Switch-hitting William Sides rolls with the punches to capture Jones Cup

SEA ISLAND, Ga. – With his right, he hit the winning shot.

And with his left, he polished it off.

That was the aptly named William Sides on Ocean Forest’s signature par-3, the 224-yard 17th hole. The SMU senior was clinging to a one-shot lead with two holes to play on a gusty, cool Sunday at the prestigious Jones Cup Invitational. But as Sides’ closest challenger Tom Fischer was double-bogeying the hole behind, Sides proved why he’s considered one of the best long-iron players in the game, flushing a 6-iron to 7 feet. He then grabbed his left-handed putter, a switch he made three years ago, and curled in the birdie for a three-shot lead.

He played three shots lefty to two righty in bogeying the par-4 finishing hole, but it mattered little, as Sides still shot another 3-under 69 to win by two shots at 6 under.

As he walked off the last green, the visored Sides handed his putter to his caddie, buddy Matthew Smith, who then returned the club to Sides’ bag with its mallet cover, which is dotted with the phrase: PLAY OR PERISH.

Sides is familiar with those crossroads.

When Sides arrived in Dallas as a freshman in Fall 2022, the putting struggles – you could call them yips – had already rooted. He could still shoot under par, though it’d require hitting 16 or 17 greens. And even that got increasingly harder as the flatstick got worse.

“I’d look at him through my binoculars from a distance and see his hands full-on shaking,” SMU head coach Chris Parra said.

Sides didn’t qualify for the Mustangs’ season opener, and he was on his way to missing a second straight start when he three-putted the last hole at Trinity Forest, SMU’s home facility, from 25 feet. After the first stroke ended up 2 feet short, somehow the next didn’t reach the hole either, by a few inches. That was the final straw, as Parra, who dealt with chipping issues as a pro, called Sides into his office. It was there when Parra and then-assistant Brandon Wilkins asked Sides, a talented soccer player who kicked lefty, if he’d considered putting left-handed.

“He’d walk off the golf course and be in shock,” Parra said. “I thought if I don’t do something and try to help him, he’s going to quit golf.”

Sides took their advice, grabbing a lefty putter from the building. Two days later, he shot 5-under 67.

He’s since climbed to No. 35 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. He’s won each of the last two editions of the Stephens Cup. He’s yet to place outside the top 10 at conference in three tries. He was runner-up at the Trans-Miss two years ago, and he made match play at both the U.S. and Western amateurs last summer.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Sides said. “The way you frame bad tournaments or things that you go through can help set you up for the future, where you’re more confident and a better player because of it.”

Sides now joins a list of Jones Cup winners that includes Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Ludvig Aberg and Akshay Bhatia, who won the 2019 title in the first weather-shortened event in tournament history, which dates to 2001.

This week marked the second, as nearly five hours of fog delays pushed much of Friday’s first round into Saturday. With Monday play not an option with schools starting across the country, tournament officials made the decision to reduce the 84-player event to 36 holes on Friday night, a surprising move but one that ultimately proved prescient.

After a pair of Friday stoppages and then an additional 25-minute delay on Saturday morning, the first round finished around 1:30 p.m. Saturday. With sunset around 5:45 p.m., the second round would’ve bled into Sunday, leaving too much risk of having to scrap final-round scores on Sunday night.

With Sunday’s final round starting normally at 8:30 a.m., it didn’t finish until just before 4:30 p.m., as the pace slowed in gusty, afternoon winds that topped 25 mph.

“I didn’t sleep much Friday night; I really wanted 54 holes, but it became a math problem,” said John Wade, in his sixth year as tournament director. “To get in 54 holes in the amount of daylight that we had, it was going to take every star aligning after that first delay. Then we had another delay, so we’re working through every scenario – continuous play; shotgun start; carts, even for one round, to catch up. Once we started doing the math, it looked like it would not happen, so we went ahead and made the decision.

“We felt it was important to inform the players that this is what we’re going to do, so they could potentially change their strategy from a 54-hole event to a 36-hole event.”

When the second horn sounded on Friday, Sides had only gotten in the par-5 10th, which he birdied. He and Smith then retreated to the clubhouse to play some cards.

“We literally went from playing poker in the locker room, not thinking we were going to go out and play, to we’ve got 25 minutes to tee off,” said Smith, a senior at Samford. “I mean, it was crack your back, rip five balls, roll a couple putts and go back out there.”

Sides got in seven holes, birding four of them to enter Saturday tied at the top of the leaderboard. By Saturday afternoon, he was three behind Georgia’s Grayson Wood, as a handful of competitors strolled out to Ocean Forest’s 19th hole, called “The Point,” for a closest-to-the-pin contest. Other players snubbed the impromptu event, some irked that they weren’t playing golf in beautiful conditions.

Sides didn’t participate, either, though he kept a good attitude.

“I was definitely surprised,” Sides said of the format change. “I thought maybe they would wait to make a decision based on how the weather was that day. But I understand why they did it, so I had to adjust and prepare for the new challenge.”

A native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sides relished the wind on Sunday.

“I knew 18 pars would be a good score,” he said, having parred each of his first 10 holes in the final round. He then birdied three straight, including a chip-in at No. 12.

South Carolina’s Frankie Harris, boosted by an ace at the 163-yard ninth, closed in 68 to tie junior Miles Russell for second at 4 under. Wood slipped to T-8 after a 77 while Ole Miss’ Fischer, Florida State’s Tyler Weaver, and Florida teammates Parker Bell and Luke Poulter tied for fourth at 2 under.

“This shows that I can compete down the stretch, and when stuff changes like the tournament getting shortened, I can hang and battle my way through it,” Sides said. “This win definitely helps the confidence going forward.”

And this time, the switch-hitting Sides walked off the golf course, not in shock, but taller than ever.