Reinstated Amateur Rage Baiting

Colt Knost is not trying to beat up on working stiffs and find an end-around way into the Masters. He’s trying to get your attention. And he is good! And he has succeeded — look at me writing about it here!

Knost announced on his podcast that he is applying for reinstated amateur status, a recent hot-button issue following a U.S. Mid-Am overflowing with washed-out pros. He’s not coming for the U.S. Mid-Am tomorrow, and probably never will. It was initially suggested it was so he could play in a few events he otherwise can’t right now. But it’s mostly for engagement, plainly presented in this way: a podcast segment, built in with anticipation and all-caps teases, promptly cut up and spread on social media platforms, and sponsored by what appears to be an off-brand Zyn, which, while I’m not intimately familiar with the tobacco pouch market, feels like it has achieved “Kleenex” level product synonymity — perhaps cracking into that wall is part of the approach here with this segment.

Two things can be true: in an increasingly nebulous and challenging time to define “amateur,” the USGA may be losing the plot on regulating amateur status, especially at the reinstated mid-am level. And Knost’s move, or stunt, is relatively harmless, though his “Yall are freaking out over nothing” response to the backlash from a stunt designed to create backlash is a little off-base. You shouted fire in a theater, people ran out, and then you’re holding your hands up asking why everyone’s running away. And for affirmation of this intended effect, look no further than Wes Bryan attempting to hitch himself to the attention train.

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In the initial announcement, Knost stated the move was to get a shot at playing a mid-am event and “solely because of all the complaining” that followed recent former pros participating at the U.S. Mid-Am. "I'm not saying I'm going to win, but I just think it would be some great conversation if I could make my way into the Mid-Am,” Knost added.

Since then, he’s said it’s because he wants to one day captain the Walker Cup. So the target seems to be moving. Knost, a frequent thoughtful critic of LIV, must understand that consequences come with choices to play for money in the game of golf, and maybe not getting to captain a Walker Cup could be one here? Nevertheless, he will try.

That this is the subject of the day suggests a couple things: it’s October, and we are slow. And golf is in a really great spot. It felt not long ago that the game, many of its courses, equipment makers, tours, and the public relations of the entire sport were in peril. If this is the subject matter front and center now, then golf is cooking. The debate is peripheral to many, and critically important to some.

Knost was a great player. He won $5 million in earnings in almost 300 starts in more than a decade on the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours. He is great for the broadcasts now. He seems like a credit to golf. This is less about his specific and very dubious case — which, let’s be honest, is years away from materializing into anything and may never lead to any actual threat — and more about capitalizing on a recent hot-button issue current mid-ams and other golf defenders feel very strongly about and think the USGA might be slipping on in recent years. Their positions are emboldened after the recent U.S. Mid-Am and after Justin Hueber, appearing on the NLU podcast, filmed what felt more like a confession video than a defense. The Knost move will add to it. Are we losing the fundamental nature and point of this thing we created?

Perhaps a second level of review should be instituted, one where each U.S. Mid-Am winner’s true status is assessed by the Masters on a case-by-case annual basis before stamping the invitation envelope. That invite is just one of the carrots of a potential reinstated am life, but one would think an ANGC review of to “fill a podcast segment ‘solely for the complaining,’ sponsored by tobacco pouches” may not pass scrutiny.