, 70, 73 in what was his last bid to win Australias foremost golf championship. It was only eight years after he had "arrived" so sensationally on the golf scene and, although in those years he had accomplished so much, his failure to win the Open left a gap in his extraordinary career. In the years from 1931 to 1939 his rivalry with Ferrier was the highlight of the game in Australia, but where Ferrier applied himself to golf with a fierce dedication Williams slowly lost interest and virtually faded into oblivion after the 1939 Open and Amateur championships.  

After his Open win at Royal Melbourne Ferrier made this observation about his rival: "Harry is a great golfer. He is a natural player, wonderfully gifted. I am not that. It is work that gets me any results I have. Harry has got that grand swing of his. Mine is different". Ferrier went on to say that Williams should turn professional. "If that boy simply had to play golf he would be a wonder. If his bread and butter depended on it you would not see the others for dust," was the way he summed it up.

The great American Gene Sarazen, who played with Williams during the 1936 Australian Open at Metropolitan first suggested to Williams that he turn professional. Sarazen was astonished at the young Victorian's skill and told him he would make his fortune in the United States. He described Williams as the greatest left-hander he had ever seen and possibly the greatest who ever played, but Sarazen's pleas would not budge Williams away from Australia. Sarazen was not a man to hand out accolades lightly and to emphasise his high regard for Williams he gave the young Victorian an action photograph of himself and wrote on it: "To Harry Williams. The best left handed golfer in the world. Good luck, Gene Sarazen".

Sarazen's well meaning message took on a hollow ring as the tragedy of Harry Llewellyn Williams unfolded in later years. When Sarazen returned to America after winning the 1936 Australian Open he was to tell the story for years of the amazingly talented young Australian left hander he had met Down Under and who off-handedly turned down his offer an offer which would certainly have turned Williams into a millionaire and given him a place among the immortals of the game. During the three days of the Open at Metropolitan (36 holes were played on the final day), Sarazen's four round total of 282 was made up of 70, 71, 70, 71. Williams finished in second place with a total of 286 after rounds of 73, 69, 71, 73 and his score was the lowest ever returned by an amateur in the championship to that date. To put Williams' performance into better perspective it is worth recording the scores of some of the players who finished behind him in 1936. Ted Naismith, a former Australian PGA champion, was third on 290, then came Len Nettlefold 291, Fergus McMahon 293, Willie McKenzie 293, Sam Richardson 294, Bill Bolger 297 and Jim Ferrier 298. Williams was just a few months past his 21st birthday.

There is no doubt that one of the key influences that decided Williams not to seek his fortune in America was his mother. She wielded enormous influence over everything Harry did and one of the reasons he never married was because she would never approve of any romantic attachment he made. It is generally believed that Williams turned down an opportunity to tour England with Australia's first official team in 1938 because of his mother's influence. Williams had no basic training for any career in commerce or industry and as his interest in golf waned he allowed his membership at Victoria to lapse. His ability to care for himself or his widowed mother was minimal. At the club's board meeting on July 28, 1938 just a year after Williams had won his second Australian amateur championship, another sad episode in the Williams story unfolded.

The board discussed his membership of the club in the light that he had failed to pay his subscription for 1937-'38 and was also in arrears for the current year, 1938-'39. The board was also told that Williams had joined another club and it was resolved that he be written to pointing out that the club had no alternative under Rule 19 of the Articles of Association other than to remove his name from the membership list. The tragic irony of Williams' situation is better understood when the reader becomes aware that less than a year before, in December 1937, he had written to the club thanking it for the watch presented to him on the occasion of his amateur title victory earlier that year.

The immediate crisis in Harry Williams' future at Victoria GC appeared over when he personally faced the club's directors on September 28 and apologised for his actions and applied for readmission as a junior member. On the motion of Mr Bob Weir, seconded by Joe Carrigan, he was again admitted as a member. Although he played in the National Open and Amateur championships at Royal Melbourne the following year, this unhappy chapter was really the beginning of the end for Harry Williams in first class golf. As he drifted further away from golf, the race track occupied a lot of Williams' time and he also developed a weakness for alcohol. At one stage, while still a member of Victoria Golf Club, he acted as the club's insurance agent, a position arranged by his old schoolday friend H.R. (Dick) Payne.

