Six weeks after the most devastating day of her life, Michelle Williamson went to a golf course. She wasn’t looking for a cure for grief. She wasn’t even much of a golfer.
For years, Williamson’s relationship with the game amounted to what she jokingly calls being able to “hack a stick.” But months earlier, she had signed up for PGA HOPE, the PGA of America REACH Foundation’s program that introduces and teaches golf to Veterans and Active Service Members. Now her first session had arrived at a moment when almost everything else in her life had changed.
On March 26, 2024, her husband, Mark, a retired Air Force colonel, died suddenly at age 53. Williamson had spent her entire life connected to the military—first as the daughter of an officer, then as an officer herself and finally as the wife of one.
Now, for the first time, that life was different.
But once a week, for 90 minutes, Williamson could get outside, surround herself with other Omaha-area Veterans and think about something far less consequential: getting a little white ball from one place to another.
“I cannot explain how much golf has saved me,” she said.
Williamson’s connection to the military began long before she wore the uniform herself. Her father, Jim Eddings, spent 27 years in the Air Force, and she grew up as what she proudly calls a military brat.
As a teenager living in Germany, Williamson visited Berlin when the city was still divided. She went through Checkpoint Charlie and saw the Berlin Wall from both sides. She remembers looking out the window of a train as she traveled through East Germany and noticing how different everything appeared.
That experience has never left her.
“You truly don’t really get the understanding of what it feels like or what it really means to live somewhere free until you’ve been somewhere that you’re not,” Williamson, 55, said.
Despite that upbringing, Williamson didn’t envision military service for herself. She went to college at Texas Tech, studied exercise science and began pursuing a career in fitness. Eventually, her mother asked a question that changed her direction.
Of her three children, Williamson’s mother wondered, why was Michelle the one who hadn’t joined the military when she seemed to be the one most deeply affected by it?
Williamson began looking into Officer Training School and was accepted.
Her first duty station was Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, a place her father joked he always tried to avoid because of cold winters. Within a week of arriving, she met Mark Williamson, an Air Force Academy graduate preparing for a career as a pilot.
Within a year, they were engaged.
They married in 1996, beginning a life together that would remain intertwined with the Air Force for decades. Michelle left active duty in late 1998 because she was pregnant with their first child, daughter Nikki who is now 27. Son Greg (25) and daughter Lauren (18) followed, and she was ecstatic to raise the children while supporting Mark’s career.
And it was quite a career.
Mark, affectionately known as Nukes, flew the Boeing RC-135 and later worked with the Global Hawk program. He commanded the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron and from 2014-16 served as Vice Wing Commander at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. He retired as a colonel in 2020 after 28 years of service.
There were also the sacrifices familiar to military families. During a six-year stretch when Mark flew the RC-135, Michelle said he averaged 280 days away from home each year.
Michelle understood every side of that life.
“I was all three,” she said. “I was a brat, so my dad was active duty. I was active duty, and then I was a spouse of an active duty.”
Golf was around, too, although mostly in the background.
Her father played. Mark’s father, Dave Williamson, played. Michelle owned clubs and occasionally went out with family, but Mark didn’t particularly enjoy the game, so it never became something they did together.
That began to change, almost accidentally, in November 2023.
Mark convinced Michelle to go with him to a Veterans Day brunch in Omaha, something she normally avoided because of large crowds. Inside, she noticed a table promoting PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere).
Her daughter Lauren was 16, and Michelle had been thinking about finding something new to do with her time. Maybe, she thought, she could finally learn how to play golf.
“Is this for women also?” she asked. The answer was an emphatic “yes.”
Williamson signed up.
At the time, Mark was still beside her. He had been diagnosed with melanoma in 2022, but by November 2023, Michelle said they had been told he was clear of the disease. They were moving forward with their lives.
Just a few months later everything changed. Mark entered the hospital in March 2024 and died just a few days later because of a massive stroke.
