The Scratch Dad Project

Back to Morris Williams for the third time this project — the course where it all started with a 95 in May. Another 43 (+7) on the nine, and on the surface that looks like a plateau. It isn’t. The story is what moved underneath the number.

The Card

MORRIS WILLIAMS · JUN 30, 2026 · 9 holes
Score: 43 (+7)   |   Walked it

STROKES GAINED (vs scratch)
  Driving   -2.3      Approach  -1.6
  Short     -1.7      Putting   -1.2

Fairways: 4/7 (57%)   Greens: 5/9 (56%)   Putts: 19

The Headline: The Putter Came Back

Two weeks ago, in my first tournament, putting was the worst part of my game — 39 putts, hands flinching on short ones under pressure. I diagnosed it honestly: I had a pre-shot routine for every full swing but none for the putter, and the one part of my game without a routine was exactly the part that broke.

So I built a putting routine and made the mat a daily habit — fifteen minutes, every day, short putts and feel. Today the putter was my best category. From 0-5 feet I made 78%. From 6-10 feet, 100%. The short-putt hands held. The two three-putts I had came from long range — speed control, not the flinch. That’s the improvement loop this whole project runs on, start to finish: identify the leak, build the fix, make it a habit, watch it show up. Two weeks from worst to best.

The 7 on Hole 4 — and Why It’s Not What It Looks Like

One hole accounted for most of the over-par: a 7 on the par-4 fourth. A wayward drive that stayed in bounds but left me with nothing. Here’s the part that matters, though — I didn’t compound it. Six-iron back into play, a 60-degree pitch to seventeen yards, two putts, walk off. The whole hole cost me on the tee shot, and then I took my medicine.

That’s the difference from the tournament two weeks ago, where bad breaks became nines because I kept trying to rescue them. Today a bad break became a bogey-plus, not a disaster. The damage control I said I needed to build — it showed up.

The strokes-gained data backs it: my driving accuracy was actually positive on the day. The entire driving deficit was that one penalty-cost tee shot. The corridor swing held — median 234 yards, longest 278 — I just had one wild one.

The Pattern Is Getting Clear

My scoring irons keep transferring — 3 for 3 on greens from 100-150 yards again, the band that used to be my worst. Putting is now a strength. Driving accuracy is fine. The strokes I lose now come from isolated events — one wild drive, a couple of long-iron misses — not a broad breakdown. That’s a good place to be. It means the stock game has arrived, and the remaining work is targeted, not foundational.

And I walked it, on a great morning. Third time at the course that humbled me in May, and it felt like a different player around the same holes.

Same number on the card as last time here. Underneath it: the putter came back, the damage control held, and the scoring irons transferred again. The number is the lagging indicator. The components moved.