The advent of World War II and the suspension of organised tournament golf was the catalyst that drove Williams and his unique talents away from the game. He was a drifter. Williams was a hard man to help. In 1950, and bearing in mind that Williams was still only 35 years old, a former captain of Victoria, Mr Fred Dawborn, and Dick Payne decided to help Williams get his life back on the rails and that the best way to achieve that aim was to bring him back to golf. After several discussions with Williams, he agreed and both men were left with the impression that Williams was anxious to return to golf and pick up his career. Mr Dawborn recalls vividly bringing him to Victoria for a game, where, with a set of left-handed clubs borrowed from Mr Archie Raitt, Williams "breezed" around in 71. "He did it so easily," said Mr Dawborn. On the day Williams was due to appear before the Victoria GC directors, Mr Dawborn and Mr Payne met him at Scotts Hotel in Collins Street and after a drink or two Williams said he would go home and change and meet Dawborn at Victoria at 7.30 pm, half an hour before his appointment with the directors. Dawborn arrived on time and as the clock ticked on towards 8 pm there was no sign of his membership candidate. When the club secretary asked him to bring his candidate forward for interview Mr Dawborn had to say that he had not arrived. When Dawborn contacted Harry Williams the next day to seek an explanation: "He muttered something about his mother not being well, but it was a lame excuse," said Mr Dawborn.

That was the last attempt made to persuade Williams back to the game, but as the years rolled by there were many reports of him playing money matches around Melbourne's public courses. There was a wealth on both sides of Harry Williams' family and he and his mother, the former Emma Madge Dagma Halfey, inherited a fortune when his father Eric Williams died in 1933. Mrs Williams never believed that Harry should have to work and there is no doubt that he agreed with his mother's judgment on that issue. The wealth on his mother's side of the family stemmed from her grandfather, Mr John Halfey, who was born in Southport, Lancashire, in 1825 and in 1853 settled in Melbourne where he became involved in many highly successful business ventures. He was one of the proprietors of The Herald newspaper and collapsed and died in his private office on the company premises on January 4, 1899. He was 63 years old. His obituary said: "He has been exceedingly successful and dies a wealthy man". Mr Halfey served three terms as a member of the Legislative Assembly in the Victorian Parliament and among his extensive business interests he was chairman of the Board of Directors of the Australian Alliance Assurance Company, a director of the Colonial Bank of Australasia, Chairman of directors of the Johnson's Reef Gold Mining Co. and a director of the Long Tunnel Extended Mining Company. Williams' father owned a thriving newsagency in Albert Park and as a youngster Harry often served the customers in the agency's railway kiosk with their morning papers.

On his father's death and with his mother's income from her grandfather's estate, Harry and his mother had few money worries, although surviving members of the family described them as "poor managers". Mother and son were totally unaware of the value of money and spent it as if there was "no tomorrow". He was in the Army for a brief period during the war, but was discharged as a chronic asthmatic. For a time he drove a taxi and then his stepfather, Leonard May, helped him get a job on the wharves as a tally clerk. When Mr May died, Harry was thrust into the position of having to provide for his widowed mother and himself as by now the family fortune had dwindled to nothing. Harry's mother was described as being excessively possessive and contemporary opinion reinforces that observation.

There is one little known fact that could explain the late Mrs May's attitude towards her son. Harry had a younger sister, Joan, who died the day before her fourth birthday in 1923 from meningitis. Harry proved a poor provider and when he and his mother moved into a rented flat in Hartwood Street, East Kew, late in 1961 he had been out of work for three months and he and his mother were almost penniless. They sold off several pieces of high quality furniture, but Mrs May made a gift of a valuable original J. B. McDonald oil painting to her niece, Mrs Eileen Grigg, who still resides in Kew. At the same time Harry presented Mrs Grigg's late husband the enormous trophy he had won in the Philippines during a pre-war visit to the republic with Norman Von Nida. It is now in the possession of the Golf Society of Australia.

On the night of December 14, 1961, police were called to the little East Kew flat occupied by Williams and his mother where they found them both dead on the kitchen floor. Nearby lay the lifeless body of the family pet, a small Australian terrier. The gas jets on the stove were turned full on and strips of felt had been pushed into cracks and under the doors. There was no money in the flat and only a lettuce leaf and a small amount of butter was in the refrigerator. A brief note in Mrs May's handwriting left no doubt that their financial position had led to the tragic suicide pact between mother and son. Williams was 46 years of age, the same age as American Jack Nicklaus was when he won the US Masters in 1986. As a golfer there is no doubt that Williams possessed a rare genius and who knows how his life would have unfolded if he had accepted Sarazen's invitation to turn professional and had gone to America.

When he and Jim Ferrier were catapulted onto the scene in 1931 as mere boys of 16 years of age, Williams proved the master beating Ferrier the first seven times they met. Even in his teens Williams had the poise and aplomb of a veteran campaigner and neither reputation or occasion stopped his par-shattering exploits. He won the Victorian and Australian amateur championships that year and repeated his National amateur victory in 1937, even though his interest for the game was starting to fade.

