Greaser & Menante Join Ford On U.S. Walker Cup Team

University of North Carolina men's golfers Austin Greaser and Dylan Menante were named to the 2023 United States team for the Walker Cup, joining Tar Heel teammate David Ford, who automatically qualified earlier this summer for a berth on the team that will play Great Britain and Ireland September 2-3 at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland.

Greaser, a fifth-year senior from Vandalia, Ohio, and Menante, a fifth-year senior from Carlsbad, Calif., were captain's picks as part of the 10-man U.S. roster.

This is the first time one college team has three players on a U.S. Walker Cup roster since Alabama and California both had three in 2013 (including Cal's Max Homa and Alabama's Justin Thomas).

Ford earned a spot in June as the No. 3 player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Joining Ford as automatic qualifiers were Gordon Sargent of Vanderbilt and Michael Thorbjornsen of Stanford. Thorbjornsen was forced to withdraw from the team due to injury. Tennessee's Caleb Surratt and Alabama's Nick Dunlap, who won the U.S. Amateur today, were recently added to the team.

Today, the USGA's International Team Selection working group chose Greaser, Menante, North Florida's Nick Gabrelcik, Virginia's Ben James, Arizona State's Preston Summerhays and Stewart Hagestad of Newport Beach, Calif.

"These six players are outstanding additions to round out this year's team," said Mike McCoy, captain of the USA Team. "This group of players has earned the opportunity to be part of this team and I'm thrilled to see their hard work rewarded. I am beyond excited to have our full team set as we begin to prepare for the Old Course."

Ford, Greaser and Menante will become the sixth, seventh and eighth Tar Heels to play in the Walker Cup and the first since Tom Scherrer in 1991. Harvie Ward (1953, 1955 and 1959) and Marty West (1973 and 1979) played in multiple Walker Cups, and Frank Fuhrer (1981), Davis Love III (1985) and Scherrer also represented Team USA in the biannual event.

Greaser won the 2022 Western Amateur, was a finalist in the 2021 U.S. Amateur and a quarterfinalist in the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur. He is a three-time All-ACC selection, Carolina's first since 2004, earned third-team All-America honors in 2023 and has won college tournaments at Olympia Fields and the 2022 NCAA Yale Regional. He has the second-lowest scoring average in UNC history and is one of two Tar Heels (with Ford) with cumulative scores under par. He represented Team USA at the Palmer Cup in June and with Sargent and Thorbjornsen in the 2022 World Amateur Team Championship in Paris, where he finished third in stroke play.

Greaser has a 15-6-2 record in match play in major competitions over the last three years.

Menante is also a two-time collegiate medalist and has played for Team USA in two Palmer Cups. He won a national championship with Pepperdine in 2021 and transferred to UNC after three seasons with the Waves. Last year Menante earned All-ACC and third-team All-America honors and became the first Tar Heel to finish in the top 10 in the ACC Championship, an NCAA regional and the NCAA Championship (where he finished tied for fourth), something he accomplished in the same season. Menante, a three-time all-conference honoree and two-time conference player of the year, was 4-0 in match play for the Tar Heels last year, including a pair of wins in the NCAA Championship.

Ford was the 2023 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and was named a first-team All-America by the Golf Coaches Association of America and Golfweek. The Peachtree Corners, Ga., leads Carolina in career stroke average (70.22 in 74 rounds over 24 tournaments) and score to par (-74). Ford has the second- and fifth-best scoring averages in a season by a Tar Heel – 69.89 in 2022-23 and 70.54 in 2021-22. He won two matches this week in the U.S. Amateur, advancing to the round of 16.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

David Ford

Austin Greaser

Dylan Menante

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