6 of the 8 players who made the Mid-Am quarterfinals were former pros who got their am status back
by lawnboy22
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6 of the 8 players who made the Mid-Am quarterfinals were former pros who got their am status back
by lawnboy22
29 Comments
The WAGR numbers listed are way off.
This is what happens when the PGA decides to shrink the game.
The USGA is way too quick to reinstate amateur status IMO, and it goes against the point of the mid-am in my opinion. I feel like the whole point is for high level amateur golfers who maybe played in college but never beyond, who have full time jobs, to compete in a championship. It’s really dumb when people who played golf as their livelihood get their am status back and dominate these events. They should maybe be able to play in the US am after a certain amount of time but it really goes against what the mid-am is to me
I thought the intention of the mid am was to be exclusive to people who never went or intend to go pro since most everyone who goes pro does it before 25. The US am is for the top players who plan on going pro.
However long their pro career was should dictate how long they have to wait for am status. I’d probably prorate it so those with long careers have a longer waiting period vs guys that never really made it out of mini tours after a year or two.
I think if a guy was fully exempt on a major tour then they should never be reinstated or at the very least wait like 10 years.
The counter to that is there are a lot of guys I grew up playing golf with who played D1 college and after graduation turned pro because that was the next logical step. They knew their chances were slim but they were in a position where they had some financial backing and had the opportunity so they thought might as well try. Fast forward a year and they’ve played mini tours and made no money and that’s the end of their pro golf career. Let those guys get a job, wait a year or two and give them their am status back.
Scottsdale golf in September is still hot as fuck. Was 106 yesterday.
The Midam is a joke for this reason. It’s either pros who no longer “pro”, or it’s people who spend as much time practicing per week as the pros.
There should be a Mid-am or similar title for average Joes with jobs who average at least 1600 hours/year of work, and have never been a professional golfer, or played golf at college.
There a huge difference between a Pro and a touring Pro.
A local Pro has to shoot no more than 15 holes over the courses course rating over 36 holes.
When they do that they are considered professional golfers.
Many of them leave the business and want to play competitive amateur golf again. Many of these player have never reached a plus handicap.
So they ask for their amateur status back. What this means in a lot of cases they can’t teach.
I play with a guy that was a Pro and started working in another profession and gave his status up. He’s not close to a scratch player.
Hell yea Phish rules
Can someone please explain what the mid in mid-am means?
6 months is reasonable time in purgatory. Let them play. The better amateurs will beat them.
Amateur status is like virginity. Once it’s gone it’s gone for good.
I get your point as the Mid-Am was designed to be for folks who aren’t ever going pro, but not sure it makes much difference.
I had a disastrous US Am Qualifying a couple of years out of college. FIgured I would hang it up for a while and try the Mid-Am, so I wasn’t playing against all the college guys who did nothing but play golf. Got my ass handed to me in the stroke play.
Lesson I took away from it is that there are always going to be folks who have jobs (or trust funds) that allow them to play more golf than most folks and the sooner you can get with the program, the sooner you will enjoy yourself more in competition.
So not really an amateur even reality just not paid…
Sounds lame.
Yeah that really is a tough look. If you read the bios all 6 were actual touring pros also. Only ever as high as the korn ferry tour, but the point still stands. KF is the third, arguably the second, most prestigious professional golf tour. One of those guys has 113 KF and Latin American starts. There is no reason for someone like that to be competing as an amateur.
In my opinion the only pros who should get their amateur status reinstated are PGA of America pros. If a guy goes through a PGM program, passes his PAT, gets a job as an assistant pro and after a few years decides he didn’t realize he was signing up to be essentially a retail worker and decides to go do something else with his life, he should be able to get his amateur status back.
Once you tee it up for money on a pro tour, sorry man. You decided to make a run at the tour pro life, you made your bed you can lie in it.
If we want to possibly carve out injury exemptions, you only played x amount of times, or won under x amount of dollars, got hurt and dont want to grind anymore. Make them take 5 years off or something and give them back their status. Or figure out some formula that makes sense. It should be proportional to how long you were a pro, how many starts you made, how much money you made vs how long you are on a wait list to get your amateur status back
Someone who’s played 100 kf tour events, you want your am status back? Cool man once you turn 65 years old amateur status is reinstated.
I think it’s reasonable if you played mini tours, or became a club pro and then moved onto another job to be able to play. But if you had status on KFT or the PGA Tour you should be ineligible for Am events for life.
Yeah a lot of good mid ams have sales jobs that essentially involve taking clients golfing at the private clubs (Stew), but I think that’s totally fine compared to someone who made a couple hundred thousand on KFT.
I don’t think you should be able to go back to AM status.
Once you go PRO, then that’s it, that ship has sailed.
I don’t want to say these guys cant play golf with normal folks or anything, but AM specific events should only let AM’s in and anyone that goes to Pro level doesn’t just become an AM again. I guess if they let their game go for like 10 years or something, but most guys on that level still play a lot of golf and are still better than most AM’s out there.
I think it should be pretty simple. Play professionally and you are not eligible for mid am events, ever.
I doubt I’ll every play in a mid am, but if I did I would want these guys in there. I want to beat the best competition available.
I honestly did not know until this year that is was even possible to get am status back. I personally thing loss of amateur status should be permanent, or it should be **really hard** to get back.
Harvie Ward frowns upon this
Not sure what the cutoff should be, but also don’t know why you should penalize someone for their talent. They went for it and didn’t make it. Should they be banned from competing in their beloved sport forever bc of that? I say no.
And?
Lmao and one of the guys consistently plays and practices with Jason Fucking Day. Mid am is a joke
I’m about scratch. Played in a mid-am event that was best ball (not scramble) and thought we’d make an acceptable showing with a couple rounds at par. Winners shot 16 under over two days, and that will be my first and last event lol. Former pros.
I’ll be cheering on the 2 out of 8 pure amateurs to win this.