“It’s the only putter I’ve ever really owned. It’s the only thing I’ve been with longer than my wife. It’s pretty important to me,” Williams, Kansas University’s 50-year-old basketball coach, said Tuesday after putting on what golfing legend Tom Watson called “an unbelievable putting exhibition” at the nine-hole TD Waterhouse Senior Celebrity Skins Game at Tiffany Greens.

Williams sank five birdie putts of 3, 8, 12 and 15 feet and a 24-footer on the final hole lifting the Watson-Williams team to a lopsided victory over Senior Tour golfer Dana Quigley and baseball Hall of Famer George Brett.

Williams and Watson won $15,000 for charity; Quigley and Brett won $3,000.

The reasons for the dollar discrepancy?

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

Williams and his putter.

“Holy Mackerel, would I like to borrow that putter for a week. Just a week is all I need,” Quigley, defending TD Waterhouse champion, said after Williams sank a winding 24-footer on the final hole before 1,000 spectators.

“Every one of his putts went dead-center, solid center cut. It wasn’t like we could root ’em out of the hole or anything. He’s not supposed to do that. He’s a coach, not a professional golfer,” Quigley added.

Williams personally accounted for $12,000 worth of Skins and wins on the final two holes.

He bottomed a 15-foot putt for birdie on the 17th hole and followed that with his long one for $4,000 on the last hole.

“Has he got a putter or what?” said former KC Royals third baseman Brett, who hit a monstrous, 360-yard drive on the first hole a drive Brett called the “longest I’ve ever hit.”

“We outplayed them tee to green, but Roy out-putted us. He out-putted everybody Tommy, Dana, myself. Roy was awesome. He was unbelievable,” added Brett, who Tuesday celebrated his 48th birthday.

Williams wasn’t great off the tee on a windy day.

“I was really ticked off the way I was striking the ball,” Williams said. “I think it balanced out. I’ve always had confidence I could putt the golf ball, but I made a bunch of ’em today.

“It helps when you’ve got Tom Watson telling you where it breaks and what speed to hit it,” Williams added with a smile.

Williams set the tone early.

Watson missed a 4-foot birdie putt on the first hole. Williams, taking advantage of a one-mulligan-per-hole rule in an alternate-shot format, holed the same putt for a birdie save and tie with Brett and Quigley, who earlier birdied.

“I jiggled the one on the first hole Roy center cuts a 4-footer to tie,” Watson said. “On 15 he makes it dead center. Then on 17 he knocks one from top of the hill down a double level man, you are not supposed to be that good.”

Williams, who plays golf 14 weeks a year, starting this spring on April 21 after the conclusion of a recruiting evaluation period, fine-tuned his game last weekend.

KU’s coach played 27 holes at Augusta National on Friday, shooting an 81 through 18 holes at the site of the Masters, then firing a 38 on an additional nine holes. He played 54 holes Saturday and 54 Sunday “in the mountains of North Carolina.”

“We both coached each other very well,” Watson said. “Roy had a couple of shots off line and I’d say, ‘Coach, think we ought to hit a mulligan?’ He wasn’t bashful. He’d say, ‘Tom you hit it.’ He knew exactly what he wanted to do. I like his style.”

Williams, who also had a chip from 60 feet to within two feet on one hole, said he had a lot of nervous energy Tuesday.

“I woke up today, went outside and said, ‘Gosh almighty the wind is blowing,” Williams said. “For me, my heart beat a little quicker. I quit on several shots I think because of that.

“I’ve never in my life been nervous in a basketball game. Today on the first tee, second tee, third tee I was nervous the whole time around. I did feel pretty comfortable standing over the ball on the green.”

He has a lot of confidence in his trusty old putter, which Williams estimates is 50 years old.

“It probably doesn’t exist anymore,” Williams said of the Kroydon company. “My uncle got it out of a grab bag and gave it to me 32 years ago.”

“I’ve seen it before,” said Watson, who is a friend of Williams’ and has played rounds with KU’s coach in the past.

“The thing about Roy I could help out his golf swing. He told me Davis Love’s father saw him hit the ball one time. Roy went up and said, ‘I want to learn how to hook the ball.’ Davis Love’s father said, ‘You don’t want to learn how to hook the ball because you’ll mess up your golf game and not have any fun at it.’

“So Roy’s always been a slicer. He hit the first one off the tee today and hooked the ball and I said, ‘I’ve never seen that out of you coach.’ He hooked another and then his old swing fell into place.

“He’s a wonderful competitor. I talked to him a lot about his decision to stay at Kansas how much I I appreciated it, the way he handled it. He said, ‘You know, I’m corny, Tom, because I couldn’t do it to the kids. I promised them I’d be here. I told him, ‘If you ever have a change of heart, what you need to do is quit for a year or two and come back and be hired again as a basketball coach. He said, ‘Yeah, that’s probably right.’

“I think he did the right thing in staying. He’s a wonderful guy and he can putt.”

The TD Waterhouse Championships run Friday through Sunday at Tiffany Greens.