- After Austin Greaser missed the cut in the 2022 Masters, he pledged that he was going to focus more on his golf this week at the U.S. Open and allow other people to worry about the details. 

“I’m the only one with a tee time,” he said.  

It seems he learned a lot from his trip to The Masters this year, both on and off the golf course.  

At Augusta, Greaser made the turn on Friday within shouting distance of the cut line. It was the same on Friday at The Country Club. He played his opening nine holes in the second round  in even par, leaving him 2-over for the championship. A bogey on the fourth was canceled out with a birdie on the par-4 eighth hole.  

Greaser bogeyed the challenging tenth hole and then birdied his second par five of the day at the 14th hole, but he gave it right back on the 15th hole. 

It took some magic on the 17th to save par. From the back of the famous green, Greaser had to negotiate the wild slope to get his ball close to the pin which was mere paces from the green’s false front.  

In his preparation for the U.S. Open, Greaser stumbled across Travis Vick and Mike Boylan. Boylan was once the caddie instructor at The Country Club, and he offered Greaser some tricks to get around the course which is packed with blind shots and tricky angles.  

“He hits the ball so solid,” Boylan said. “I’m not surprised he made it to the weekend.” 

Another tweak that Greaser made this week was in his wedge set-up. On Tuesday, he was working hard on the practice green and Greaser’s brother, Byron, said that he was adjusting to the turf. His wedges typically have 3 or 4 degrees of bounce, however, by Tuesday afternoon he was tinkering with wedges that have 13 degrees of bounce. 

This is another example of Greaser’s willingness to learn and adjust on the fly in order to succeed.

As his ten-foot birdie putt trickled into the hole on the 18th hole, Greaser’s twin brother pumped his fist in celebration. There would be no nervous afternoon watching the cut line swing and sway up and down. He could eat his lunch and prepare for a Saturday tee time in the U.S. Open.

On Saturday, Austin will tee it up at 11:55am with a player who knows a thing or two about winning a U.S. Open: Gary Woodland.