Greaser’s Excellent Golf Adventure Comes Full Circle This Week At Olympia Fields
September 16, 2022 | Men's Golf
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By: Steve Kirschner
Austin Greaser was standing in the 18th fairway on the Olympia Fields North Course staring at a likely playoff at best and the possibility of even losing the golf tournament. The University of North Carolina junior, still in pursuit of his first collegiate win, had teed off on the final hole of the 2021 Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational with a one-shot lead but drove his ball right. Way, way, right.
So far right he was forced to chip his second shot back to the fairway, which is when he asked Andrew DiBitetto where he stood on the leaderboard. Carolina's head coach told him he had a one-shot lead over several players, but one of them, his playing partner Cameron Sisk, a two-time All-America from Arizona State, was already on the front of the green in two.
Admittedly not one to lack for confidence of what he can do with a golf club in his hands, Greaser calmly stepped up and hit a knockdown 7-iron into the wind, 168 yards from the hole. His ball landed on the green and rolled into the cup for a birdie 3 to clinch a two-shot win for Greaser and a three-shot victory for the Tar Heels over a top-heavy field that included the Sun Devils, eventual NCAA champion Texas, defending national champion Pepperdine and Oklahoma State.
The Vandalia, Ohio, native had won numerous junior tournaments prior to enrolling at Carolina in the fall of 2019, but Olympia Fields, annually one of the top events on the men's golf circuit, was his first as a collegiate medalist.
"It was one of those weeks when I made my first-ever hole-in-one and then I make the shot to win," says Greaser. "Winning is tough in golf and that week I had two things go my way where I could sit and hit thousands of balls from those spots and never make another shot. Sometimes when you win you get a couple of good breaks and for me that was finally the breakthrough moment, like I can win against the best amateurs in the world. It was big for me to finally get a win under my belt after a lot of close finishes."
Greaser came to UNC as the 10th-ranked player in his class, a quarterfinalist in the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur and a Rolex Junior All-America.
He now enters his senior season as a Tar Heel as one of the top amateurs in the world with credentials that include two All-Atlantic Coast Conference, honorable mention All-America and All-East Region honors; the 2022 Western Amateur title; a runner-up finish in the 2021 U.S. Amateur; collegiate medalist at Olympia Fields and the 2022 NCAA Yale Regional; a third-place finish in the individual standings in the 2022 World Amateur Team Championship near Paris, where he was one of three players to represent Team USA; and the second-best scoring average (71.35) in Carolina history.
Austin Greaser tied for low amateur at the 2022 Masters.
He begins play today in the 2022 Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (second among U.S. players) and No. 4 in the PGA Tour University Velocity Global rankings.
A little more than a year ago, Greaser was a very good college player who had made a run to the semifinals of the Western Amateur at the Glen View Club north of Chicago. He was coming off a sophomore season at UNC in which he tied for fifth at the ACC Championship, defeated National Player of the Year John Pak of Florida State in match play in the ACC semifinals and helped lead UNC to a fifth-place finish in the 2021 NCAA Championship.
Two weeks following the Western Amateur, however, the trajectory of his golf career took a massive leap forward. The 2021 U.S. Amateur was played at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, consistently rated one of the top five courses in the country. It had hosted nine U.S. Opens, two U.S. Women's Opens and three PGA Championships, and was testing the best men's amateurs in the world for the fifth time.
Greaser beat four higher-seeded players, including Texas's Travis Vick and Clemson's Jacob Bridgeman, en route to the championship match where he held a three-hole lead with nine to play, but lost 2&1 to Michigan State's James Piot.
Although he narrowly lost the title, Greaser, with the help of Golf Channel's and NBC's live coverage, became one of the most recognizable players in amateur golf and the second-place finish in the national championship brought with it invitations to the 2022 Masters and U.S. Open, opening doors to what became an amazing and often hectic 12 months of golf.
