Morris Williams – 1953

 MORRIS WILLIAMS

After graduating from Texas, Williams joined the Air Force and was a member of the Air Force golf team. That branch of the service got bragging rights as Williams was undefeated in tournament play and won the Worldwide Air Force Championship golf tournament playing against future golf stars like Arnold Palmer.

On September 16, 1953, at 24 years of age, Morris Williams was killed on a training flight in a Lockheed F-80. The golf world was devastated by the news. It was Coach Harvey Penick who told Morris’s dad that his son had been killed in a plane crash. Harvey recalls it was “the toughest day of his life..” Years later, Harvey Penick shared some memories and said that of all the players he coached, “ Ed White, Morris Williams, Tom Kite, and Ben Crenshaw (in that order) were his best students.” However, as far as I know, Harvey Penick has never shared the name of the best golfer he ever coached.

In 1964 the Morris William Golf Course was built in his memory. The University of Texas hosts the annual Morris Williams Intercollegiate, a 54-hole stroke event in his memory. Former medalists at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate golf tournament include Fred Couples, Ben Crenshaw, Brad Elder, Bob Estes, Justin Leonard, Phil Mickelson, and Payne Stewart.