It is a well-known fact that the digital media ecosystem can be a cesspool of silliness. It seems to invade almost every aspect of our lives. The elite mid-amateur game in America does not get a hall pass; it too has been infected again this fall due to a series of coincidental occurrences, dating back to the 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship in September.
At the Mid-Amateur, contested at Troon Country Club in Arizona, seven of the eight quarterfinalists had earned amateur reinstatement at some point in their playing careers. The eventual champion, 38-year-old Brandon Holtz, beat it around mini-tours for six years before realizing pro golf wasn’t for him; he was reinstated in 2024. He beat Jeg Coughlin III, another reinstated amateur, in the final.
Purists were offended and took to social media to express their dismay. Never mind that the seven reinstated amateurs never accomplished much as professionals; somehow, they were corrupting the sacred mid-amateur game. Somehow, they had an unfair advantage
The dismay continued through the Crump Cup at Pine Valley a few weeks later, when former pro Bobby Wyatt took home the title. Unlike Holtz and Coughlin, Wyatt actually teed it up on the PGA Tour … a mere 34 times, in fact, making 10 cuts and earning a whopping $412,000 over a four-year professional career. Not a particularly distinguished showing, but more fodder for the purists.
The debate over reinstatement reached its crescendo in October when former tour pro Colt Knost, a CBS golf broadcaster with a big personality and a podcast, revealed that he too is seeking reinstatement. He retired from the professional game in early 2020, but his career stats present a real challenge to the USGA Amateur Status Committee; he made 199 tour starts and earned $4.3 million playing professionally.
Reading social media, you would have thought that Scottie Scheffler had decided to abandon his pro career to return to the fairways of amateur golf.
Turning professional once meant permanent exile from the amateur game. Over many decades, that thinking has evolved. One catalyst for this evolution was the creation in 1981 of the U.S. Mid-Amateur. The reality of men’s mid-amateur golf in America today is that if reinstated amateurs were somehow barred from playing in the U.S. Mid-Amateur, it might not be played at all.
Trying to play professionally is a natural progression for young men (and women) who have played elite junior and college golf in America. Most don’t make it, either because they aren’t good enough, don’t like the lifestyle or run out of resources.
In my time in golf, I have counseled several young men and women who have asked me what they should do. I always figured that if they were asking me, somehow deep down they had reservations. Nonetheless, I have been consistent in my messaging for 40 years; if you think you can, you simply must try it. You have to know if it is a viable career option. To my way of thinking, the worst scenario is waking up from a nap in front of a television at age 35, watching some guy contending who you used to beat, and wondering “what if?”
Said Knost on his podcast this fall, “I am very proud of my USGA résumé. Playing on the Walker Cup team was the biggest honor of my golfing career. I would one day like to lead the United States Walker Cup team.”
Knost has one thing going for him in his quest for reinstatement: he has real USGA pedigree. In 2007, he won the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and the U.S. Amateur. As the leading player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, he was awarded the inaugural Mark H. McCormack Medal at the end of that season
Despite reports to the contrary, I have learned that the USGA hasn’t begun to look at Knost’s application. He last played a professional tournament more than five years ago when he was 34 years old. He has been in limbo ever since, and his CBS job interferes with playing and practicing. His recent promotion from on-course reporter to analyst following Ian Baker-Finch’s retirement doesn’t figure to help.
My uninformed hunch is that Knost has four more years to go and will be reinstated 10 years after his last professional appearance. That would help set a threshold for similar future reinstatement applications put in front of the USGA, and it would free Knost to chase his Walker Cup dream.
E-MAIL JIM
Top: Colt Knost was recently promoted to CBS analyst following Ian Baker-Finch’s retirement.
CHRIS KEANE, USGA