{"id":511503,"date":"2026-04-03T22:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511503\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:34:11","slug":"meet-the-real-estate-agent-playing-in-the-masters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511503\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the real estate agent PLAYING in the Masters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holtz earned his place<\/a> by winning last September\u2019s USGA Mid-Amateur title in the blistering Arizona heat. It was an exhausting 36-hole final against his 28-year-old opponent, Jeg Coughlin III, at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, with a weary Jeff lugging his bag. But Holtz conjured an unlikely 3&2 victory. This was his debut in a USGA event. And he won.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t go out there with any expectations,\u201d Holtz tells TG. \u201cI played good at the right time and was able to just survive. It was timing. I found something and just rolled with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Masters has extended an invite to the Mid-Am champion since 1989, while Holtz also has a spot at the US Open to look forward to at Shinnecock Hills in June.<\/p>\n

For now, though, it is only Georgia on his mind.<\/p>\n

Evidently, Holtz has taken a wildly different road to Augusta than the other 91 entrants. His childhood passion was basketball and he was talented enough to earn a scholarship to play at Division 1 college level for Illinois State. He was the \u201cugly\u201d enforcer with a penchant for nailing three-pointers.<\/p>\n

But Holtz viewed golf only as a pastime. He\u2019d play sparingly at Lakeside Country Club, his local nine-hole layout in his home city of Bloomington, with Jeff and his pals.<\/p>\n

\u201cGolf was secondary,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was something that I just played during the offseason to get my mind away from basketball. Travelling takes over the summer, so you don\u2019t really have a whole lot of time for golf. I played on the high school golf team but that was it. I didn\u2019t play in any summer events. I certainly didn\u2019t travel for any golf tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holtz grew up wanting to be like Michael Jordan but knew deep down he wasn\u2019t cut out for it. In his fourth year, he was tentatively approached to switch to the golf team, but stuck with basketball and left a year later without any collegiate golf experience, a decision he now regrets.<\/p>\n

By the time he left Illinois State in 2010, Holtz finally gave golf his full attention and practised hard for six months, making huge strides before taking the plunge to turn professional. He drove to mini tour events across Illinois, Florida and Carolina and takes pride in only missing a handful of cuts. But Holtz scarcely threatened any leaderboards either.<\/p>\n

He was the equivalent of a boxing novice entering title fights without a single amateur bout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was testing the waters to see where I stood just because I didn\u2019t have any tournament experience,\u201d he says. \u201cThe whole idea was to give myself two years and if I got\u00a0better or was making some money, I\u2019d keep playing. After four years, it was time to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holtz sums up these years chasing his dream in two words: \u201clonely\u201d and \u201cexpensive\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t understand that you pay $2,000 into the tournament before you even tee up to play in it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe winner might get 10 grand. If you make the cut, you might get a thousand bucks back. Ultimately you\u2019re losing pretty much every time you tee up \u2013 unless you win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest check Holtz earned was $14,000 for a runner-up finish in the Illinois Open, but without any sponsors or financial backing, it only served him for his next few tournaments. He kept his professional status after quitting the full-time grind in 2014 but had picked up a real estate job that allowed him to keep competing. But life got in the way. He got married, had two children, and when he stopped earning money at events on the weekends, golf became a recreational pursuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in Illinois, it\u2019s a wintery state,\u201d he explains. \u201cI usually put my clubs up come the end of November and then don\u2019t really bring them out until April, unless we go on vacation somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of pro golfers regaining amateur status often stirs controversy and eyes rolled when it emerged 14 of the 16 players in last year\u2019s Mid-Am were once in the paid ranks. But there were no thoughts of Augusta when Holtz applied to the USGA to become an amateur.<\/p>\n

He just wanted to start playing local events with his friends again. \u201cThat seemed to be more fun and the road I wanted to head towards,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t thinking really big picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holtz\u2019s preparations for playing in the Masters essentially began when he returned home from Arizona. Unusually, he has been taking golf trips through the winter to stay in \u201cgolf mode\u201d while his wife Liz stays at home to look after the kids. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two months has been pretty crazy,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s all a big team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prep has included some magical reconnaissance trips to Augusta. \u201cYou get five days where you can play as many holes as you want,\u201d Holtz explains. \u201cWhat I noticed the most is the walk inside the ropes is much harder. Outside the ropes you\u2019re not walking up to tees and greens and that extra few thousand steps makes a difference for sure. But I\u2019ve taken the advantage, basically playing from sun up to sundown. I feel like I\u2019m as ready as I can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holtz has also been organising passes for up to 40 family and friends to share his special week with him. Most poignantly though, Jeff \u2013 the man who taught Holtz how to play the game \u2013 will be carrying his clubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we\u2019ll keep the tears for Saturday\u00a0when we make the cut,\u201d he smiles. \u201cBut the whole deal is going to be\u00a0pretty emotional. I\u2019m hoping to get all the emotion out on Wednesday so I\u2019m ready to go come Thursday morning.\u201d <\/p>\n

So what about the first-tee nerves?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to use the word nerves,\u201d he says. \u201cI like to use the word adrenaline. I\u2019m going to be\u00a0ready. What that looks like in my mind, I don\u2019t know\u00a0quite know yet, just because I\u2019ve never played golf in front of 50,000 people. I can sit there and imagine what\u00a0it\u2019s going to feel like but you don\u2019t know until you get there.\u00a0I\u2019m just anxious for that opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope I get to the first tee and I can tee the ball up without falling over a couple of times!\u201d<\/p>\n

Before that heady experience, Holtz would love to play a practice round with his hero, Fred Couples. Yes, to glean some last-minute tips from the 1992 champion, but also because it\u2019s just a really cool thing to do. He knows he is a complete outlier in this field<\/a> and, just like he did as a patron, wants to get as much enjoyment from the week as possible.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t make it to Augusta without a fierce competitive streak, though. Holtz still wants to play well. He\u2019s a monstrous hitter \u2013 \u201cI want to hit driver as many times as I can\u201d \u2013 and a creative putter, but admits his weakness is his wedges. He\u2019s one of 22 rookies in the field and the oldest by eight years. Of the six amateurs, the next oldest is 14 years his junior. He sits 3,262nd in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. The next highest-ranked amateur in the field is 112th.<\/p>\n

So without diminishing any of his determination and talent \u2013 which in relative terms still border on the absurd \u2013 Holtz is the everyman competing in this year\u2019s Masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ultimately want to enjoy this but I\u2019m a competitor,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to be that low am<\/a>, I want to make that cut. Am I silly enough to sit here and say, \u2018I\u2019m going to win it?\u2019 No, I\u2019m not. I\u2019m a little bit more realistic than that. But at the same time, I\u2019m not going there to get second, you know?\u00a0I want to play good and get whatever I can out of my golf game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about sports is you can find something that clicks and just start going with it and believe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holtz earned his place by winning last September\u2019s USGA Mid-Amateur title in the blistering Arizona heat. It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}