Josh Greer from Perth found the reach with his hybrid when the competition game started. Photo: USGA
Josh Greer is the last man to face the American boy amateur in Ohio after a flattening day for Australia.
Western Australian Greer, known as a gruesome match player, took No.18 seed August Meekhof 2 & 1 after a heavy battle in the round of 64.
The Joondalup member will then be confronted with another American, George Duangmanee, in the round of 32 of tomorrow at the famous Inverness Club in Toledo.
But it wasn't great news for Greer & # 39; s friends, with No. 10 seed Karl Vilips, No.14 Elvis Smylie and No.46 Connor McKinney bowing out.
Vilips, who had high expectations as the number 2 ranked player in the AJGA rankings, simply couldn't find enough birdies against the Japanese Yuki Moriyama.
Florida-based Western Australia made bogeys on the second and third holes to let go of the momentum and never came back in the loss of 4 & 2.
Smylie, the reigning Australian junior champion, also found himself 2-down early, but struck back to become square by five.
But the young Queenslander won no new gap and fell 3 & 2 for Alambama & Thomas Ponder.
McKinney stayed behind to play a few missed opportunities against Austin Greaser while playing in his home state.
The Perth-based Scotsman was 3-up and cruised through eight holes, but lost three of the next five to fall back to the square.
McKinney, also a member of Joondalup, had to pay when Greaser played the two heavy closing holes one was under to win 2-up.
So the Aussie challege falls to Greer, the limber representative of the West Australian state who quickly admitted that he was lucky enough to qualify for match matches after a whimsical game on the first and second day.
"I was scoring well because I did very well, but I hit the ball terribly and really, I'm lucky that I'm still going," said Greer, another product from coach Ritchie Smith, the swing guru of different stars in Western Australia. including Minjee Lee and great champion Hannah Green.
"I certainly got better today after I called Ritchie and he gave me some things to work with in my (swing) take-away.
"I had a bad two-way miss … but after we had chatted and I went back to reach, I figured out how to get rid of the right-hand miss and today I only occasionally made a miss to the left, and they weren't bad so I could play with it.
"It is not yet my` A game & # 39; but hopefully it is not too far away.
"To be honest, I am really proud of myself that I managed to score as I was playing, so I think everything from here is a bonus."
Greer, the No.47 seed, was twice one behind the first nine, but improved as his game progressed and when he birdied the par-four 16th, he took his first lead.
A par on the difficult 17th turned out to be enough for a 2 & 1 victory that came on what he described as a "brutal" course.
"The rough is so heavy, when I'm in it, I'm just not strong enough to get anything on the green, so I just have to take a 54-degree wedge and bring it back into play," he said.
"But today, after working on my hybrids with Ritchie, I missed a lot of cross bunkers and it was perfect, so that made it much easier."
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