Writing from Highland Park, Illinois
Saturday, July 6, 2022
As Austin Greaser tells it, he was 45 minutes from going down the highway on Thursday night, Exmoor Country Club in his rear-view mirror, before the misfortune of two other players created a 7-for-2 playoff for the Sweet Sixteen of the 120th Western Amateur.
Greaser was the first of the two survivors to match play, and Saturday ended up the last man standing. A 21-year-old native of Vandalia, Ohio and senior at North Carolina, Greaser won the championship with a dramatic back-nine rally featuring some of the sharpest golf the venerable competition has seen in years.
Greaser, 2 down to Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira of Argentina and the Arkansas Razorbacks after three holes, 1 down at the turn and 2 down again after 11 holes, won four straight holes with birdies, then withstood a final rally by the plucky Argentinian to score a 1 up victory.
“I hit some really nice shots and got some putts to go, and guess that was the deciding factor,” Greaser said.
It was, after one more twist. Greaser gave Fernandez de Oliveira an opening by parring the 17th hole when Fernandez de Oliveira drilled an approach to four feet and made birdie to close the gap to 1 down. Each hit the fairway on the 18th, then Fernandez de Oliveira dropped his approach 12 feet from a bunker-guarded cup, and Greaser bounced his approach into the rough behind the green.
He had hit the previous 16 greens in regulation and had putted from the right fringe on the first hole. By his standards, this was a wild shot. Now he had to get up-and-down for par and hope Fernandez de Oliveira missed his birdie chance to force extra holes.
Greaser’s flop shot stopped about four feet from the cup. Fernandez de Oliveira stepped up and gave it a good look but ran his putt three feet by. Greaser sank the par putt, punctuating it with a mini fist-pump with his left hand. Minutes later, that hand had the George Thorne Trophy in its grasp.
Greaser was non-plussed by Fernandez de Oliveira holing out from a bunker to win the third hole and go 2 up in the match.
“Not to brag, but I holed out from bunkers twice against Michael Thorbjornsen in last year’s semifinals,” he said, not needing to say that Thorbjornsen won that match and went on to win the title at Glen View Club.
“Like I told everybody, I just kept trying to execute my game plan,” Greaser added.
Clearly, Greaser did not arrive at Exmoor fresh off the pickle boat. Along with last year’s Western Am experience, he was runner-up in last year’s U.S. Amateur. That got him into the Masters and U.S. Open, and he made the cut in the latter. Plus, he won the individual title in the NCAA Regional North Carolina played in.
Now, he’s won one of the biggest titles in world amateur golf.
“I almost teared up on the green,” Greaser said. “You lose in this and you’re hungry to go back in and play an hour later. Winning it makes he want to go win more.
“I’m proud to be part of the history of one of the great tournaments as the champion. It means the world to me.”
Reminded of some of the winners of the Western Amateur, including fellow Ohioan Jack Nicklaus, Greaser said, “For me to kiss the same trophy is unbelievable.”
Greaser’s day started with a bang-up finish to his semifinal match against William Mouw. Greaser led 1 up at the turn, watched Mouw square the match with a birdie at the par-5 12th, then played his last three holes birdie-eagle-birdie to close Mouw out, 3 and 2.
“I felt like I hit it well, got kinda cold in the middle of the round, cold meaning pars, then caught a heater at the end. This afternoon, being 1 down going into the back nine with Mateo, I knew it was out there,” Greaser said of his birdie potential on Exmoor’s inward half.
Fernandez de Oliveira had no defense for Greaser’s blitz: a 35-footer from the back of the green for a deuce on the 12th; a 6-footer for birdie on the par-4 13th; a conceded 10-footer for a deuce on the 14th after Fernandez de Oliveira botched his second shot; and a 40-foot two-putt for birdie on the par-5 15th.
The quartet of birds moved Greaser from 2 down to 2 up. After the duo matched par at the 16th, Greaser was dormie 2. Fernandez de Oliveira had to win the last two holes to stay alive.
He won the 17th, but Greaser’s resolute par at the last settled the issue.
“I played very good in the morning,” Fernandez de Oliveira said of his 2 and 1 victory over Travis Vick. “I was lucky enough to get that bunker shot on 17 to close it out (over Vick), and I gave myself a chance in the final.
“I gave it a run,” Fernandez de Oliveira said of the final. “I gave it a good run. He hit the shots he needed to hit at the right time on the back nine. After going to 16, I didn’t think I had a real good chance, but I was lucky enough to make a putt (on 17) and get to 18 and try to tie it. Austin’s a great player, a great guy, and he got it done.”
The players traded 10 birdies across the 18 holes, with only a pair of bogeys, both by Fernandez de Oliveira. Greaser went around Exmoor in 5-under 66, Fernandez de Oliveira in 3-under 68, with the usual concessions.
Semifinal Matches
Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira d. Travis Vick, 2 & 1
Austin Greaser d. William Mouw, 3 & 2
Championship Match
Greaser d. Fernandez de Oliveira, 1 up
Around Exmoor
Greaser’s belt broke when he lashed his approach shot out of the rough on the 17th hole of the title match. … Both Greaser and Fernandez de Oliveira are headed to the U.S. Amateur. … Greaser played 68 match-play holes and 140 overall in five days, while Fernandez de Oliveira played 66 and 138, respectively. … About 400 spectators, many of them Exmoor members, watched the final match in person. More had the opportunity to watch online through the Western Amateur website from the start and on the Golf Channel website after a snafu was rectified in a production much-improved from the original at Sunset Ridge in 2019, and above last year’s as well.
– Tim Cronin