Morris Williams Golf Course

Very much a fan of this course! Good condition course with good greens, Fair price and good staff. All around a good spot to visit frequently.

I learned to golf here in the 70s and it is such a pleasure to teach my son the game on the very same course. It is public so the fees are minimal and the staff is fantastic. In addition, the teaching pros are very reasonable and chech their egos at the door. Highly recommend.

I never played this course before it was renovated so I cannot speak to that. We played this course a few weeks ago and despite all the rain we’ve had, the greens were already burnt and in rough shape. I know it’s a public course, but their customers are clearly not helping take care of this course. This is very annoying for me as a fellow golfer. No one seems to fix their divots or ball marks.
They don’t have a starter, but they do call people to the tee because of how busy they are. It has always been packed when we’ve been here — even when I’ve only been on the range. I think they could really benefit from having a range on the course as play is VERY slow.
Pricing is reasonable for the course and you can get a large bucket for $ 6.

Brian is right, the improvements they made early 2013 are disappearing. There were areas that were very rocky between some fairways. They are coming back. Grass is dying. Greens are getting rough with divots and bumps. Clubhouse is still nice. The rates are low. The staff is ok if you are not too sensitive a guy. Still had a great time playing Jan. 28, 2015.

I don’t normally leave reviews but I was very frustrated after my recent trip to this course.
I enjoyed the course layout and maintenance but I was very disappointed with customer service. The starter was very rude to myself and the other member of my twosome. First he was rude when we were paying then he yelled at us over the loud speaker while we were teeing off about not hitting mulligans when technically I needed to hit a provisional drive because mine went out of bounds. I was very frustrated with his actions.
We were also greeted rudely by the person collecting carts. He drove up to the 18^th green as we were finishing our round and told us he was trying to close so we needed to «hurry it up». He then followed us to our car and stared us down as we hurriedly unloaded our clubs. This was completely unnecessary and made me angry. As a new homeowner near Morris Williams I was excited to have a new home course but after this experience I question wether I will even return.

Rewind to Mother’s Day 2014. My mom flew down from Massachusetts to hang out with me for the weekend. She enjoys golf and suggests, «why don’t we go golfing this weekend?» Although I am awful at golf, I thought, «sure, why not? What could possibly go wrong?»
We schedule a tee time for 10am on a Saturday morning. This was probably our biggest mistake. Apparently, Saturday mornings are a really popular time to golf. Who would have thunk it?
We showed up at the clubhouse and paid our green fees, which were quite reasonable at $ 26 each. They wouldn’t let us share clubs, so my mom ended up renting clubs for $ 15. The guys in the pro shop were pretty rough around the edges. Not the friendliest bunch.
After a 15 minute wait or so, our name was called over the loudspeakers and we hustled out to tee-​off. Come to find out, we had been teamed up with two other guys. One guy who looked like a tall, lanky, Santa and his son. Both came equipped with some deep-​fried southern accents. They did not look or sound like golfers. My mom leans over to me and goes «well, these guys don’t scare me.» After some introductions, I learned that they play at Morris Williams every weekend. Crap.
We tee’d off and of course my mom’s ball goes about 30 yards every time she hits it, and mine goes 250 meters in the wrong direction on most drives. I actually managed to tee off and hit my shin with the ball. I laughed it off, but was crying secretly inside. Thankfully my short game is decent.
Our two friends were extremely nice and didn’t talk bad about our less than stellar golf skillz (at least in front of us, haha). The other golfers, however, were not very happy with us. At one point, one of the staff members asked my mom to pick up her ball after the first drive if she didn’t get it on the green. We ended up leaving after 9 holes which was the original plan anyways.
TL;DR: The greens are very nice and the price is right, but this course is definitely not for beginners. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

I was impressed and excited about Morris Williams after the renovation, but unfortunately it is regressing back to its pre-​renovation condition. The grass is slowly going away in many places and the greens look and roll like a mine field… except slower. Many seem to want to blame it on the drought, but I play a lot of courses around Austin that are doing fine. Leave it to the wise leaders of the City of Austin to make a capital improvement, but not invest in ongoing maintenance to protect the investment. Mo Willy is going back on my blacklist… there are plenty of good courses in Austin and GolfNow makes rates competitive with City course rates.

