AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | Standing in the 11th fairway during the second round at the Masters, Austin Greaser seemed destined for low-amateur status. The U.S. Amateur runner-up from a year ago had just converted back-to-back birdies on Nos. 8 and 9 to reach 2 over for the tournament, putting him within the impending 4-over cut with a couple of strokes to spare.
Greaser was playing the kind of golf that has those in the amateur community convinced he will make a name for himself at the highest level. Like eventual champion Scottie Scheffler, Greaser moves his left foot substantially in his follow-through, a modern swing that clears the way for the kind of horsepower most of the game’s stars are able to generate. He hit one 348 yards on the ninth hole during that Friday round and repeated similar feats throughout the tournament. Greaser passed the eye test as he walked, talked and swung as if he belonged in a way some of the other amateurs didn’t.
But just when it looked like a flood of headlines and accolades would be headed toward the University of North Carolina junior from Vandalia, Ohio, Augusta National taught him a painful and valuable lesson. He laid well back with his second shot into No. 11, pitched to the front fringe and three-putted for a double bogey. A hole later, he flew the 12th green, failed to find the green with his second as he attempted putting through thick fairway grass and left with a bogey.
That was the beginning of the end. Greaser finished at 7 over in the difficult conditions.
“I made some mistakes and really paid for it,” Greaser said shortly after his round. “I want to reflect back on it in a little bit. I'm not extremely excited about it now, how the finish was. But I'm playing at the Masters, a dream come true for a long time and a dream for a lot of people. I got to live it this week.”
Those words reflect the expectation level for one of amateur golf’s fastest-rising stars. Coming into 2021, Greaser was the No. 320 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and a relative unknown. Even to be playing golf at an ACC school was no guarantee for much of his high school career. Greaser didn’t have a single other Power Five conference offer, with Cincinnati, which is about an hour drive from his hometown in western Ohio, being one of the only schools to offer him a spot.
Greaser initially reached out to UNC earlier in his high school career and was turned away, but the Tar Heels had a coaching change when Andrew DiBitetto took over before the 2017-18 season. Greaser's résumé, which included an early 2018 win at the Justin Thomas Junior Championship, was growing enough to get noticed. When Greaser played an AJGA event in Greensboro, North Carolina, during the summer of 2018, he heard from DiBitetto and made a stop in Chapel Hill on his way to the airport.
Immediately, there was mutual interest and a sense of common beliefs.
“There was about a three-week difference between me not even thinking North Carolina had a spot for me and not even chatting with them at all to all of a sudden committing,” Greaser told Global Golf Post. “So it just kind of all fell together. It was almost perfect, to be honest.”
"With all due respect to every other college that offered me, I just didn't really have what I wanted and almost just kept betting on myself and knowing once I start playing like I know I can play, I think I'm gonna get a lot better offers.”
Austin Greaser
What a home run of a decision that has turned out to be for DiBitetto, a coach who has ignited a once-struggling program into a top-five team in the country with realistic national-title hopes. Greaser started to build momentum with a quarterfinalist showing at the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur, had a couple of high finishes his first college semester that fall and then won three smaller amateur tournaments in 2020.
Then everything came together the following year as Greaser recorded eight top-10 results in college tournaments, defeated national player of the year John Pak in match play at the ACC Championship, reached the semifinals of the Western Amateur, finished runner-up to James Piot in the U.S. Am at Oakmont – that result got him into the Masters and U.S. Open – and won the stacked Olympia Fields Country Club Fighting Illini Invitational this past fall against one of the top fields in college golf. He’s now up to No. 23 in the WAGR, a far cry from the early stages of last year.
There are a lot of schools wishing they had a do-over after sending rejection notices. Greaser and his dad, Michael, put together an Excel spreadsheet of potential schools back when Greaser was a freshman at Butler High School. That spreadsheet had a lot of red X’s and disappointment before UNC calling.
“I really appreciate them taking a little bit of a gamble on me,” Greaser said. “Without sounding cocky, hopefully, I think in my mind, I've always felt like I belonged. … With all due respect to every other college that offered me, I just didn't really have what I wanted and almost just kept betting on myself and knowing once I start playing like I know I can play, I think I'm gonna get a lot better offers.”
There isn’t a school in the country that wouldn’t take him now.
“I think he would tell you he kind of enjoys proving people wrong,” said DiBitetto, who also served as Greaser’s caddie for the Masters. “You know, when we first recruited him, he wasn't highly ranked or anything like that. But he said that his goal was to be the best and that he would be willing to outwork anybody. And he's pretty much walked the walk ever since.”
As disappointing as his Masters finish was, and as unpredictable as this game can be when it comes to returning to a stage like that, Greaser has the skill set to prove people wrong again. He intends on coming back to UNC for his senior year so he can pursue Korn Ferry Tour status via the PGA Tour University program, and his name will be among the favorites to earn a top spot in those rankings.
“Unless something crazy happens, I fully plan on staying my next year here and kind of chasing after the PGA Tour University rewards,” Greaser said. “I think you've got to kind of control what you can control, and that's playing good golf. If you get too caught up in the rankings, it's gonna eat at you a lot.”
There is a lot of emotional maturity and belief in this 21-year-old.
His days of flying under the radar are over.
Top: Greaser appeared headed for the weekend at the Masters before running into trouble on the back nine.
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