"I learned a lot at Oakmont, specifically if I go out and execute my game plan and hit shots where I am supposed to hit them, where I envision hitting them, it doesn't matter what the other guy does," says Greaser. "I'm the most competitive guy you are ever going to meet; I hate losing no matter what, and I enjoy staying in my game plan no matter what my opponent does. I want to execute my shots and not let him dictate how I go about playing my game."
Following the 2021 U.S. Amateur Greaser fared well in the fall college golf season, firing seven of his 12 rounds in the 60s. In addition to winning at Olympia Fields he placed fourth at the Williams Cup at Eagle Point at 6 under par, ninth at the Blessings at 3 under and 13th at Duke at 3 under.
However, he then averaged "only" a 34th-place finish in the four collegiate tournaments he played in February and March prior to the Masters, which included five more rounds in the 60s but three in which he shot 76 or higher.
"The Masters was the first time I played in a professional tournament and there are a lot of logistics to work out in advance," says Greaser. "There's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff people don't see. Me, I just want to know how I get to the first tee and put my peg in the ground with the lightest load on me. Hotels, tickets, what I'm wearing, that's not what I do but we worked through all of that for the Masters and U.S. Open. It did give me firsthand experience seeing the physical trainers, agent, travel agent, nutritionist/chef, etc. that take a load off the pro players so they can go do what they do."
Greaser shot in the 60s in all four rounds and led the United States with a third-place finish in the World Amateur Team Championship in France.
Greaser shot 74-77 in April at the Masters. He missed the cut by three, but tied Japan's Keita Nakajima, ranked No. 1 in the world, for the lowest result among all amateurs in the Masters. He fared well compared to several former major and Masters champions, finishing within a shot of Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka, tying Xander Schauffele, and beating Justin Rose and Gary Woodland by a stroke and Bryson DeChambeau by five.
For a moment, Greaser was tied atop the leaderboard halfway through his round on Thursday, a graphic that flashed across the TV screen and was screen-shotted for posterity.
"Everybody watches the Masters and it's played at the same course every year so you really know the place," says Greaser. "The greens were definitely tough but the slopes are even bigger and faster and they break more than you can see on TV.
"The coolest thing was playing the first hole on Thursday and hearing 'On the tee, Austin Greaser. Now driving.' I mean that's something my family and friends have always dreamed about. And seeing my name on the leader board with that (A) for amateur in parentheses, that's a screen shot I'll never forget."
DiBitetto, a top collegiate golfer at Charlotte now in his sixth season as Carolina's head coach, has helped guide Greaser over the last three-plus seasons, including the various experiences that came his way these last 12 months.
"Austin has grown tremendously both as a player and person," says the 2022 ACC Coach of the Year. "He's been all over television, played at the U.S. Amateur with people literally standing within a couple feet of him, executed shots on the first tees at the Masters and U.S. Open with thousands of people watching, and he's won college tournaments and the Western Amateur. There's not a challenge he will face on the course this year in college golf he hasn't already faced and he's experienced success in pretty much each of those areas.
"He's also been able to engage with some of the best professional golfers in the world where, yes, he's picked their brains about golf, but also about life," adds DiBitetto. "He's matured and gained wisdom and experience. I love NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) for many reasons, but specifically the growth and learning these young men and women must experience in dealing with sponsorship opportunities. Making money is cool, but there's so much more that comes with it. Austin learned about planning travel, dealing with tickets, agents, sponsors, his brand, stress and distraction. He just had a 12-month tutorial with all of this, which should help make his transition to professional golf a bit easier." Greaser at the Oakmont Country Club.
Greaser's other favorite moment at Augusta National involved a player who has been at the center of golf memories for decades – Tiger Woods.
"Tiger played two hours and 15 minutes behind me," says Greaser. "In the first round when I was on 15, he hit his tee shot on the par-3 sixth to within two feet. The sixth hole sits right behind 15. I'm walking up 15 and I hear the craziest, loudest roar I've ever heard on a golf course. If you know anything about golf, you know who that is. That was one of the most bone-chilling, coolest things ever. I'm frickin' competing and playing on the same course as Tiger. He's the guy that truly changed our game. It was very cool to hear the Tiger yells; it felt like a plane flew over."
