Twenty six year-old, Colt Knost, of Dallas, Texas has been a professional golfer since 2007. Since turning pro, life on the PGA Tour has been a series of ups and downs. Knost just recently had to go through the PGA Qualifying (Q-School) and played well enough to qualify to play on the Tour for 2012.
During the recent Q-School, Colt endured six rounds of golf with 175 other players.
Only the top-25 players, or 14% receive their PGA card. Knost shot an eight under par and was the 25th and final player to qualify. Knost was forced to go through Q-School because he did not make the Top 125 on the Tour for 2011 and needed to go through the qualifying tournament to compete to play on the Tour for 2012.
“It is a dream come true to be able to play a sport I love and make a living doing it,” Colt told GoHorseShow, who we caught up with while driving back from his friend, Dallas Cowboy quarterback, Tony Romo’s house in Dallas. “I am becoming more confident, and I am starting to believe I deserve to be here.
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You may wonder why we are talking about a
professional golfer on GoHorseShow.com. Well, Knost is the son of long-time horse lover and competitor, LuAnn Knost of Pilot Point, Texas. LuAnn is a staple in the horse show community but few know that she was one of the first individuals to have the opportunity to own a youngster by Zippo Pine Bar and show in the all-around events.
His mother, LuAnn, says that she is very proud of her son. “He has always been a very strong willed and determined young man, but he also has a great personality, gets along with everybody, and everybody loves him,” she fondly says.
While Colt was never involved with horses, he did pick up a love of competition from his mother. Colt’s father passed away when he was 19 months-old and came to golf at a relatively late age. He gave the sport a try at the age of 12 because a number of his friends around Pilot Point played the game. He did not play competitively until he was 16 and did not play on a national level until after he graduated from high school.
“They tried to get me into showing horses,” Colt told GoHorseShow. “I never took to it, but I did have a huge ranch to grow up on and it was a great place to hit golf balls.”
Knost received a college golf scholarship to SMU and eventually went on to win the US Amateur, Amateur Public Links, and Walker Cup Championships while a non-professional. His mother was there for him every step of the way helping him anyway she could to help him succeed in this tough and fickle sport.
Knost adds, “At this high level, I believe it is about seventy-five percent mental and twenty-five percent physical. It is one of the few sports where it is all on you to succeed; you can’t blame anyone else. I love the mental aspects of the game.”
LuAnn is still involved with the horses and a vendor at the various horse shows where she has attended the major shows, including the Congress and World Shows. She recently went into business with her step-son and his wife, Judd and Jennifer Paul, and will run a new boutique called Allie’s Uptown. Look for them at the shows next year.
As far as her son, Colt, his first tour event of 2012 will be the Sony Open in Hawaii the second week of January.
“I will be playing around 25 to 30 tournaments this year,” Colt says. “This is what I do for a living. If I don’t play well, I won’t get paid–so hopefully this year will be my break out year.”
Photos © PGA Images
