At the age of 4, junior Blake Morris picked up a club for the first time and never set it down. Now, Morris is the top golfer on the Ole Miss men’s golf team and has a season average of 70.58.
“Golf is my number-one priority and always will be,” Morris said. “It’s a love, it’s a passion, it’s a business.”
Golf has consistently been a large part of Morris’s life.
“I played a lot of sports when I was younger. I played basketball, I played hockey, but golf was always my true calling,” said Morris, a journalism major from Waterbury, Conn. “I have an unbelievable passion for it, and I was always willing to make sacrifices for golf, and it’s always been that way.”
Morris’s most recent success came from the Shoal Creek Invitational in Birmingham where he was named co-champion. The win was Morris’s fifth top-five career finish.
“This win came as more a relief than anything,” Morris said. “I’ve had so many tournaments that came down to the wire that it was a relief to finally clinch the title.”
Morris also had a good showing this summer when he played in the U.S. Amateur PGA and went on to make the televised second round.
“It is the ultimate telltale to see where you are in your golf career,” Morris said. “It’s the closest thing you see to a professional PGA event, golf course-wise, media-wise, and it will show you where you stand in your game.”
Ole Miss head golf coach Ernest Ross said Morris “has built up a mental toughness from the upper-level golf,” which has allowed him to play as well as he has been and to better his game.
“Morris has gotten stronger and longer off the tee since he first got here,” Ross said. “I know that has helped his game a lot. He has always had a good short game.”
Ross expects Morris to become Ole Miss’ All-American as well as receive All-SEC honors this year and next.
“He is a high-desire person,” Ross said. “In our sport, persistence and drive are more important that pure talent, and he has both.”
Morris has gradually improved his average over the last three years and hit his current low round score of 66 his freshman year, which he hopes to decrease again this season. This season, he has finished nine of his 12 tournaments at or below par.
“I slowly and steadily keep climbing up the ladder,” Morris said. “I haven’t had any huge breakouts, but my goal is every two or three months to become a more complete player, more mature player. I think I’m doing that and continually going in the right direction because it’s all about getting better.”
Morris’s goal for the season is for the team to make the NCAA regional this year. Individually, this year, Morris hopes to become one of the elite players of college golf.
“Golf is a brutal game, and you have to learn to be really level-headed during good and bad times,” Morris said. “I think that my maturity has really helped me in handling the highs and lows.”
Morris and the Ole Miss golf team will be traveling to Makai, Hawaii, next for the Warrior Princeville Intercollegiate beginning Nov. 4.