A short time later, Michelle was notified that the PGA HOPE program she had signed up for was ready to begin. She attended and suddenly learned that, for her, PGA HOPE wasn’t really about learning golf. The military community had been the backdrop to nearly all of Williamson’s life. Now the person whose career had maintained her most direct connection to it for 28 years was gone.
“When you’re not the active person that’s been in it for 28 years and that person passes away, you suddenly lose that lifeline of the military,” she said.
PGA HOPE gave a small piece of it back.
“It got me outside,” Williamson said. “It got me with other military Veterans. It got me doing something active and it turned my head off for an hour and a half every week for one night.”
That last part became particularly important. Williamson works in fitness and wellness and is a Pilates instructor. Her professional life requires her to coach, teach and think about movement.
Golf, however, was different. It was new.
When Williamson is on a golf course, she doesn’t have to be the expert. In fact, she’s still learning. That requires her full attention.
It gives me a chance to only think about a little white ball that needs to go from one point to another. Mistakes are made, but this is the thing as a widow – they’re not so big. I can take on this sport and really, not get very frustrated with it because I’ve been hit with the hardest thing in the world.
Amber Bogle has done great work for the PGA HOPE program in the Nebraska Section – selected as a national Ambassador in 2024. She vividly recalls meeting Williamson for the first time two years ago.
“I was so happy to see another woman on the golf course,” Bogle said. “You would’ve never guessed the mountain she had just climbed the previous two months. I did not know what happened. Not until months later. She’s not asking for anything. No sympathy, she understands that everyone has their life’s challenges. But the important thing is to find a community and find people to help you get through your challenges.”
Williamson completed Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) fitness training, combining her professional background with her new interest in golf. She also created a private Facebook group called She Golf Omaha, designed to help women find other women with whom they could learn and play the game.
The group has grown to more than 300 members. Women post available tee times. They find leagues and tournaments. Williamson has helped organize range nights with PGA of America Golf Professionals.
One night, the circle that began with PGA HOPE providing Williamson a community, came all the way around. She arrived at the course for a She Golf Omaha range night and noticed a woman unloading clubs from her car. Williamson introduced herself as the person who created the group.
“You are saving me,” the woman told her.
She was a military spouse who had recently moved to Omaha. Her husband had deployed almost immediately after the move, leaving her in a new city where she knew no one. She had spent the summer with her boys and hadn’t found a community of her own.
That range night was the first time she’d gone out with other women. By the end of the evening, she told the group it was the first time she had laughed like that all summer.
“To have someone like Michelle who is a strong, outgoing woman who is not intimidated to go to a golf course by herself is wonderful,” Bogle said. “She understands how important it is for her fellow females to feel comfortable.”
There is another connection Williamson treasures.
Her father Jim is now 87 years old and still plays golf five days a week. On the days he doesn’t play, Williamson said, he works on his fitness. He also understands loss. Williamson’s mother Bonnie died in March 2023 after living with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Mark died almost exactly a year later.
Father and daughter became widowers 12 months apart. Williamson’s father lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but when Michelle visits him or he comes to Omaha, they play golf.
“My dad and I are walking this side of it together,” Williamson said. “Golf has been such a unifying thing for us.”
There was a time Williamson could play four holes before she’d be ready to quit.
Now she’ll finish 18 with her friend Lisa Cudley and find herself wishing the round wasn’t over. She wants to spend another few hours outside with people she enjoys.
“It’s so much fun,” Williamson said. “We laugh and we hoot it up and it has just been so incredibly helpful for me.”
Golf cannot give Williamson back the life she had before March 26, 2024. In fact, she now views the timeline of her life as before and after that awful day.
But by finding PGA HOPE, the game helped her discover one thing she didn’t realize—just how much life still lies ahead.
PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) is on a mission unlike any other – to change and save Veteran’s lives through the power of golf. The program introduces and teaches golf to Veterans and Active Service Members to enhance their physical, mental, social and emotional well-being. Led by PGA of America Golf Professionals, the program is inclusive of a developmental 6-week curriculum. All programs are provided at no cost to all participating Veterans. To learn more or donate, visit www.pgahope.com.
