The USGA has temporarily paused review of its amateur status reinstatement guidelines.
The governing body has been working to potentially modernize those rules – which have been criticized for being too lenient and nontransparent – following last year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur, where six reinstated amateurs reached the quarterfinals and former pro Brandon Holtz won to secure berths into the Masters and U.S. Open.
Discussions among the USGA’s amateur status and executive committees continued during last month’s U.S. Amateur at Merion, after which the USGA decided to table the issue.
In a statement to Golf Channel, a USGA spokesperson said, “The USGA is currently reviewing its amateur status reinstatement guidelines and, as part of that process, has temporarily paused the processing of a select number of reinstatement applications. The review is focused on the role and purpose of reinstatement and waiting periods, including how those elements work together and their impact on the amateur game. We believe it is important to take a thoughtful look at the current framework before determining whether any changes are appropriate.”
Golf analyst Colt Knost, who played 279 events on the PGA and Korn Ferry tours (his last came in early 2020), announced last October that he had applied for his amateur reinstatement, hoping to follow a long list of former pros who have returned to amateur golf, including recent notables John Peterson, Justin Hueber and Jon Curran. Ireland’s Stuart Grehan, who will compete in his second straight Walker Cup this weekend at Lahinch, is also a reinstated amateur.
Evan Beck, Bobby Massa, Bobby Wyatt and Matthew Lowe, some of the more accomplished mid-amateurs right now, were all reinstated as well, though none of them ever earned significant pro status.
But Knost shared on Tuesday an email from the USGA informing him that his application process had been placed on hold as well.
The USGA currently does not disclose its guidelines for amateur reinstatement.
Peterson, who waited five years before getting his amateur status back in June 2024, spoke with Golf Channel during this year’s Jones Cup, his first major amateur appearance in nearly 15 years, and called the current process “arbitrary” and that “no one knows what the process actually is and who decides.”
“I don’t think it’s a process that is ever going to be appreciated by everyone,” Peterson said. “I can only comment on my situation – I don’t have any goals. I’m not pinning anything on my cork board and grinding every day; I can’t, I have four kids and a full-time job. But say I didn’t have kids, and I wasn’t married, and I was healthy and never had wrist surgery, and I wanted to be an amateur golfer again, that would’ve been unfair. I would’ve been as good as I was 10 years ago. My life now is very much in line with how mid-amateurs live. I consider myself a true mid-am now. I get out to the golf course maybe once a week for an hour or two and I have two kids with me and they’re playing in a bunker.”
Peterson added that players, like Knost, who were fully vested on the PGA Tour (five years of at least 15 starts) should be prohibited from returning to amateur golf.
Knost provided a counter argument on social media: “There are amateur golfers now days making more than I did in my PGA Tour career.”
Knost made over $4.3 million in on-course earnings just on the PGA Tour, plus another $800,000-plus on the Korn Ferry Tour.
While amateurs cannot collect prize money, per USGA rules, they can be compensated now through name, image and likeness, though there is no evidence that any player has made over $5 million while still an amateur.
“I have many friends that are reinstated amateurs that have come through the mid-amateur game,” USGA president Kevin Hammer said during this summer’s U.S. Open. “Do we want to welcome them back into the game? Every single individual’s case is so different, so we’ve got a whole team of people that look at that. As you know, some of the qualification criteria that is changed over time, and it will probably continue to be tweaked over time as well. At the end of the day, is the game better with those reinstated professionals back in the amateur game, in a reinstated way? I think the answer is yes.”