One thing you can say about Pepperdine golfer Andrew Morris: he knows a lot about girls.
Morris, 20, is a first-year student at Pepperdine and a member of the golf team. He is from Cape Town, South Africa, and his first time in the United States was visiting Pepperdine in December 2010.
Morris has four sisters, and he is in the middle of them age-wise. He shares a close relationship with each of them, but they are all different.
His oldest sister is like a second mother, and the next sister is the kind of person he can tell anything to. The third sister is smart and hard to anger because she is so sweet. The fourth one is the rambunctious one.
Growing up with four sisters and no brothers, Morris found to be a “pretty great experience.” However, as most sisters do, they did occasionally try to influence his love life.
He believes he can talk to them about anything, and he also feels like he can talk to his sisters’ boyfriends because they are like brothers. He has known one of his sister’s boyfriends for eight years.
“I used to be shy about talking to my sisters about relationship stuff,” said Morris. “But as we grew older, we became more comfortable and grew closer to each other.”
He does not currently have a girlfriend, but he would possibly be interested in a laid-back relationship with someone at Pepperdine. It’s difficult, though, since golf dominates most of his time. He does have a celebrity crush on Angelina Jolie.
Golf takes up most of Morris’ time because on Mondays and Fridays there are team workouts at 6 a.m. on campus. Then in the afternoons, Monday thru Friday, there is practice off campus from 1:30 to 5:30. But it takes about an hour to get to the course.
Morris has been playing golf for about 10 years. Golf became his focus when he graduated from high school.
“Golf is the most challenging sport,” said Morris. “It’s the most frustrating, but I also find it to be the most rewarding.”
He used to play cricket and rugby, but he was frequently injured in rugby, and he said, “I wasn’t a brilliant rugby player.” He still loves watching rugby, especially the Rugby World Cup.
After graduating from high school, Morris studied in Cape Town for a year through Cambridge University. He took courses in mathematics, business studies and physics.
He is currently a mathematics major at Pepperdine, but he did not choose this major. When he arrived at Pepperdine, this was the major he had been placed into.
Morris is thinking of pursuing a major in communications, possibly advertising. His favorite class in the fall semester has been public speaking.
On the weekends, Morris spends time with friends from his suite in Eaton when he is not golfing. They often attend fraternity parties or house parties.
“He likes to sing,” said his roommate, Neil Evans. “He sings along with the music he plays, but he’s not very good.”
Evans, from Arizona, is trying to learn Morris’ accent. However, he’s not sure Morris enjoys this.
Malibu and Cape Town are far apart in distance, but they are actually very similar. According to Morris, Cape Town is like Los Angeles, but Cape Town is more condensed.
“The people in America are more energetic, exuberant, and bubbly than South Africans,” said Morris. “The people in South Africa are more laid back.
“Also, the work ethic is different. In South Africa, people work as hard as they are getting paid, but in America people are really proud of their jobs.”
The drinking age is 18 in South Africa. Since the drinking age in the U.S. is 21, Morris is legally not able to drink here even though he can back home.
“I feel like I’m 17 again,” said Morris. “People make such a big deal about drinking here.”
The only place in America Morris has been to is California. If he could visit another state it would be New York.
Despite being from another continent, Morris likes a lot of things that other students like. For example, his favorite movie is “Cool Runnings.”
Some of the bands he likes include The Killers, Kings of Leon, and Mumford & Sons. When it comes to reading, he enjoys the “Harry Potter” series.
But he does miss South African food. Back home, Morris really likes Boerewors roll, which is like sausage, and he also likes biltong, which is dried meat.
In the States, he likes classic double cheeseburgers and fries, although in South Africa they call them chips. He especially likes In-N-Out burgers cooked “Animal Style.”
What Morris misses most about home is his friends. He has Skype and Facebook to communicate with them, but there is also a nine-hour time difference.
On summers and holidays, Morris usually spends time with friends or he goes to his family’s holiday home located about an hour and a half from Cape Town. His family also visited Mozambique for a vacation one time.
Even though Morris was born in and spent most of his life in South Africa, there was also a three-year period that his family lived in Bangkok. After the three years in Bangkok, his family traveled around Europe for some time.
After graduating from Pepperdine, Morris is not sure whether he is going to stay in the States or return to South Africa.
In five years, Morris hopes to be playing professional golf. Tiger Woods is Morris’ role model, which may be surprising because of Woods’ scandalous behavior. However, Morris still looks up to him as an incredible golfer.
Winter break is the first time Morris will return home since arriving at Pepperdine in August. When he is home, he will see not only his family but also his two dogs and his cat.
“She only comes to you when she wants something,” said Morris of the fox terrier.
His schedule of five hours of golf practice and hours of homework do not make for much free time. He no longer plays video games because he does not have the time to, and he has outgrown them.
Along with enjoying the great weather of Malibu, Morris has made a lot of friends both on and off of the golf team. He even gets together with some fellow South Africans to watch rugby every so often.
This green-eyed golfer with an intoxicating accent flew from Cape Town to Dubai in a nine and a half hour flight, had an eight-hour layover, and then flew 15 hours from Dubai to Los Angeles. But he is finally here, and here to stay.