They started a weird schedule of when you can hit off the grass on the weekdays. From what Ivan tell it’s pretty random. At least the staff is friendly and the course is in decent shape. If they got rid of the mats and got the time it took to play a round down to around 4 hours it would deserve 5 stars.

Loved the redo!
Course was great!
Heard a lot about clubhouse… no big deal!
Will be back!

I consider Morris Williams to be my course. It’s nearest to me, is usually in decent condition, has a driving range, and the price is fair.
I like the course’s new club house and renovations. It all looks very nice. I agree with some previous comments about a lot of dead spots in the rough. But we are in the middle of a long drought so whatever. I need to learn to play on the fairway anyways.
So I am pretty much solidly happy with the course. My only complaints at the moment which I thin could make my experience better:
1. Last time we were there the course Marshall pretty much followed our foursome around the entire time except for the last 4 holes. Go away, douche.
2. They don’t accept tips for card payments at the club, so I could not tip the nice young man at the snack bar
3. Cheap score cards! I want a hole map!
Ok thanks BYE!

Course has reopened! I’ve only been to the driving range and practice green due to tee times filling up so quickly, but both of those are very nice.

Played last weekend during their soft opening and the course is much better than it used to be. Blues and Blacks are longer by 300 – 400 yards, and greens are tougher, which are both welcome changes. Still a lot of dead grass in the rough, but fairways and greens were decent. Redesign on 13 is pretty cool as it offers the option for a cool approach before the pond.
Club house is pretty nice now! Minimal merchandise and the food bar is run by Players (as is the rest of APL courses). Parking lot has been overhauled, and the range turf has been improved — no longer rubs off on your clubs (I used to have green irons after hitting a bucket).
All in all I will definitely be playing here over some of the other courses around Austin that either seem to have given up on course maintenance entirely or are simply inconsistent. I’m starting to think it’s impossible to have a decently maintained municipal course in Austin (Seriously, MoWill and Kizer are it right now), but I have my fingers crossed.

Didn’t get to play, but I’ve been playing at Harvey Penick and Hancock and this place looks great. The grass looks as well maintained as Roy Kizer. I’m giving them 4 stars for the anticipation. I will have to review in about a month when they actually open again

Played yesterday, decent shape, decent greens… closing for a remodel on the 13^th for about a year

Played twilight special with a friend here around 6PM on a Saturday for $ 20 including cart pp. It was pretty freaking ridiculously hot outside (we teed off on 1 probably at 109 degrees outside). Managed to finish 9 before the sun went down.
The course is a nice challenge. Front 9 has a mix of pretty hard uphill/​downhill dogleg left par 5s, some easier (but still challenging) par 3’s like the over the lake shot from above a hill.
The greens are managed nicely, I didn’t see too many holes or weird lump y spots. I wish the carts had a bit more slots for tees and balls, and our cart seemed to be running out of juice around the 4^th hole. Rate of play wasn’t bad. The roughs are REALLY rough, because its pretty much rocks and dry dirt in the roughs. If you’re out there, good luck shooting around. Stay on the fairway as much as you can.
The only complaint I have is the course layout. Some of the earlier holes like 2 – 4 are going in opposite direction of the later 7 – 9 holes. Its almost sort of dangerous to see yourself tee off and carts are driving around pretty close to where you’re aiming to shoot. I mean, its a compact 18 course, but they might have done better in designing the course by not putting the greens so close to other holes.

