Texas junior Tommy Morrison and North Carolina senior David Ford, dawning the stars and stripes, finished fourth in the 2024 Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship with a 22-under-par and a gross score of 194.
The three-day 54-hole tournament featuring the world’s best amateurs ended in a tie for first with Mexico and England. The tie allowed the two Americans to step onto the podium to receive their bronze medals.
Morrison was no stranger to the wide fairways of Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas, competing on the course this past April for the Big 12 Championship.
Familiarity with the course aided Morrison in the Spirit Cup, opening his day with a birdie on hole one, and five holes later Morrison hit a coveted eagle. Closing out the front nine, Morrison ended with his second birdie of the morning.
“I knew where my ball was going for the most part and made a lot of puts,” Morrison said on the Spirit Cup Association’s Instagram. “Kind of where all of those birdies fell.”
Not only did Morrison tower over his opponents with his 6-foot-9 inch frame, he towered over them by being on top of the leaderboard at the end of the first day. Continuing his impressive play on the back nine, Morrison shot five consecutive birdies before closing out the first round.
With the unique format of the tournament, Ford took a back seat in the wake of Morrison’s hot start in the opening round of the tournament.
“(I) kind of got carried by Tommy (Morrison),” Ford said on the Spirit Cup Association’s Instagram. “I was playing more caddy and making pars on a few holes, I’m happy to do that on the days he plays well.”
In rounds two and three, Morrison saw limited action, unable to capture the same fire in his first round. But he remained solid, hitting a combined five birdies in his final two rounds, breaking even with the rest of his holes and suffering no bogeys for a tie for ninth place on the individual leaderboard.
Morrison was not the only Longhorn to represent their country. Junior Christiaan Maas and freshman Daniel Bennett were selected to represent South Africa, a country rich with premier golfers.
“It’s like a team event,” Maas said on the Spirit Cup Association’s Instagram. “Me and Tommy live together back in Austin and Daniel is over at the apartment quite a bit; it’s pretty special this week.”
