Colt Knost (born June 26, 1985) is a retired American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who played on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

. Beginning in January 2022, he became a regular analyst and on-course commentator for

events televised by

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

Amateur career

Knost was born in Garrettsville, Ohio and grew up in Pilot Point, Texas. He was the Class 3A State Champion his senior year of 2003. He graduated from

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

in 2007. While at SMU, he earned all-conference and all-region honors. He was also named the 2004

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

Freshman of the Year. Knost won three

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rule ...

events in 2007, joining Bobby Jones (1930) and Jay Sigel (1983) as the only players to do so. In July he won the U.S. Amateur Public Links over Cody Paladino, 6 & 4. In August he won the

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

, 2 & 1 over Michael Thompson. In September he represented the United States at the 2007 Walker Cup. The United States won 12½ to 11½ and Knost posted a record of 2-0-2 (W-L-H). He was the number one ranked golfer in the

World Amateur Golf Ranking The World Amateur Golf Ranking for men was introduced by The R&A, the governing body of the sport of golf outside the United States and Mexico, on 23 January 2007. It is based on the results of over 2,600 amateur tournaments per year (and amateurs ...

for five weeks in 2007 before turning professional. Knost was awarded the inaugural Mark H. McCormack Medal by

The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world. It is a private members-only club based in St Andrews in Scotland. It was previously known colloquially as "The R&A", but in 2004, a new organisation kn ...

in 2007.

Professional career

Shortly after winning the 2007 U.S. Amateur, he turned professional, forfeiting his invitations to

The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major golf championships, men's major championships in Professional golf tours, professional golf. Schedul ...

, the U.S. Open, and the

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

. Knost played in three events on the PGA Tour as a professional in 2007, making two of three cuts with his best finish coming at the Frys.com Open, where he finished T-38. Knost went to

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

to try to earn his PGA Tour card for 2008 but his finish of T-85 was not good enough to earn him his card. Knost played on the

Nationwide Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...

in 2008 and won the Fort Smith Classic and the

Price Cutter Charity Championship The Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper is a regular golf tournament on the Korn Ferry Tour. It is played at the Highland Springs Country Club in Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the List of cities in Missouri, third ...

. He finished 6th on the money list with $329,509 and earned his 2009 PGA Tour card. On the PGA Tour, Knost made only 11 of 24 cuts, with his best finish coming at the Bob Hope Classic where he finished T-25. He finished 193rd on the money list and returned to the Nationwide Tour in 2010. By finishing 2010 at 15th on the Nationwide Tour money list, he earned his PGA Tour card again for 2011. He finished only 156th in the Fedex Cup list for 2011, but was successful at the 2011 qualifying school (by the narrowest margin of one stroke). In 2012 he finished 120th to retain his PGA Tour card, but in 2013 he finished 184th and dropped back to the Web.com Tour. In the 2014 Web.com Tour Finals he finished second (excluding the regular-season Top 25) and returned to the PGA Tour for 2015. He finished that

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

91st on the FedEx Cup rankings to retain his Tour card. After missing the cut in the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open, Knost announced his retirement from professional golf. Knost now hosts a podcast with Golf.com called "GOLFs Subpar" along with former professional golfer Drew Stoltz.

On-course reporting

In January 2022,

announced that Knost would be a regular on-course commentator for

events. During the 2022 Masters Tournament, Knost was an analyst and commentator covering featured groups on the CBS Sports television broadcast.

Amateur wins

*2005 Dixie Amateur *2007 U.S. Amateur Public Links,

*2008 Georgia Cup

Professional wins (2)

Nationwide Tour wins (2)

Nationwide Tour playoff record (0–1)

Results in major championships

''Note: Knost never played in the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week in April, the Masters is the ...

.'' CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut
WD = withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place

U.S. national team appearances

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland featuring players from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

(winners)

References

External links

* *
Colt Knost wins 2007 U.S. Amateur
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knost, Colt American male golfers SMU Mustangs men's golfers PGA Tour golfers Korn Ferry Tour graduates Golfers from Ohio Golfers from Dallas People from Garrettsville, Ohio People from Pilot Point, Texas Sportspeople from Denton County, Texas 1985 births Living people