Morris Williams is one of the Austin Park Commisions Golf courses. It is located in East Austin, just off of Martin Luther Blvd.
I like this course, but I have to give it a 3 star rating, simply because of the conditions of the course. The fairways are usually really hard and the rough is patches of dirt which is hard as cement.
That being said,
Morris Williams may have the best condition greens out of the Austin Golf courses. They are usually very green, lush, and roll true. Getting to the Greens is the tough part.
This course can be tricky — the layout is fairly short, but the trees WILL come into play if you are not accurate off the tee, which can make your score balloon. Fun layout given the space they have.
They recently completed construction on the par 3 14^th, which is now an uphill tight shot, usually into the wind, which played 195 from the back. If the wind is blowing, you better hope you have a hybrid. The green on this par 3 is huge though, so you have room to miss.
Mo-​Will has a large putting green, and a driving range, but there is nothing special with it. I heard a rumor they may be creating a new clubhouse for this course, which gives me the feeling they may be interested investing more money into this track.
I hope they are able to pump more money in, because with a bit more water and maintenance, this could be a really great muni.
Good times if you are looking to go out with friends, but I prefer the Kizer/​Clay complex for pure value.

Morris Williams is loaded with history. Austin is a big-​time golf town, and this course is one of the most iconic ones we’ve got. You need to read all of Harvey Penick’s books if you haven’t, then you’ll see what I mean. If you ask to see the manager, be polite; you’re talking to a 14-​time city champion. That guy who’s picking out beer cans you left in the cup holder, could be a 4-​time city champ. The people who work and volunteer there do so with a sense of professionalism and passion that’s hard to find these days. And good luck breaking 100! It’s a tough course.
I checked «no» under «good for kids» because the course is long and difficult. Kids are better off at Hancock where the pace of play is less demanding.

Just started playing a few months ago and Morris Williams is right by my house. They have a $ 50/​month all you can hit range balls and on top of that, you can get a 18 hole round of golf with cart for $ 10 after 3pm. I’ve been playing a lot there this month because of this.

If you want to feel like John Daly on the tee box, try Morris Williams in the winter. Wait, check that. I’m going to revise to Tiger Woods, because feeling like Daly may equate to already having put a sixer of Lone Star away before even teeing off, with a 12er on ice in the cart. Add that to the nicotine buzz, and injuries could ensue.
My point is that there is a LOT of roll, with the fairways being pretty bare and the ground being hard. I had the pleasure of playing a round yesterday (shorts and a golf shirt on December 29 — YAY for that), and hit two drives at least 330 yards, plus a few more in the 300 yard range. I’d like to think that it was all my doing, but in reality I was probably getting an extra 30 yards more roll than usual on some of those shots. Hey, it still felt good.
Of course, this can also play against you… because if you start off in the wrong direction, then it’s going to go for a WAYS in that direction. Even the greens were playing pretty fast yesterday, but they were in surprisingly good shape, especially considering it’s a municipal course in the winter.
Funny thing was, the player in our rag tag foursome (a buddy and I and two singles) who golfed the best was a 70 year old Taiwanese dude named Leo who would drive it about 200 yards every time, right down the middle. As Confucius says, «better to be straight and consistent than long and erratic.»
Figure on $ 30 with a cart, but you’re good for $ 20 or less if you’re walking, so it’s a nice deal. Play can get a little slow there when the weather is nice, but it really just depends on the two or three groups in front you. If you’ve got 5 hacks teeing off before you and they’re all walking, then settle down for a long day. Go back into the snack bar, ask for a plastic bag with ice and then fill it with beer (cash only at the snack bar, but not in the pro shop). Because, you know… beer makes waiting a little more enjoyable. And then you can morph from Tiger back into John Daly.

How did I forget about this place? I played here with a buddy about 6 years ago and hadn’t been back since yesterday. What a great deal!
We went out (a twosome) about 4:30, and teed off at 5:15ish and were able to complete a round before dark. The greens were in excellent shape for a muni and the pace was better than expected. I was very impressed with the overall condition of the course.
My only complaint? All the freaking flying projectiles because it was crowded with people that don’t know what they’re doing and just hacking away. Look at me, I’m an elitist golfer ;). Anyways, I guess it is to be expected since it a popular muni.
The best part? It’s less than 2 miles from my house and it only costs $ 12 if you’re walking ($ 20ish if you need a cart). If you’re looking for a decent course with reasonable green fees near central Austin, give the Willy Mo a shot.