Austin Greaser Archives - Golf Digest Middle East

There is art and science at play when Walker Cup captains make their pairing selections

Golf Digest Middle East — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 08:59:32 +0000

R&A

In the run-up to any team contest, a few sporting metaphors invariably spring to mind when it comes to the various decisions, behavior and carefully considered comments required of the two captains. “Jockeying for position” comes to mind. So does “shadow boxing.” And, from cricket, “playing a straight bat.”

Still, after all the preamble has been taken care of, a “show of hands” is inevitably required. In the context of this 49th edition of the Walker Cup matches between the United States and Great Britain & Ireland, on the eve of the event non-playing skippers Mike McCoy and Stuart Wilson were required to reveal who will represent their sides — and in what order — in the opening day foursomes and singles.

The foursomes typically involve most thought. Especially unfamiliar to the American players, the format of alternating shots is something of a dark art and one where things can sometimes go disastrously wrong. Perhaps the most difficult role in golf, for example, is playing second-fiddle to a partner who is playing markedly better than you are. Nowhere is there more pressure not to let the other down.

Still, even the most careful planning can go astray. Pairing two players in the hope that they will mesh was, for long enough, a decision made on gut instinct. Maybe the thinking went as far as teaming two pals together and avoiding a scenario where there might be a personality clash. But these days the rise of statistical analysis has turned that art form into more and more of a science, one that this weekend is complicated by the configuration of the holes on the Old Course at St Andrews.

“We’ve tried to look at this in a bit of depth, but with a par 3 on the front that’s even and a par 3 on the back that’s odd, and vice versa with the par 5s, it gets difficult,” agreed GB&I’s Wilson, who knows a thing or two about the most famous course in golf, having won the Amateur Championship here in 2003. “So, if a pair is playing regulation golf, everybody is going to be doing the same amount of putting. It’s the same coming in or going out. If you’re a strong wedge player, the same applies. Going out 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 are your holes, then on the back it is 10, 12, 14, 16, 18.

“We do a bit of matching with personalities too, but we’ve probably got 10 different personalities here,” he continued. “So, while we’ve looked at possible pairings and done a lot of the numbers and stats and things, I don’t think we could have done any better of a job than putting 10 balls in a hat and pulling them out. The team is that close-knit.”

As for McCoy, the American captain owned up to having included “a little bit of everything” — art and science — within his own decision-making process.

“We have certain players that have a quicker rhythm,” pointed out the Iowa native, a member of the losing American side at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2015. “We have players that have played together a lot and are very close friends. So they obviously know each other’s games well. They match up well. We have looked some at who are our better drivers and who are our better wedge players. We’ve put those types of combinations together.”

And, like Wilson, McCoy is well aware of the Old Course’s famous foibles when it comes to a layout containing 14 par 4s.

“We spent some time working on that, and it took a day or two for everybody to come to agreement what made the most sense,” continued McCoy. “We obviously tried some other combinations if we do have to break a couple teams up for Sunday. We’ve worked with some other combinations. But everybody knows whether they’re odd or even.”

Let the action begin:
Morning foursomes
Gordon Sargent-Dylan Menante (US) vs. Barclay Brown-Mark Power (GB&I)
Caleb Surratt-Ben James (US) vs. Callum Scott-Connor Graham (GB&I)
Preston Summerhays-David Ford (US) vs. Matthew McClean-John Gough (GB&I)
Nick Dunlap-Stewart Hagestad (US) vs. Alex Maguire-James Ashfield (GB&I)

Afternoon Singles
Surratt (US) vs. Brown (GB&I)
Nick Gabrelick (US) vs. Scott (GB&I)
Sargent (US) vs. Jack Bigham (GB&I)
Austin Greaser (US) vs. Liam Nolan (GB&I)
Ford (US) vs. Power (GB&I)
Summerhays (US) vs. McClean (GB&I)
Hagestad (US) vs. Maguire (GB&I)
Dunlap (US) vs. Gough (GB&I)

The post There is art and science at play when Walker Cup captains make their pairing selections appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Top college golfer believes signing with a sports management company now will pay dividends in the spring

Golf Digest Middle East — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 07:36:18 +0000

By Ryan Herrington
When Austin Greaser arrived at the University of North Carolina in the autumn of 2019, the landscape for college golfers looked demonstrably different than it does today. At the time, college athletes weren’t allowed to make money off their name, image and likeness, nor could they work with agents to assist them in such endeavours. But in the last two-plus years, NCAA and USGA restrictions on such things have been lifted.

