Should Pros Be Able to Become Amateurs Again?
Hack It Out Golf
Golf Swing Productions by Mark Crossfield Greg Chalmers and Lou Stagner
4.7 • 267 Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pro golfers are really good. But what happens when a player turns professional, can't make a career of golf, and takes another path in life? Once professional, always professional? Or should there be a path back to amateur status? In this episode, Mark, Greg, and Lou discuss—and solid points are raised by both sides.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Should X pros be allowed to play in amateur events? |
| 0:05.2 | So X pros who have retained their or regained their amateur status. |
| 0:11.1 | So they were a pro and then they've said, |
| 0:13.1 | don't want to be a pro anymore. |
| 0:14.1 | So in effect, they kind of apply to them being amateur again. |
| 0:17.6 | Then play. |
| 0:18.2 | Like Greg just sent something in our private chats this week. |
| 0:21.0 | Former PGA Tour Pro, Mike Sposa, advances to round 32 of the 2025 US Senior Amateur. |
| 0:28.7 | So you've got an ex-Tor Pro there who's given up playing and then he's gone and he's playing in the US Senior Amateur and he's qualified for the last 32, which is that going into matchplay, like our amateur would, isn't it? |
| 0:40.8 | Yeah, so he's qualified from the medal into the match bay. |
| 0:44.3 | Me personally, I've played in events as an amateur with ex-pros, people who are ex-PGA pros, people who have not many. |
| 0:51.3 | I don't think I've played where they were ex-Tor pros because I was playing, you know, they were younger events. They wouldn't have gone through that. But me personally, I wouldn't care. I'm happy that you've got the best players in. If they're choosing not to play for their living anymore, then come and play golf. Like, if someone's better than me, good, Like, make me practice harder. I'm not jealous. I'm just thinking, okay, well, they're better than me. So what are they doing? What can I learn? Now can I get better? And if they're better than me, then they're better than me. I don't want to be the best player in a field by having weird rules that disclude people who are better than you. I don't know. |
| 1:27.9 | What are your thoughts on it? |
| 1:29.4 | Lou, Greg, amateurs or pros, ex-tort pros going back to amateurs and playing. |
| 1:34.4 | What do you think? |
| 1:35.3 | Lou, do you want me to go? |
| 1:36.6 | Yeah, go ahead. |
| 1:37.5 | Yeah, so I got a couple of buddies who are in this category and who live, who live, one |
| 1:43.6 | lives, I play golf with a lot, to be honest, as a pro and as an |
| 1:46.8 | amateur now. A friend of mine selling insurance and has two kids now. He's been just got his |
| 1:53.0 | amateur status back, played, he's won on the Corn Ferry Tour. He has played on the PJ |
| 1:58.5 | tour for a season. Was a, was a good player and still a good player. |
... |
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