BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA | Charles Warren had just completed his first round in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball when he steadily climbed the back steps to the Country Club of Birmingham’s sprawling clubhouse. He has walked from the 18th green to the scoring tent in a lot of golf tournaments over the years, but this one had a unique tone to it.
“I played about 15 years of professional golf, but it felt like 100 years,” Warren said without breaking step. “That was a long time ago, and this is a lot different.”
That wasn’t a dig at his old golf life or his new one – it was simply a statement of truth.
After winning an NCAA individual title during his junior year at Clemson in 1997, Warren embarked on a fruitful professional career mostly split between the PGA Tour (197 starts) and the Korn Ferry Tour (169 starts). He earned more than $6 million on the two circuits, winning three times on the Korn Ferry Tour and getting into contention a handful of times on the PGA Tour, where he recorded 14 top-10s. Twice he made the cut in major championships, tying for 37th in the 2000 U.S. Open and for 62nd at the 2006 PGA Championship.
In 2012, he left what had become a struggle of a pro golf career at age 37 to pursue a career in the insurance business in his longtime home of Greenville, South Carolina. That has allowed him to spend far more quality time with his wife, Kelly, and two children, Charlie and Riley. When he retired from pro golf, Warren immediately applied for amateur reinstatement with the understanding that, although it would take some time, he may eventually want to play tournaments. Now on the verge of his 47th birthday, Warren ended up averaging only about a dozen rounds per year during the past decade without hardly any serious golf being played – until the pandemic when, in October of 2020, his eight-year probationary period finally concluded, officially making him a reinstated amateur.
Few, if any, former professionals have waited longer than eight years to regain amateur status. Warren, who had intentions of playing only the occasional one-off amateur tournament, agreed with the sentence.
“I think the further down the path that I've gotten, to be really honest with you, the more appropriate that I think it probably was,” Warren told Global Golf Post. “And that’s from the standpoint of, you know, being away from true competitive golf, number one, and number two, obviously being eight years older than I was when I quit at 37.
“I didn't have any immediate urge at that point (when he applied for reinstatement), nor do I really now, to go out and play a full schedule of amateur golf. I just want to get back to where I can enjoy getting the juices flowing every once in a while. And something like this this weekend definitely did that.”
Warren is cognizant of what it looks like to have a player of his pedigree competing in a USGA championship such as this one. It’s his first real foray into the amateur space in 25 years. Here in the land of promising high schoolers, former college players and mid-am warriors who may be playing one of the few national tournaments they will ever experience, Warren wasn’t the only reinstated player but still stood out in the crowd.
It’s awkward in some ways, but it’s also more complicated than it seems on the surface. Some might argue that any professional of Warren’s caliber should be barred from certain amateur competitions. Maybe that is right, and perhaps it’s not within the spirit of the competition. When you’ve spent 15 years with golf as your job, can that really be placed in the same realm as, let’s say, a full-time firefighter partnering with a Division III college freshman? Many will say no.
“We got done and I was like, ‘I didn’t remember how mentally exhausting bad golf is.’ Last week kind of brought back memories of pro golf. Even when we were playing well as pros, you’re giving up a lot and you’re always gone. And then when you start to get into a bad stretch, it just feels like a tailspin. That’s kind of what we were in last week.”
Charles Warren
But following Warren around in the humid Alabama afternoon, certain things became apparent as he traversed the tree-lined Donald Ross layout with partner Brent Delahoussaye, another reinstated amateur who made more than 100 starts among the PGA and Korn Ferry tours. Golf is still undefeated. Warren and Delahoussaye finished at 5-under 136 in stroke play, which missed the 36-hole cut for match play by three strokes. Needing a couple of late birdies, they instead bogeyed one of the easiest holes on the East Course as Warren blocked his tee shot out of bounds on the par-4 16th and Delahoussaye chopped his way up the fairway after a poor drive.
The former pros sat in the car on the way home and tried to figure out how they would reach 13-under, a score that three teams – including eventual champions Chad Wilfong and Davis Womble – shot in stroke play. They weren’t close to making that happen.
“We were both kind of laughing when we were playing,” Delahoussaye said. “We got done and I was like, ‘I didn’t remember how mentally exhausting bad golf is.’ Last week kind of brought back memories of pro golf. Even when we were playing well as pros, you’re giving up a lot and you’re always gone. And then when you start to get into a bad stretch, it just feels like a tailspin. That’s kind of what we were in last week.”
Warren’s relationship with golf has changed. It would be a lot different if he were playing a full-time amateur schedule or practicing multiple hours per day, but that’s not the case anymore.
Admittedly, he is just another mid-am at this point.
“I understand the perception of a guy that played on tour going and sitting out for however long and then trying to come out and compete at any level, much less an amateur USGA event,” Warren said. “But to be really honest, I've got a long way to go if I wanted to go play mid-amateur golf and play in events like this weekend on a consistent basis and be really competitive.
“I want to get back to where I really want to work on my golf game and be competitive, but I definitely don't want to do it in an environment where I don't think it would be well received. But I think based on some of the shots that I saw the last couple of days, I think that reset of having to sit down for eight years has definitely served its purpose.”
Warren doesn’t see himself ever going back into pro golf at any point. He doesn’t rule out playing more mid-am golf in the future, but for now the only other events on his calendar are the South Carolina Four-Ball and maybe the occasional member-guest. Even to play in the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball again, Warren said he would need to take his preparation a lot deeper to have any chance at success.
“The last two days made me realize how much mental work it is to play on championship golf courses in tournaments,” Warren said. “I'm exhausted. Right now, we were texting each other – I don't know if I could play another match, much less five. And so, I would say physically, I probably am reminded quickly of how far I am away from doing this on a weekly basis.
“In some ways (pro golf) seems like yesterday, and then in some ways it seems like it was an eternity ago.”
Playing at the highest level may have been mentally exhausting, but it brought a lot of positives to Warren’s life as well. He got to be a part of the “traveling circus,” as he called it. He calls the PGA Tour “a great fraternity” and misses having those relationships.
“But the stress of preparation and competing and missed cuts and doing those types of things is not something that I probably miss all that much.”
For now, the closest connection for Warren to amateur golf is still his love of Clemson golf. Four players who were on the team his senior year were groomsmen in his wedding, and Warren was instrumental in joining fellow alumni Lucas Glover and Jonathan Byrd in starting an annual fundraiser called the Tiger Golf Gathering in which former Clemson players return to support the program.
“He’s put his heart and soul into Clemson golf,” Delahoussaye said. ‘And people respect him for that. He gives back to them as much as he can. He always helps the younger players out when he can.”
When Turk Pettit won the NCAA Championship last year, he joined Warren as the only two Clemson players to win the individual title. Warren has stayed close to the program and tries to impart as much wisdom as he can to some of their recent grads and up-and-coming stars.
“When we went from college to the tour, we thought we had to do a whole bunch of things completely different to get incrementally better and have any chance to succeed,” Warren said. “And, you know, I think that that's not a reality. That’s something that these kids are understanding now.”
And that is golf at its heart. There is always something to understand.
For the mid-am version of Warren, he’s understanding how far away he is from the golfer he used to be.
And, just maybe, he’s been given the kind of motivation he will need to come back to prove he can still be that player again.
Top: Charles Warren during the 2022 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball
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