WISCONSIN — The USGA Mid-Amateur Championship is courting controversy again as two former professionals prepare to contest the 36-hole final at Sand Valley Resort in Wisconsin. Nate Smith of Idaho will meet Andrew Bailey of Ohio on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. local time in the 45th U.S. Mid-Amateur, an over-25s event that offers the winner exemptions into The Masters and the US Open.
Smith, a former Korn Ferry Tour winner with 25 PGA Tour starts including a best round of 65 at the 2011 Sony Open, faces Bailey, another ex-pro who made starts on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas. Seven of the eight quarter-finalists this year had played golf professionally, after six of eight did so last year, intensifying scrutiny of the USGA's amateur reinstatement policy. Smith acknowledged that concern last year, telling the Idaho Golf Association: “I was hesitant initially to compete on the amateur level again because I was worried, possibly, there would be some people that would say, ‘you’ve already been a professional; how can you play amateur golf again,” adding, “But, the reality is that so much time has passed, and I still loved the game. I wanted to compete and the opportunity for me to do [so was] on the amateur level. The USGA granted me my amateur status back in a matter of three days.”
The USGA's reinstatement guidance is not set in stone and weighs factors including career success, level competed at, and time since last professional start. The debate prompted former PGA Tour player Colt Knost — the former U.S. Amateur champion who made 199 PGA Tour starts and won over $4.3 million — to explore regaining his amateur status in 2025. Knost revealed this summer the USGA has "decided to re-evaluate its reinstatement guidance" for successful former pros.
Smith, who won over $437,000 on the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours and now works as a homebuilder, will face Bailey, a national sales manager for golf apparel brand Holderness & Bourne. The champion will claim the national title and major-championship invitations, but both finalists and the governing body face renewed criticism that allowing players with PGA and Korn Ferry Tour experience harms the authenticity of amateur golf.