Seven months ago at the Watersound Invitational, William Jennings was drowning. Alabama head coach Jay Seawell stepped in on the 18th hole and withdrew his struggling freshman, who was headed for a second straight round in the 90s.
“I remember the conversation I had with him,” Seawell said. “I said, ‘I can’t wait until these tears turn into smiles.'”
Those smiles finally came Wednesday in Grand Haven, Michigan. Jennings, now a sophomore from Greenville, South Carolina, opened Alabama’s season by winning the Folds of Honor Collegiate. In just his second full college tournament, he shot 4 under to claim a one-shot victory while leading the Tide to the team title, six shots ahead of Notre Dame.
Before Jennings could even walk off the 18th green at American Dunes, Seawell asked him, “How’s that smile feel?” The answer was written all over his face.
“If you told me seven months ago that I would win this, I would’ve laughed in your face,” Jennings said. “I was in a pretty low place with my golf game, and having to fight through that and keep persevering, it makes this feel a lot better.”
“It’s a nice, little comeback story.”
Jennings arrived in Tuscaloosa last fall as the 13th-ranked recruit in his class. But he quickly strayed from what got him there. At 6-foot-6, he switched from iron shafts that were 3/4 inches longer than standard to 2 inches longer—with disastrous results. He couldn’t find his clubface, let alone the golf course. Before carding 92 in his college debut, he already knew it wouldn’t be pretty.
While Jennings left Watersound with “zero confidence,” he’s now grateful for that rock-bottom moment.
“Coming into school, I felt like there was a lot of pressure on me, and I didn’t handle it great,” Jennings said. “Once I shot 92, it honestly put me at ease. I was always worried about what people would think if they knew how bad I was playing. In a way, that freed me up because my life didn’t change after that, even though I thought it would. It was a big weight off my shoulders.”
Seawell saw through the struggles: “As bad as it was, and as dark as it was, he knew deep down that he was still a good player.”
The coach gave Jennings six weeks off—no tournaments, no qualifying, no pencil—to rediscover his swing. Jennings put his old irons back in the bag and, with help from Alabama assistant Forrest Schultz and Seawell’s brother Daniel (his longtime instructor), returned to the swing feels from high school. A spark came at the Azalea Invitational in March where, after opening with 81, he bounced back with rounds of 70-73.
From there, Jennings earned every bit of his comeback. He got into the Dogwood Invitational as a late entry and tied for sixth. He open-qualified for the North and South Amateur, then won stroke play and reached the quarterfinals. After earning a spot in the U.S. Amateur, he made match play before losing in the first round.
Now, he’s a college winner.
At American Dunes, Jennings missed just one fairway through 36 holes and slept on a one-shot lead. After an early three-putt in the final round, he rattled off four straight birdies to close his front nine, including a near-ace at the par-3 seventh. But with a PGA Tour exemption into next year’s Rocket Classic on the line, nerves took hold. He bogeyed each of his final three holes, missing a 3-footer at 17 and hitting his drive behind a tree at the par-5 finishing hole, forcing him to chip out sideways.
“He was as nervous as a cat,” Seawell said. “He got done and you could feel him exhale.”
But Jennings still made a clutch 3-footer for the win—and later celebrated with a mint Oreo concrete mixer from Culver’s, the Tide’s victory tradition. After what he’s been through in his young college career, this one tasted a little sweeter.
And nobody could take this away from him.
