Birdie Brotherhood: Former West Point golfers compete for gold

The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, is designed as a crucible to test cadets and turn them into commissioned leaders of character prepared for a career of professional excellence in the U.S. Army.

If those young cadets are competitive athletes on the West Point golf team, however, the dark and cold winter months at West Point can be particularly challenging.

“There’s a period from January to about April, sometimes May, where color does not exist on the Hudson River,” said Capt. Nick Turner, an aviation Basic Officer Leadership Course instructor with 1st Battalion, 145th Aviation Regiment, Fort Novosel, Alabama. “You walk outside and it’s gray everywhere: there’s gray buildings, gray trees, gray souls [laughs], gray faces, everything. And there’s no golf, it’s always freezing.”

Members of “The Long Gray Line” must consistently balance rigorous academic requirements with their military duties. It was in these circumstances that Turner first met Capt. Peter Kim, now an artillery observer controller/trainer with the 188th Infantry Brigade, Fort Stewart, Georgia, and Capt. Justin Williamson, a company commander with the 326th Engineer Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Kim, then a senior, was a captain on the golf team when Williamson reported for his plebe year and Turner returned for his second year at West Point.

“New guys on the team, it’s always nice to see some fresh faces [and] see what they can do out there,” Kim said. “These guys were pretty high-ranked, and they were playing some really good golf coming in.”

Williamson, who’s father is a Navy veteran, recalled seeing an Army-Navy golf competition that initially got him interested in attending the USMA.

“I did a visit down at the Naval Academy and did a visit up at West Point,” Williamson said. “And I went to West Point because on my visit I was really impressed with the golf team and how they were very humble, but strove for excellence, and that was the kind of culture I wanted to be in.”

Turner also attended an Army-Navy tournament the previous year, which contributed to his decision to commit to the Army.

“You go to West Point and play on the Army team to honor something bigger than yourself,” Turner said. “That’s why we all wanted to be a part of the team, as well as refining yourself and who you are as a person to serve the nation.”

Through the following year, the cadet golfers would play in numerous competitions together, meet President Trump at one of his golf courses, and spend countless hours together in the classroom, off campus, and traveling for golf tournaments.

However, the Army goes rolling along. The three cadets, now active-duty officers, would communicate sparingly over the first few busy years in their military careers.

“Obviously, just things happening in the Army, whether you’re bogged down in command, or you’re flying, or, you know, I’m just somewhere in the woods trying to blow something up,” Kim said with a laugh. “It’s kind of hard to try to keep contact sometimes, at least from my perspective.”

That is, until the 2025 Armed Forces Sports Golf Championship. Teams of six men and four women from each service component competed Feb. 24-28 at the Legends Golf Course, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina.

Kim, Turner, and Williamson made the All-Army Sports team after the Army competition and had a chance to reconnect after several years of Army service.

“I walked up and saw them on the range, and it was like nothing changed. It felt like we were playing his [Kim’s] senior year,” Turner said. “That’s the uniqueness of the brotherhood: like, we may text each other three times, four times, in the past five, six years, but it doesn’t matter. You show back up and you’re right back to where you were at.”

That camaraderie bleeds off the course and contributes to a greater understanding of their different roles and experiences in their first years of military service, Kim adds.

“Sometimes I just pick at their brains, like the other day I asked Justin ‘hey, how many people are in your company?’, because I know for a [field artillery] battery we don’t have a whole lot,” Kim said. “We all have very different jobs in the military, but coming back together and reminiscing on the experiences that we’ve had and just making this one another great experience is what I wanted out of this for sure.”

The competition is also a chance for the Army captains to sharpen their competitive edge, which helps contribute to their overall effectiveness on the battlefield.

“I think any time that you go out and compete, no matter what the sport is, you’re sharpening yourself and putting yourself in pressurized situations and seeing how you do,” Williamson said. “I think that directly translates to work, so any time you go out and experience that and put yourself in those situations, it makes you better at your job.”

The Legends Golf Course is rated as a par-72 course, meaning that a professional golfer is expected to end an 18-hole round with a final recorded score of 72 strokes. Scoring better than this mark is called “shooting below par”.

Kim, Williamson, and Turner all shot below par at least once during the four days of competition, beating the professional standard.

After a grueling back-and-forth battle with two Marine Corps competitors on the final day of tournament play, Kim was awarded the gold medal in the men’s individual division with a final overall score of 282. Williamson and Turner weren’t far behind, finishing with scores of 288 and 296, respectively.

“Winning matters, it doesn’t matter how you put it,” Kim said. “Playing good is great, but winning means so much to me personally because it’s on behalf of the Army, being able to represent the Army, [and] being able to stay on top. It makes me proud to know that I did something for the Army.”

Williamson and Turner both had the same response when asked how it felt seeing Kim come away with the top spot for Army: “Normal.”

“We’ve been convincing him to play [competitive] golf for so long, and he’s so good,” Turner said. “Watching him shoot 70, 68, 71, 73 is like normal for him, so the fact that he was able to pull that out today was awesome to see.”

Kim wasn’t the only Soldier who left Parris Island with a win. The Army women’s team ended their week with a championship of their own on the Marine Corps’ turf. Cpt. Lauren Theilen, Cpt. Carleen Schumacher, Sgt. Hansol Koo, and Sgt. Brittany Lindesmith combined for a gross score of 606 to clinch the championship. Thielen clinched the silver medal in the women’s individual competition.

The All-Marines men’s team took home the gold from the men’s team competition for the first time ever, recording a gross score of 1459.

The top six men and top three women, including Kim, Williamson, and Thielen, were named to the U.S. Armed Forces Golf Team. Team USA will compete at the 16th edition of the Conseil International du Sport Militaire, or CISM, World Military Golf Championship at the Diamond Leisure Beach & Golf Resort, Kwale, Kenya from June 22-29.

CISM seeks to promote sport in armed forces across the world, foster confidence and cohesion amongst service members internationally, and contribute to the fitness and motivation of service members.

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