Brandon Holtz scored the biggest victory of his career by winning the US Mid-Amateur last month, although his title – and the resumes of those who made deep inroads into the championship – sparked a wider debate in the golf world.
Should former professional golfers regain amateur status?
The newest Mid-Am Champion was a guest on this week’s episode GOLF’s Subpar Podcastand part of the conversation focused on that controversial topic.
The US Mid-Am is one of the USGA’s signature championships and is intended for amateurs aged 25 or older with a handicap index of 2.4 or less. Any professional has the option to reapply for amateur status, as long as it is approved by the USGA. Although the fact that 14 of the final 16 players at mid-morning this year were former pros didn’t sit well with everyone.
But Holtz would like to weigh in on those who believe former pros should not be given amateur status.
“The US Mid-Am, in my opinion, is actually built for this. … I’m a working man, I have a couple of kids, a wife, and as far as competition goes, what else am I going to play in?” Holtz said. “My normal city event in Bloomington, a city of 160,000 people? That’s fun, don’t get me wrong and it’s great, but what else can I play in if we don’t have mid-am?”
Holtz, 38, played college basketball at Illinois State, played professional golf for six years and regained amateur status in 2024. He is now a real estate agent living in Bloomington, Illinois.
“If you really want to get into the logistics of it all, from 2010 to 2014 I played full-time, especially if you want to call it full-time – working, traveling alone, doing everything on my own with a little help from my dad,” he said. ‘But we’re losing money. I stayed [my professional status]but I had flexibility in the job, which meant I had to be able to go out and play hoping, ‘Hey woman, I’m going to go play this weekend; Hopefully I can take some money home.”
However, there is no one set of rules for every professional trying to regain amateur status. The USGA reviews each application and makes a determination based on things like longevity and career success.
Although Subpar co-host Drew Stoltz said this isn’t a perfect system either.
“A period goes by where what you did as a job ten years ago no longer matters,” Stoltz says. “There’s a point where it’s almost irrelevant. I’m not saying you should be able to play amateur events in the first year after playing pro, but once you start working and have kids and play once a week, it’s like, yeah dude, nine years ago I played a lot of golf, but a lot has happened since then.”
Holtz added, “Rules are rules, right? Follow the rules and it is what it is.”
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