With extra year, surgery on horizon, Austin Greaser ‘freed up’ as UNC chases NCAA title

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Entering the third round of the NCAA Championship, North Carolina senior Austin Greaser had broken par just once in 10 national-championship rounds at Grayhawk.

But on Sunday, Greaser equaled his best score, a 1-under 69, to help his Tar Heels card 5 under, moving to 1 over for the week and padding their advantage on the match-play cut line to 12 shots.

“I was playing a little match play with the course today,” Greaser said, “and I beat the course.”

Greaser has been a part of each of the past two knockout stages at Grayhawk, but on both occasions, North Carolina has been eliminated in the quarterfinals. With three seniors in the starting lineup, one would think that much like Texas a year ago, the Tar Heels are playing with a this-is-it mentality. However, that’s not the case.

While fifth-year player Ryan Burnett will turn pro after this championship, Greaser and Dylan Menante have each opted to return for their extra years. Menante, who leads the team this week at 5 under through 54 holes, made that decision before transferring to North Carolina prior to this season while Greaser, who was top five in PGA Tour University, pulled his name out of that hat only a few weeks ago.

“Personally, for me, it lets me play a little freer knowing it’s probably not my last one,” Greaser said.

Greaser said that his decision was made easier after he determined that he’d need left-hand surgery this summer; he’ll do so shortly after the final putt drops at NCAAs. He had a minor procedure done on the hand earlier this spring, and he Shockingly didn’t miss a tournament, but what Greaser described as “a little arthritis” hasn’t gone away.

“It’s been nagging me for nearly two years,” Greaser said. “It really hurts on bunker shots. I just want to be able to go down on a golf shot and know that I can hold the club the way I want to hold it, and I can be aggressive through it, and not have any pain. I’ve found remedies for it, but I’m not going to deal with this for the next 10 to 15 years, so I’m like, let’s resolve it now.”

Greaser was given the option to take a major medical extension and defer his Korn Ferry Tour status until next year. But the big caveat with that would be that he couldn’t compete in amateur or PGA Tour-sanctioned events until January.

“The next seven months would pretty much be without competition and on my own dime, no income coming in, so it just didn’t make sense,” Greaser said. “If I would’ve done that, I turn pro in January. If I come back next year, I turn pro in June. We’re talking about a five-month difference. I love my team still, my teammates, my coaches, so I’m like, look, I’m coming back in order to play whenever I want.”

Greaser anticipates an eight- to 10-week recovery period, which hopefully will have him back before the U.S. Amateur in August. Greaser now is suddenly back on the Walker Cup radar, but he believes that for him to earn a place on the 10-man U.S. team for St. Andrews in September, he’ll need to a tournament or two to show that he’s deserved of a spot.

If not, he’ll at least have one more season with the Tar Heels, who may or may not be the defending NCAA team champions by the time next fall rolls around.

“That kid has done an amazing job developing and getting better every single year,” North Carolina head coach Andrew DiBitetto said. “And Grease has played hurt for two years now, and he’s still produced, and he’s still had results. So, I think he’s excited, I think all of us are excited to see what he does with another year of growth and development while he’s healthy.”