Brandon Holtz is a fan favorite at The Masters this week. The former college basketball player at Illinois State and current real estate agent will compete at the biggest tournament in golf as an amateur.
However, the 39-year-old has a background as a professional. Don’t get it twisted!
This kind of experience is not super uncommon in golf and it does not mean Holtz is not a very fun story. I just feel like everyone should know all of the facts, even if that makes me the party pooper.
Who is Brandon Holtz?
As a native of Illinois, Holtz has attended The Masters as a patron every year since his father secured lifetime badges to the tournament in 2004. This year is different!
The 39-year-old real estate agent will be one of 91 golfers to compete at Augusta National this weekend.
Holtz earned his spot in the most prestigious event in golf by winning the USGA Mid-Amateur title in September. The Masters has extended an invitation to the champion every year since 1989! He will be 14 years older than the other five amateurs in the field. His current amateur ranking of 3,263 is more than 3,000 spots lower than the next lowest-ranked amateur at No. 112.
When he is not taking hacks on the golf course, Holtz works as a fourth-year real estate agent for ReMax in Bloomington, Illinois. It is a true Cinderella story.
Prior to his employment with Remax, Brandon Holtz played college basketball at Illinois State from his freshman season in 2005 through his senior season in 2009. Not golf. Holtz averaged approximately 10 minutes per game off of the bench as someone who couldn’t run, jump or dribble but “could shoot the hell out of it.” He scored a career-high 15 points against SEMO in 2007.
Brandon Holtz is just a regular guy with a regular job who gets to play in The Masters with his dad on the bag as his caddie. The entire United State will be behind him as a fan favorite. Pretty cool!
Former pro golfers can get amateur status.
Although Holtz earned his invitation to The Masters as an amateur, he is not as much of an amateur as the ‘amateur status’ tag might suggest. There is more to his story.
Brandon Holtz actually turned pro as a golfer in 2010 after just six months of practice. Rarely did he threaten the leaderboard at mini tours in Florida, Georgia, Illinois and the Carolinas, but rarely did he miss the cut. In fact, he missed only one single cut during his time on the Hooters Tour, Peach State Tour and West Florida Golf Tours. His largest paycheck was $14,000 as the runner-up at the Illinois State Open.
The pursuit of professional golf is long behind Holtz. It once again became a hobby when he got married, had two children and stopped earning money at low-tier pro tournaments on the weekends.
And then Holtz started to get the itch… He applied to regain his amateur status in 2023 as a way to play with his buddies in local competitions. Amateur status was granted to him in 2024. The Mid-Am was his first tournament back.
So yes, technically speaking, Brandon Holtz is an amateur. Historically speaking, he is a former pro.
Many golf traditionalists role their eyes at pro golfers who regain amateur status. It’s kind of like the Charles Bediako situation with Alabama basketball this season. These athletes could not make it as a professional on their first try, why should they be allowed to go back to the amateur ranks? Fair question.
Even if this is something that happens often in the golf world, it is an important caveat to Holtz’s past. This should not discourage anyone from rooting for the biggest Cinderella participant at The Masters but everyone should know the full story before they do.