Still, as the golf world gets used to the changes, there was still something unusual to the announcement that the 22-year-old Tar Heel senior made on Tuesday, revealing that he had signed an agreement to work with Excel Sports Management to represent him moving forward — despite still having one semester to go as a college and amateur golfer career.

Greaser, a two-time All-American who played in the Masters (MC) and the US Open (T-61) this year after finishing runner-up at the 2021 US Amateur, said he’s not looking so much for Excel to help line up more NIL deals between now and the NCAA Championship in May (he currently has one arrangement with TaylorMade). Rather, he is looking for the company, overseen by Mark Steinberg with Lance Young working as his principle manager, to help him work out off-the-course details to prepare for the next step: professional golf.

“I wanted to put myself around a group of guys that is out there doing what I want to do and being very successful at it,” says Greaser. Excel’s golf roster including Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Matt Fitzpatrick and Collin Morikawa among others. “I think in that way I can really further my game and get better and better and hopefully learn a lot from those guys and get to be around them maybe a little bit more. I think that’s kind of one of the reasons I chose to go with Excel. Just the experience and the talent within this group is a lot. There is a lot here, and it’s pretty special.”

By taking this step in November, Greaser hopes to be able to focus more on the short-term task at hand: finishing his college career by bringing a national title to Chapel Hill and improving his prospects in the PGA Tour University ranking in order to earn a place to play come next summer.

The Tar Heels proved one of the top teams during the autumn semester, winning four out of five events to rise to No. 5 in the most recent Bushnell Golf Golfweek Coaches’ poll. Greaser missed the first tournament of the autumn while playing for the US at the World Amateur Team Championship, but returned to post two top-fives and finish no worse than T-20 while carding a 70.75 stroke average.

“I mean we have a really, really baller team this year,” Greaser says, with teammates David Ford, Ryan Burnett, Dylan Menante and Peter Fountain all also sporting sub-72 stroke averages in the autumn. “Everybody works really hard and everybody is really, really good.”

Meanwhile, the Vandalia, Ohio, native is No. 2 on the PGA Tour University rankings as the winter break approaches. PGA Tour U is another development that’s taken place since Greaser entered college. In its third year, the programme rewards college seniors who have stayed in school by giving them a path to PGA Tour affiliated tours.

Currently the top five on the PGA Tour U ranking earn membership on the Korn Ferry Tour immediately after the NCAA Championship. Those ranked Nos. 6-10 earn conditional status and those ranked Nos. 11-20 earn eligibility on PGA Tour Canada or PGA Tour Latinoamerica. However, the PGA Tour Policy Board is set to discuss next week a change to the programme that would give the top ranked players membership on to the PGA Tour come June. Those familiar with the discussions believe the change will be approved and in place for the 2023 season.

“The fact we have a path now from college to Korn Ferry or PGA Tour, or both, is unbelievable,” Greaser says. “Before you could win every college event and you still have to climb the ranks like everybody else. So in that manner I’m extremely grateful for it and it’s obviously given myself and others playing for it an opportunity that wasn’t here just a few years ago, and have got to take an advantage of it.”

Another option available to Greaser that wasn’t around when he started school: LIV Golf. James Piot, who defeated Greaser in the US Amateur final at Oakmont in 2021 signed with the circuit for its inaugural season last summer, as did a pair of college All-Americans in Eugenio Chacarra and David Puig. In just his fifth LIV start, Lopez-Chacarra pulled out a victory in Bangkok and earned $4 million.

Greaser sees the money that’s available on the LIV circuit, but says that he has not been approached by LIV officials and doesn’t have interest. “I think I have mixed feelings about it but at the end of the day my focus is on the PGA Tour. I feel like it’s always been there,” Greaser says. “I’m in a good spot in this PGA Tour U system. I think if I can play how I want to play in the spring that will get me where my focus is, which is the PGA Tour.”