After the Masters Greaser returned to college golf but sat out a mid-April tournament in Phoenix to rest and recalibrate. His next start for UNC was the ACC Championship, where he opened with a 68 but tied for 37th in stroke play and lost on the first extra hole of match play in the semifinals.
In May, Greaser shot 68-63-69 for a 10-under-par 200 to win the NCAA Yale Regional, becoming the first Tar Heel ever to win an NCAA regional and shooting the lowest score by a Tar Heel in regional play. The 63 was his lowest collegiate round, one stroke off his personal competitive best, a 62 at a 2021 U.S. Amateur qualifier in Charleston, W. Va.
"I learned a ton at the Masters; I learned I can compete at the highest level," says Greaser. "I also learned it was mentally tough to deal with some of the off the course things, but that's okay because now I had a team to play for again. Unfortunately, it had to go a little south for me to learn that but it's part of the learning curve of sports. After the Masters I came down off my high a little bit and knew I had to get back to my process and get back to getting better."
Greaser acknowledges it took a few weeks after Augusta before he settled in, but a quick trip home to Ohio for some work with his swing coach right before the NCAA regional was instrumental in his outstanding play in New Haven.
Greaser's win at Yale helped lead Carolina back to the NCAA Championship in Scottsdale, Ariz., where the Tar Heels tied Oklahoma and Vanderbilt for first place in stroke play. Greaser shot 69 in the final round to tie for 25th in the individual standings and beat Pepperdine's William Mouw, 2&1, in match play in the quarterfinals.
Following the NCAA Championship Greaser had 16 days to prepare for the U.S. Open, which was played at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., another of the historic tracks in American golf.
The Masters and the U.S. Open may be two of the four majors, but they are very different, something Greaser noted almost immediately.
"The Masters is tradition, it's what is makes it so incredibly special. The U.S. Open, probably even more so when it's played in a place like Boston, is rowdier. The atmosphere was so different. But I have so much respect for both tournaments. Both are what you want to be part of as a golfer."
Greaser shot 72-70 in the first two rounds and made the cut at the U.S. Open, one of 64 players in the 156-man field to play the weekend, something notable stars like Sergio Garcia, Webb Simpson, Shane Lowry, Jim Furyk, Louis Oosthuizen and Phil Mickelson did not.
The moment at the end of his second round when Greaser realized he made the cut is one of his favorite memories of his young golf career.
"My twin brother, Byron, was on the bag," says Greaser. "I hit a good drive on 18, hit my approach shot to six feet and made the putt and knew that (making the cut) was secured. I got to give my brother a big high five and a pretty good hug. It was kind of euphoric, confirming to me what I've been doing is working. Kind of living the dream; it gives me chills even thinking about that. To share that with Byron meant a lot. We may have even shed a tear on the green because we both put a lot of time in my game. To go from eating a bag of chips and watching U.S. Opens together on the couch to teeing it up with Gary Woodland and Tyrell Hatton on the weekend was super cool."
Two months later Greaser rallied from four holes down with seven to play to defeat Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira of Argentina and the University of Arkansas to win the prestigious Western Amateur at the Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Ill.
Greaser undoubtedly drew upon his experiences from the 2021 U.S. Amateur to win the Western, which is one of the top amateur events with a previous champions list that is a Who's Who in Golf, names like Woods, Leonard, Mickelson, Crenshaw, Strange and Nicklaus.
"I told myself after the 11th hole, 'You don't have time to be inching your way around, you have got to make this happen,'" says Greaser, who won the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th holes to take a 2 up lead, then saved par with a delicate chip from behind the 18th green for the title.
"I stuck to my game plan and believed in what I was doing," he says. "I got that one putt to drop on 12 and after that I was like, 'Alright, I'm winning this.' At some point when you say you have to execute, you can't mess it up. I enjoy that nervousness because you've practiced and prepared for where you have hit this shot, you have to make this putt. It's making that last putt to win before you leave the practice facility whether it's from eight feet or 25 feet, so that's how you prepare and I enjoy having that kind of nervousness."