When Williams joined Commonwealth at age 12, the handicapper gave him a mark of 20, but in no time the kid had spreadeagled the club competition fields and his first two reductions must surely constitute a record. He lost five shots in his first adjustment and an other five a week later to plunge from 20 to 10 but they still could not stop him. At 15 he was on plus-two.

The legend of Harry Williams throws up many incredible stories and one that has been told for years and is absolutely true is the day he played in the bogey event at Victoria and was eight-up after nine holes. He owed shots at both the third and sixth holes from his plus-two mark, but eagled them both for wins. At the turn Williams decided that he would go to the races at Caulfield so he marked nine losses on the home side and handed in a card of one-down which duly won the event.

And there is the story of how Williams teed up on the 11th with the wind in his favor and belted a one-iron clean onto the green! And then there is the story of Williams and the Sorrento Open, still one of Victoria's most popular events. In 1933 Dick Payne was driving Williams to the tournament, which Williams had won for the past two years, when he asked him: "Have you brought the trophy with you?" "Trophy, what trophy?" queried Williams. Payne told him that he should have brought it with him as it had to be presented to whoever won the championship this time. "Well, I had better win it again," shot back Williams. In gale-force winds and driving rain Williams fired 71, 70, a record for the event, and by winning for the third successive year became the permanent owner of the Sorrento Cup. The absence of the trophy at the presentation was noted, but any embarassment was minimised by the fact that Williams had won yet again.

Williams had not had his 16th birthday when he first played for the Sorrento Cup in 1931 winning with scores of 72, 76. A year later his winning score was 79, 69. Victoria's best amateurs of the day competed for the trophy donated originally by the then Sorrento Club president Mr James Wright for "Two rounds of nine holes stroke play scratch". Also engraved on the trophy are the words "to be won three times". The event was extended to 24 holes in 1927 and then 32 holes in 1928 before it finally became a 36-hole test in 1929. Ivo Whitton, A.W. (Gus) Jackson, Les Hardie and Eric Quirk are just some of the great contemporary names engraved on the trophy, but none were able to match the feat of Williams who was 17 years old when he won for the third successive year. The original trophy is now in the possession of the Victoria Golf Club along with several other items of Williams memoribilia. And to perpetuate his association with both clubs and his extraordinary feat of "retiring" the trophy at such a young age, an annual match is played for the Sorrento Cup between the two clubs. It started in 1985 and was won by the Victoria GC team.

In April 1933 Williams, now 18 years old, won the monthly medal at Victoria played against bogey with a score of seven-up from his handicap of plus-two. He went out in 30 and his front nine read 244, 234, 344-30. He completed the round in 67. Kingston Heath's M.J. (Mick) Ryan was a seasoned campaigner when he met Williams in the final of the 1931 Victorian amateur championship played at Victoria GC. He had already won the National amateur title in 1929 and in 1932 was to win the Australian Open as an amateur. He was a power in Australian golf and was defending his State title when he teed up against the freshfaced schoolboy in the 1931 final before a gallery of nearly 2000 people lured to Cheltenham by the prospect of a memorable David and Goliath clash. It was Williams' first major final and he eclipsed Ryan four-three and reports of the day highlight the last hole of the match, where, at the 15th, Williams' tee shot was pulled to the back of a fairway trap. He had an awkward stance, but so truly did he hit his seven iron that he landed a foot from the hole, hit the flagstick and stopped dead for a winning birdie three.

Williams was to dominate Victorian golf for the remainder of the decade winning four more Victorian amateur titles in 1934, '35, '36 and again in 1939. In 1934 and again in 1936 Mick Ryan was the man he defeated in the final. He won three State foursomes titles partnering Ron Harris in 1931, his old friend and Victoria GC clubmate H. R. (Dick) Payne in 1935 and fellow left hander Alex Rae in 1939. Between 1933 and 1939 Williams won the Victoria GC club championship four times and in 1936 partnered Payne to win the Australian foursomes championship at Metropolitan. Their two rounds of 71, 72 143 set a new record for the tournament and they finished seven shots clear of the Sydney pair Jim Ferrier and Harry Hattersley, who returned rounds of 72, 78 150. The youthful genius of Williams was never better illustrated than the round he played with Dick Payne in 1932 setting a new course record of 65. Williams, just 17 years old shot 344, 443, 354-34 and then came home in 443, 323, 453-31-65. His score was two strokes better than Gus Jackson's course record and five better than the course competition record he had established himself only weeks earlier. In that memorable round Williams reached both the ninth and 17th in two shots. In 1939 Harry Williams was 24 years old and a brief eight years after he had burst onto the golf scene his career was virtually finished.

Taken from Victoria Golf Club by Don Lawrence