In turn, Greaser’s attention now turns to working on his game — he’s among the longest hitters in college golf and compliments it with an impressive short game — and finishing up his class work to graduate with a degree in sports administration in the spring. Along, of course, with enjoying his last semester of college golf.

“I going to do my best to enjoy my time here at UNC,” Greaser says. “I can’t believe it’s already over. I just want to enjoy the team, the special bond I have here with the guys and the time I’m getting to spend with them that I realistically probably will never get to spend with them again.”

The post Top college golfer believes signing with a sports management company now will pay dividends in the spring appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

US Open 2022: 15 interesting facts about the 15 amateurs competing at The Country Club

Golf Digest Middle East — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 10:40:25 +0000

Stewart Hagestad

By Ryan Herrington
Francis Ouimet can give Bobby Jones a run for his money as the most notable amateur ever to win a US Open. The 20-year-old did so in grand fashion, winning the title in 1913 in a historic playoff upset of British greats Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. He did it on the course across the street from his house, The Country Club. Oh, and he put the sport on the map in the US.

Suffice it to say, asking an amateur to repeat Ouimet’s feat 109 years later is a bit much. (No amateur has won a US Open since Johnny Goodman in 1933.) But expecting one (or more) of the 15 guys playing for pride rather than pay this week to step up and show well is very realistic. Last year was the first time since 2007 that no amateur made the cut in the Open. And in the last 24 years, somebody has been around on Sunday to receive the low amateur medal 21 times.

So who is the most likely to succeed from the Class of 2022? Here is our breakdown of the amateurs competing in the USGA’s signature men’s event with their chances of making it to the weekend and vying for low-amateur honors. To sort and manage the group, we’ve created categories of confidence, 3 signifying being most confident to make the cut, down to 1.

Keita Nakajima. Andrew Redington

Confidence Level 3

Sam Bennett, 22, Madisonville, Texas
Keita Nakajima, 21, Japan
Michael Thorbjornsen, 20, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Travis Vick, 22, Hunters Creek Village, Texas
William Mouw, 21, Chino, California

Bennett comes in on a nine-month roll, having earned first-team All-American honours at Texas A&M with a 69.97 scoring average. He also had a top-10 at NCAAs earlier this month after a closing-round 64.

Just as he did at the Masters in April, Nakajima, the reigning Asia-Pacific Amateur champion (he won at Dubai Creek), arrives at the US Open as the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world by a large margin. But expectations are more tempered compared to at Augusta National. That should work to his benefit as he has more experience in professional events than any other amateur in the field, with another top-10 finish in May on the Japan Tour.

We don’t like Thorbjornsen, playing in his second US Open after making the cut at Pebble in 2019, talking about a wrist injury heading into this week at Brookline, with possible surgery awaiting later this year. That said, the Stanford junior-to-be has dealt with a version of this injury since high school and adrenaline should dull all the pain as he plays only 15 minutes from his family home in Wellseley.

Before Vick clinched the deciding point for Texas in its NCAA Championship win earlier this month, he played his way into the US Open in the Dallas final qualifier. If he gets airtime on TV this week, expect to hear a lot about how he was a multi-sport athlete in high school, having played quarterback on the football team and pitcher on the baseball team from a school that produced former MLB standouts Lance Berkman and Andy Pettitte. The experience is something Vick says has been a significant asset in him becoming a talent that reached the US Amateur semifinals last August.

Mouw, a junior at Pepperdine, had six top-10s in 14 starts this past season after playing on the victorious the US Walker Cup in 2021. And his game seems potentially suited to US Open venues; he was medalist in his final qualifier with a 12-under 130 showing at The Olympic Club.

Austin Greaser. David Cannon

Confidence Level 2

Fred Biondi, 21, Brazil
Adrian Dumont de Chassart, 22, Belgium
Austin Greaser, 21, Vandalia, Ohio
Stewart Hagestad, 31, Newport Beach, California
Ben Lorenz, 20, Peoria, Illinois

Biondi will be a fifth-year senior in the autumn at Florida and was runner-up at the 2022 Latin America Amateur. He’ll play for the International Team in college golf’s Palmer Cup later this summer.

The Belgian pipeline to the University of Illinois continued with Dumont de Chassart, who followed in the footsteps of tour pros Thomas Dietry and Thomas Pieters. And he’s had similar success, winning Big Ten player of the year twice.

