Every collegiate golfer harbors dreams of one day turning pro. Wherever that first professional tournament is, it’ll be a dream come true. But there’s one tournament, and one course, that captures the imagination of every golfer around the world: The Masters at Augusta National.
That’s where UNC junior golfer Austin Greaser played as an amateur last weekend, by virtue of his second-place finish at the U.S. Amateur Championship last summer. It was the first PGA Tour event of Greaser’s career, and one he’s still struggling to comprehend.
“It’s really tough to know even where to begin,” he said. “It almost felt like a video game out there… playing that course, and playing in front of those crowds.”
Greaser played the U.S. Amateur in August, and thus knew for months he would be competing at Augusta. But he said it wasn’t until he visited the course a few weeks in advance that the feeling truly began to sink in.
“They had just gotten the grandstands up, they had just gotten all the ropes up, they had just gotten the leaderboards up, the TV towers, that sort of thing,” he said. “Just seeing all those things come to real life, and having spots where only the players walk, having rooms only the players can go in, having a certain badge that you’ve gotta have, just stuff like that, that kind of makes it more real. I feel like that’s when it really hit me.”
Unlike other major championships in golf, The Masters is an invite-only event. Therefore, only the best of the best get to play there. During his two rounds at Augusta, Greaser was grouped with former major champions Padraig Harrington and Mike Weir, but said one of the coolest moments of the weekend was hearing the roar of the crowd watching the world’s most famous golfer: Tiger Woods.
“To be able to compete on the same course he is, during the same time, and hear the roars he’s making, and not hear those on TV but in real life, I think that just keeps hitting me,” said Greaser. “That’s just really, really special for me to say, ‘Hey, I competed against Tiger this week, and was walking right where he was.'”
Those roars marked the culmination of a personal journey for Greaser, who said he kept an unwavering confidence in himself long before last summer’s breakthrough at the U.S. Amateur. That tournament, if anything, merely confirmed what Greaser had always believed.
“I’ve always felt like I belonged and could play with the best,” he said. “But then actually going out there and executing… and beating everybody but one guy that week, that definitely did a lot for my confidence. Saying, ‘Hey, it’s not only in my head.’ [I’m] just trying to bottle that week up and carry it for the rest of my career.”
During his week at The Masters, Greaser sported Jordan Brand gear with the UNC logo on his jacket. In a particularly good week to be a Carolina fan, Greaser said he heard vocal support everywhere he went on the golf course.
.@UNCmensGolf junior Austin Greaser shot a 2-over 74 in Round 1 of @TheMasters Tournament this morning. He made 3 birdies, 10 pars and five bogies in his first competitive round since the ‘21 U.S Amateur last August. #spectacularday pic.twitter.com/6qosjzyt4l
— Spectacular Magazine Sports (@SpecMagSports) April 8, 2022
“On Monday’s practice round, after two or three holes, I had to have 100 people yell at me, ‘Go Heels!’ In a good way, obviously,” Greaser said. “I looked at my coach [Andrew DiBitetto], who was caddying, and I was like, ‘Look, you’re gonna have to take the rest of these from here on out throughout the day, because I can’t keep saying “Go Heels” all day long. I can’t even hardly focus.'”
Still, the recognition, if a little bothersome in the moment, didn’t go unappreciated. Even a week after the fact, Greaser remained thankful to be able to bring Carolina blue to the pristine green links of Augusta.
“It means the world to me,” he said. “To be able to have that logo on my chest, it’s really, really cool… I’m really excited that I could represent this university, and I sure hope I did it in a positive light. This university is the best in the world, as far as I’m concerned.”
Greaser’s runner-up finish in the U.S. Amateur means he has another major championship to look forward to: the U.S. Open in Brookline, MA, in June. The tournament is just two months away, but Greaser said he remains focused on the immediate task before him: competing with the Tar Heels.
“There’s a lot of unfinished business here first, and I want to try and take care of that as best we can,” he said. “I want to go get a ring with this team, and then we’ll figure out the U.S. Open after that. I’m not gonna lie and say I’m not thinking about it, but I have a lot left to prove to myself here at North Carolina this season. We have a lot left, as a team, to prove, too. That’s where the focus is first, and then I’ll figure out the U.S. Open after that.”
Greaser and the Tar Heels are back in action this weekend in Phoenix at the Arizona State Thunderbird Collegiate. UNC is ranked as the No. 6 team in the country by Golfweek, and is looking to improve on a national quarterfinal finish at last season’s NCAA championships. The men’s golf program has never won a national title.
Featured image via Augusta National/Hunter Martin
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