Gillespie: Walking to a different beat

Former Amateur champion Colt Knost is taking a different path to the Tour

GREER

UNTIL SUNDAY, COLT Knost was best known as the amateur golfer who turned professional and passed up the chance to play in this year’s Masters.

Now, after his first professional victory at last week’s Fort Smith (Ark.) Classic, he hopes to be known as the latest player to use the Nationwide Tour as a springboard to the PGA Tour — and, eventually, to Augusta National.

“As long as I don’t ‘dog it,’ I’ll get to the PGA Tour,” the 22-year-old former SMU player said Tuesday while standing at the first tee at Thornblade Club before his practice round for the Nationwide Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am. “And if I play good there, I’ll get to the Masters.”

He laughed. “And then I’ll look like a genius.”

If Knost keeps volunteering for assignments like this one, though — playing nine holes with a newspaper reporter and a TV reporter — his fellow pros may question his intelligence — and his sanity.

Blame it on Joe Chemycz. As Knost waited Sunday to see if he would be involved in a playoff or win outright, the PGA Tour’s media representative asked him about playing with yours truly and Ken Griner of WSPA-TV to help promote the BMW event. Obviously distracted, he agreed.

Tuesday, though, Knost accepted his fate with good grace. “It’s good for the Nationwide Tour,” he said as Ken and I loosened up. “Today I just want to make sure you guys are comfortable — and you don’t hurt anyone.”

Uh, OK. Four holes later, I asked Knost if either of us, his playing partners, should abandon journalism for, say, the Champions Tour. “No,” he said, deadpan.

Thanks, Colt.

Actually, Knost was the ideal subject for such an experiment. A stereotypical Texan (from Pilot Point, an hour north of Dallas), he’s quiet and reserved, but also easy-going. For two hours, he scouted Thornblade’s front nine while sharing his life story.

It’s an unconventional script; for one thing, at 5-foot-9 and 215 pounds, Knost doesn’t exactly fit the PGA Tour image. Also, he only took up golf at age 12 and “got competitive” at 16 — six years ago.

He was a quick study, though. In 2007, Knost played on the U.S. Walker Cup team — a teammate and now good friend is PGA Tour rookie Dustin Johnson, from Irmo — and won the U.S. Amateur Public Links and U.S. Amateur.

The first of two others to pull off that trifecta was Bobby Jones. Oops: Another Masters reference. Knost heard plenty of those after Q-school, where he failed to earn PGA Tour or Nationwide status.

“There was a lot of pressure,” he said. “I had thought I’d stay an amateur, but with the financial opportunities, it was a chance to help my mom and family.”

Now seventh on the tour’s money list at $140,315 — $99,000 from Fort Smith — he’s on his way to doing that.

Knost’s Mike Weir-like practice take-away before every shot is as atypical as his physique and history. He swings the club to the top, whereupon caddie Brendon DeStefano checks his setup. “It was a drill my teacher gave me two years ago; now I do it the same every time,” he said.

For this practice session, Knost was more interested in the course than his game. He hit extra approaches and multiple putts to potential pin positions. Though he hits it long off the tee, Knost enjoyed some of Thornblade’s short-but-strategic holes. “A good risk-reward hole,” he said of the 507-yard, par-5 fifth. At the par-3 sixth, he admired Jay Haas’ home, which overlooks the tee, before banging his 6-iron shot off the flagstick from 177 yards.

Knost appeared relaxed just 48 hours removed from his win, but looks were deceiving. “The phone’s been ringing, a lot,” he said, smiling. “It’s sinking in, what I did. When I won, I was excited, but that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.

“Finally I realized it was a big deal. To win at 22, in my sixth Nationwide Tour event ... it’s not the PGA Tour, but winning is winning.”

And winning has its rewards. At the par-3 ninth, Knost spotted an electronic scoreboard where “Colt Knost” flashed. “What’s my name doing up there?” he asked.

Probably for being the most recent winner, Ken said. Knost smiled.

He was so content, in fact, he entertained two more Masters questions: Where was he that week? And did he watch it?

“At Royal Oaks,” his home club in Dallas, “and (watched) every bit of it,” Knost said. “It’s the best tournament to watch.

“I never miss the Masters.”