Greaser, the US Amateur runner-up a year ago at Oakmont, will benefit from having played in the Masters and go through the “oh my gosh, I’m playing a major” tension before.

No amateur might be more motivated to make the cut than US Mid-Amateur champion Hagestad, who had played in three previous US Opens but failed to make the weekend in any of them.

Lorenz just finished his sophomore season at Oklahoma and drove with his older brother/caddie Blake the 12 hours from Arizona to Oregon to compete in his Final Qualifier. He started playing golf at age three and used to watch VHS tapes of Bobby Jones and Jack Nicklaus.

Laird Shepherd. Luke Walker / R&A

Confidence Level 1

Nick Dunlap, 18, Huntsville, Alabama
Caleb Manuel, 20, Topsham, Maine
Maxwell Moldovan, 20, Uniontown, Ohio
Charles Reiter 22, Palm Desert, California
Laird Shepherd, 24, England

Dunlap won the US Junior title last summer, securing his exemption to Brookline. He’s heading to Tuscaloosa to play on the Alabama golf team in the autumn. In addition to his golf prowess, he is past age-division runner-up in the NFL’s Punt, Pass and Kick competition.

Manuel should get some New England love this week, as the reigning Big East player of the year out of UConn. After getting through Final Qualifying he woke up to 250-plus messages on his phone. He first qualified for the Maine Amateur at age 13.

A rising junior at Ohio State, Moldovan was a three-time winner this past season while posting a 70.79 stroke average, the best by a Buckeye since 1980. He and his father, John, a teaching pro who is caddieing for him, drove from Ohio to Boston and then they’ll head to Rhode Island next week to play in the Northeast Amateur.

Reiter, a junior at San Diego, has got three sponsor’s exemptions into The American Express, where he shot a 63 at PGA West during the third round in 2019.

This is the last of the majors that Shepherd is exempt into off his British Amateur victory a year ago, having missed the cut at the Open Championship and the Masters. The timing of the US Open, unfortunately, means he can’t defend that British Amateur title, as the championship is going on this week at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

The post US Open 2022: 15 interesting facts about the 15 amateurs competing at The Country Club appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

James Piot’s comeback U.S. Amateur win is for all the little guys no one believed in

Golf Digest Middle East — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 01:46:02 +0000

Photo By: Chris Keane
James Piot

By Ryan Herrington
OAKMONT, Pa. — It’s hard to describe the expression on James Piot’s face when he held the Havemeyer Trophy for the first time behind Oakmont Country Club’s 17th green late Sunday afternoon. Let’s call it something between shock, exhilaration and awe, as the newly minted U.S. Amateur champion, after a 2-and-1 win over Austin Greaser in the 36-hole championship finale, stared for a few moments at the most impressive piece of golf hardware he’d ever laid his hands on.

“I was just trying to see if it was real or not,” Piot said when asked what was running through his mind as he gave the trophy that first long look.

It was definitely real, the hard-earned result of years of trying to prove people wrong. Yes, you can come from up Canton, Mich., with its eight-month golf season, and still be a damn good player. And you can be 5-foot-9 and 153 pounds and still stand tall.

In all likelihood you’d probably never heard of Piot before catching a glimpse of him this week at the 121st edition of the USGA’s oldest championship. The 22-year-old fifth-year senior at Michigan State was ranked No. 86 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, good but not elite. He wasn’t a member of the U.S. Walker Cup team last May at Seminole Golf Club. He qualified for the U.S. Am last year at Bandon Dunes, even earned the No. 2 seed, but didn’t get past the second round of match play.

It’s easy, then, to believe that some unknown wound up walking off with the most prestigious title in amateur golf. And, maybe, technically, you’d be right. But don’t mistake unknown for fluky or undeserving.

“I know what people think, by the way he looks and all. He doesn’t look dynamic or powerful,” said Michigan State men’s coach Casey Lubahn. “But you can’t see his heart.”

It’s the heart that showed on the back nine at Oakmont, when it looked almost certain that Piot had finally met his match in Greaser, a 20-year-old honorable mention All-American at North Carolina. Through 27 holes, Piot shot the equivalent of six over par—four over on the front nine of the afternoon 18 alone—leaving him 3 down with nine holes to play. That’s when he turned to his caddie, Spartans assistant coach Dan Ellis, and uttered his latest audacious prediction: said he was going to shoot four under on the back nine.