Just one week after the Western it was time again for the U.S. Amateur in Paramus, N.J. Unlike a year ago Greaser couldn't bottle the magic he found in Oakmont and failed to advance to match play, shooting 73-77, four shots above the cut line.
"I just didn't have my best stuff," says Greaser. "I'm not going to lie, the Western pretty much took its toll mentally and physically. Byron caddied for me at the Western and kept track on his Apple watch and we walked 94 miles in seven days. My game going into the U.S. Amateur was in a great place but I have to better figure out the transition from having one great week to getting ready for another tournament with just three or four days in between. There was some wear and tear but I don't like making excuses. I didn't execute my plan and a lot of guys played better than I did at Ridgewood."
There was one positive though that Greaser took from this year's U.S. Amateur, something he experienced for the first time in his playing career. A feeling of being 'that guy,' one of the players others expected to win.
"That's the first week in my life I had ever been thought of as a favorite," he says. "Having that feeling stepping onto the course was cool. That feeling of thinking you are the best and have a good chance of winning. It didn't go my way that week but I learned a lot about understanding the feeling of being the favorite and how to go forward with that kind of pressure."
Soon after the U.S. Amateur, the USGA invited Greaser to play for the United States in the World Amateur Team Championship with Stanford's Michael Thorbjornsen and Vanderbilt's Gordon Sargent, the 2022 NCAA champion. Greaser shot 68-67-69-67 for a 15-under 271, two shots behind the leader Tobias Jonsson of Sweden. Greaser finished third among 211 players, edging Thorbjornsen by four strokes and Sargent by a dozen and helped the U.S. to a third-place finish out of 71 teams.
"It was weird, because I was spraying it around during the practice round," says Greaser. "But when the lights came on, and they said, 'Now on the tee from the USA, Austin Greaser,' I was ready to play. It was a dream to represent the United States. That was so frickin' cool.
"I love my country and respect everybody that's laid their life on the line for this country and puts everybody else in a position to do what they want to do. For me, that's golf. There have been a lot of sacrifices made for this country to be as good as it is, and for me to go out there and represent the Red, White and Blue was an honor. I was able to use that as my fuel for the week."
Which bring us back full circle to Olympia Fields, Ill., where Greaser and the Tar Heels are playing in UNC's second tournament of the season. Carolina placed third Sept. 4-5 at the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Classic, a tournament Greaser didn't play in as it began one day after the final round of the WATC in France. Greaser won the '22 NCAA Yale Regional.
The Tar Heels, like Greaser, are the defending champions in Illinois. UNC is also ranked No. 2 in the nation by Golfweek and the Golf Coaches Association.
Greaser has lofty goals this season for both him and his Tar Heel teammates.
"Carolina has meant the world to me; it was the only big-time Power Five program that gave me an offer to play. I don't take that lightly. I'm going to do the best I can, give everything I've got and wake up every day trying to get better and represent this university in a positive way. It's going to be a lot of fun to get back up to Illinois where I have some cool memories. The video that's out there (of making the shot from the fairway on the final hole), seeing the guys going crazy in the background, I'm really excited to get going with these boys. We've got a good team and we have the chance to do something special. I'm just honored to be a part of it and hopefully I can contribute."
DiBitetto says Greaser has earned his top amateur and collegiate rankings and in doing so has continued the development of the UNC program, as well.
"Austin's where he is through his hard work and dedication. It's been a while since Carolina Golf has been talked about in a national sense, but that's changing. Austin Greaser is changing that. Ben Griffin is changing that. David Ford is changing that and so are many of our other Tar Heels. Sometimes junior golfers get caught up in the glitz and glamour during the recruiting process. They focus on things that won't exist once they are on a college campus. Our program has proven in recent years that our university, golf program and environment are pretty good at helping players develop on and off the course. Like others, Austin Greaser is certainly proof of that."
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