Retirement, Roy Williams said, has been terrible for his golf game.
Other than that, he has no regrets.
“I haven’t awakened any morning and said, ‘Oh God, what did I do?’ ” Williams said Wednesday morning, standing on the 10th tee at Sedgefield Country Club.
Now four months removed from his decision to step down at UNC, the 71-year-old says he’s been busier than ever before, and not only on the golf course. Between taking the opportunity to follow his family around — Little League baseball, flag football, dance recitals — and making good on all the unfulfilled promises he made over the years, Williams’ newly open schedule filled up quickly.
“Always, people would ask me to do so many things in the spring and the summer thinking basketball coaches aren’t busy then,” Williams said. “That’s really always been my busiest time. So I would always say, I will do it, I will do it. Those people have reminded me I said I would do it. So there’s been a lot of it.”
That includes three pro-ams, the first two milestones of their own. The Wells Fargo Championship at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow in May was his first public appearance as a former coach. The Rex Hospital Open at Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh in June came amid the news that his old rival Mike Krzyzewski would follow him into retirement at Duke.
Wednesday, ahead of the Wyndham Championship, Williams was deep into his new normal, although even the tournament director still wanted a photo with him. Williams played in a group with another recent retiree, former ACC commissioner (and new Sedgefield resident) John Swofford, and his former boss, UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham.
That group was supposed to play with Hideki Matsuyama, who like Williams played well at Augusta National this spring. But the Masters champion was a late scratch, replaced by Doug Ghim, who seemed a little bemused by the attention surrounding his new group on the tee.
(The starter, nevertheless, announced Ghim as “Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama” to a collective cringe by the audience. “I’d like to win a Masters,” Ghim quipped as he walked off the tee.)
Getting to spend more time on the golf course was something Williams was hoping to enjoy in retirement, but “enjoy” might not be the right word so far.
“I’ve played more golf at this time than I ever have in my life, and played worse,” Williams said. “I haven’t found the right formula yet. The best news is, Wanda hasn’t kicked me out of the house and I’m still able to play.”
Of course, a lot of guys who talk like that end up collecting their winnings on the 18th green.
While Williams plans to split his time going forward between Asheville and Charleston and Pinehurst, that doesn’t mean he won’t continue to be involved at UNC. He has a new office at the Smith Center as he tries to navigate the choppy waters of staying close to the program as Hubert Davis takes over while still trying to give Davis the space he needs to chart his own path.
“What I’m trying to do, a couple of days every week or at least every other week, be in Chapel Hill,” Williams said. “I asked them if they would give me a closet. They gave me better than a closet. I have a desk and a phone and the whole bit.”
He remains on call to serve as an ambassador as needed, meeting with basketball and football recruits as well as the three new head coaches at North Carolina, in gymnastics, rowing and women’s golf. And in a few months, he will collect the rewards for all those donations to the Rams Club over the years.
He has 10 prime season tickets for this basketball season at the Smith Center, his first in 50 years as a fan. Even in retirement, Williams won’t stray too far.
