Following its U.S. Open entry deadline, the USGA released a list of noteworthy facts and figures. There were 9,882 entries, the second-most ever. They came from all 50 states and 63 foreign countries. And there's this: A total of 535 procrastinators waited until Wednesday to submit their entries just before the 5 p.m. deadline.
None of them, though, waited as long as Josh Williamowsky.
The 30-year-old amateur from Bethesda, Maryland, officially clicked the button to submit his form at 4:59:39 -- just 21 seconds prior to the cutoff.
"I honestly didn't think I was going to get in," he says with a laugh one day later. "I was still finalizing my credit card information after 5:00, but obviously it went through."
Call him Golf's Greatest Procrastinator, if you must, but Williamowsky had good reason for waiting so long: He, uh, wasn't sure if he, um, wanted to enter or not.
A former college golfer at the University of Delaware who toiled on the mini-tours for a few years before joining the real world, Williamowsky is now the owner and manager of a real estate settlement company called Pure Title and doesn't get to play as much as he'd like anymore. (Hey, who does?) But he recently broke 80 again, which eventually helped him come to a final decision.
"I'm thinking, you know, shooting 79 is a lot more fun than sitting in a closing for two hours and watching people sign all these documents," he muses.
And so, he walked out of a meeting just like that and decided to submit his entry.
Williamowsky was watching people sign documents, as he puts it, when he excused himself from a conference room at precisely 4:57. He was on the USGA's website by 4:58. Within two minutes -- and after having to feverishly fill in a few sections he had mistakenly left blank -- he had paid his $175 to play in an 18-hole local qualifier at nearby Blue Mash Golf Course.
If he advances past the local qualifying stage, he'll reach a 36-hole sectional, with the top players then reaching the 156-man U.S. Open field at Chambers Bay this June.
He's tried this route "about a dozen times, maybe more," but has never reached sectionals.
Williamowsky's claim to fame in his golf career was playing in the U.S. Mid-Amateur back in 2010 at venerable Atlantic Golf Club.
Well, not just playing.
No, the man who currently holds the honor of Golf's Greatest Procrastinator starts laughing when asked to recall any stories from that week. As it turns out, he posted a 79, but afterward was docked three penalty strokes for -- no joke -- slow play.
"It was miserable," he recalls. "Our group was totally behind and the course was so hard. Guys were looking for their balls all over the place. At the end of the round, we didn't hit our checkpoints."
He quickly emphasizes: "I like to try to play as fast as possible now."
That might be, but there's more to the story.
It was during that tournament when Williamowsky met a woman named Dana Lee, who remains his girlfriend to this day. He hints that marriage could be part of their future, but no, he hasn't proposed yet.
You know, that procrastination thing.
"I'm not a procrastinator," he insists. "I'm just extremely analytical and think a lot."
He does, however, see how others might think he takes a little too much time with certain tasks.
"Yeah, there's something going on here," he admits. "If I stop thinking and just get after things, who knows what could happen?"
Maybe it all turns around for him right now. Maybe he turns that recent 79 into a low number at local qualifying, then catches lightning in a bottle at sectionals, becoming one of the more improbable stories in the field at this year's U.S. Open.
Of course, that's a long way from Bethesda. He'll have to book a plane ticket and a hotel and get to Chambers Bay prior to his Thursday tee time. If it happens, don't be surprised if Williamowsky is still making arrangements at the last minute.
Hey, that's just how life goes for Golf's Greatest Procrastinator.