And what exactly made him think that he could do that?

“Just self-belief. I feel like that’s one of the things, the golfer I am, I’m that guy who never has an extremely bad round,” Piot said. “In my head on the day, I’m kind of doing a recap and I think I was like six over. I’m like, ‘That’s not me.’ ”

And then it happened. A perfect drive on the par-4 10th, setting up a 9-iron approach from 150 yards and his first birdie of the afternoon session. 2 down.

Another good drive on the par-4 11th, and by good meaning it was safely in the 10th fairway, setting up a par that helped him win the hole when Greaser three-putted. 1 down.

Another par, this time on the 603-yard 12th hole, tied up the match, as Greaser suddenly was struggling to find fairways he’d hit all week and having trouble adjusting to Oakmont’s greens, which were getting faster as the day went on.

When Greaser bogeyed the par-3 13th hole, Piot’s 14-foot birdie try now conceded, Piot had his first lead since standing 1 up after the morning 18.

They exchanged birdies on the 14th hole, but Piot got to 2 up when he won the par-4 15th with another par. Two holes later, he was staring at the Havemeyer.

“I just didn’t execute coming down the stretch,” Greaser said. “I think it’s pretty obvious. He won four holes in a row there and kind of tides changed, and that’s how it goes.”

Chris Keane
Austin Greaser had a 3-up lead with nine holes to play, but struggled to find fairways on the back nine.

Piot’s golf career began at a place unlikely to produce a future U.S. Amateur champion: Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Centre in Plymouth, Mich. The facility had three courses and became Piot’s Disneyland each summer, the place he’d go to hang with his brother and his buddies, gamble for just about anything on the putting greens, and learn how to play golf rather than just golf swing.

While he developed a reputation as a stick within the state, winning the Michigan Junior Am and three high school state titles, it didn’t carry much outside the Wolverine State. So it was that Piot ended up staying home, following in his older brother’s footsteps and playing at MSU for Lubahn.

Since the fall of 2017, Piot has worked methodically on his game in relative anonymity with his Spartan teammates, a very real chip on his shoulder.

“Good golfers have long memories,” Lubahn joked.

Piot had quick results in college and was Big Ten freshman of the year in 2018. He took his biggest leap in the 2020-21 season, earning honourable mention All-American honours with a win and six more top-10s in the spring, including at Big Tens and NCAA Regionals.

“It’s hard to identify any one thing because it’s just gradual improvement,” says Lubahn when asked about what’s the biggest difference in Piot’s game from when he first arrived in East Lansing. “He’s picking up a 10th of a shot every day. And he’s the best driver I’ve ever coached.”

And not a bad putter either. In preparation for the U.S. Amateur, Piot put back into his bag a Ping Piper H putter, a flat stick he’d fallen in and out of love with since the sixth grade, one he affectionately nicknamed “the garbage putter.”

“My dad got that from a golf shop actually just down the road from our house, had to be 10 years ago,” Piot said. “He used it for like two weeks and was like, ‘This thing is not worth it.’ I think he got it for $60 or $70 at the time. I picked it up in probably sixth or seventh grade and started rolling with it. I was like, ‘This thing is actually awesome.’ ”

The putter proved vital this week at Oakmont, Piot holing several clutch putts.

Chris Keane
James Piot celebrates with his caddie/assistant coach Dan Ellis after winning the 2021 U.S. Amateur.

In the glow of victory, Piot could be allowed the chance to gloat. What did this win say about him and where he came from?

“Just it’s kind of nice to show the guys out there that don’t go to the big-time school that you can still do it,” he said. “Coming from Michigan it’s a phenomenal feeling being able to grind from a guy who wasn’t highly sought after to U.S. Am champ.”

It also proved something else: just how deep the amateur game is. All over the country, there are players like Piot, grinding day in and day out, aspiring for greatness with no guarantee that their efforts will be rewarded. Only the hope that the week will come when they get their chance to prove their mettle.

That week happened to be this one for the little man from Canton, the week James Piot finally became somebody you’d heard of.

The post James Piot’s comeback U.S. Amateur win is for all the little guys no one believed in appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.