Colt Knost wasn\u2019t sure when his professional golf career would end, but he did know one thing: He didn\u2019t have a backup plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d he said. \u201cI hesitate to call myself an athlete, but I just don\u2019t think athletes truly do.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, when you train your whole life to do something, and that\u2019s your goal, and you achieve your goal and you get to where you want to be, you think, all right, here we go, time to really get down to business and have this great, successful career.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it just doesn\u2019t always work that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knost had every reason to believe it would. He was the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world in 2007, winner of the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Amateur Public Links, member of the victorious Walker Cup team. Surely he\u2019d go on to stardom on the PGA Tour.<\/p>\n
It never happened. He won a couple Nationwide (now Korn Ferry) Tour events in 2008 and finished third in four PGA Tour tournaments.<\/p>\n
Just when it looked like he might be ready to reach the levels everyone expected, placing in the top 100 on the money list for two straight years, he hurt his wrist.<\/p>\n
And that led him to the backup plan he never had \u2014 TV broadcaster for CBS Sports, which begins its PGA Tour coverage this weekend at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. Coverage begins at noon Saturday, following the SDSU-Utah State basketball game.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be doing what I\u2019m doing now, I would be lying if I said this was a backup plan or I ever even thought I could do it,\u201d Knost said in a recent phone interview.<\/p>\n
But the personable Knost had at least two things going for him: He knows the game, and he can talk. CBS gave him a chance to work some events while he was injured in 2016, and in 2020 he was offered a 15-tournament schedule. He could have gone back to the Korn Ferry Tour, but as he said, he was 35 and he knew if he did, he was \u201cgonna have a bad attitude because nobody likes going backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
So he gambled on himself, and although at first he said he felt \u201cout of place and had no clue what I was doing,\u201d thankfully for Knost \u2014 and golf viewers \u2014 he\u2019s been with CBS ever since.<\/p>\n
With the retirement of Ian Baker Finch, Knost has been promoted from his role as course reporter to working in the \u201cSuper Tower,\u201d as CBS calls it, with Jim Nantz and analysts Trevor Immelman and Frank Nobilo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely gonna be an adjustment,\u201d he said of not being on the course, \u201cbut I know at the same time, this is a huge opportunity for me. This is a bigger job. \u2026 I have (more) time, whether it\u2019s to tell some stories about these guys or just show my knowledge of this game. I mean, I\u2019m a golf nerd. I live deeply, live and breathe this stuff, man. I love it so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m just excited to get up there. It\u2019ll be interesting. You know, I always joke, I\u2019m going from walking out there with beautiful galleries to now I get to look at Frank Nobilo for three hours. It\u2019ll be quite different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others on the CBS crew have no doubt Knost will be up to the task.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the obvious choice,\u201d said Sellers Shy, coordinating producer of golf for CBS. \u201cHe talks the game 24\/7. He could just grab a mic and talk to the wall about golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Nantz: \u201cColt deserves this opportunity. I think he is ready to take on a role that involves a lot more than what he\u2019s been doing in the past. \u2026 I have 100% faith in Colt being able to bring a mix of the best of what he can do \u2013 and he can bring a lot. He has credentials as a player. And he has a wonderful sense of humor. And I think he\u2019s ready to bring all of those personality traits to play-by-play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a different demand of his skillset, but I have great faith that he\u2019s really going to give us a new sound and make our broadcasts really even sing more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colt Knost on \u2026<\/p>\n
What to watch for in 2026: \u201cI think the No. 1 story is Scottie Scheffler, his dominance, after this run he has been on, which everyone says, you know, last year might not have been as good as the year before. He didn\u2019t win as many times until he won six times. He\u2019s the best player in the world, it\u2019s not even close, and he just continues to get better. \u2026 The question is: Can anyone catch Scottie?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the obvious other one is what\u2019s Brooks Koepka gonna bring to the table. Obviously, that was a massive announcement just a few weeks ago, excited to have him at Farmers. I hope he makes it to the weekend, so we can document his first weekend back on the PGA Tour. I think he\u2019s a massive story, and will others follow?\u201d (Patrick Reed announced after the interview with Knost that he plans to return in late 2026 or 2027.)<\/p>\n
Whether the general fan doesn\u2019t appreciate how good Scheffler is right now: \u201cA million percent. They have no idea. It\u2019s different, right? I mean, Tiger Woods changed golf. He brought a whole new audience to the game of golf. He made golf cool. He changed how much these guys play for. I mean, everything we see right now, today, in the game of golf, is because of Tiger Woods.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, Scottie, you know, when you watch him play, the difference between him and Tiger Woods, back when Tiger was in his prime, other players couldn\u2019t do what Tiger did. They couldn\u2019t hit the shots Tiger could hit.\u00a0Every single player on the PGA Tour can hit the exact shots Scottie Scheffler does. He just does it way more often, and he seems to do it every single round.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something he would do if he was PGA Tour CEO: \u201cI\u2019m not a fan of the limited field. I\u2019m fine with having signature events, events that are more money, more points and stuff like that, but give all your guys a chance to play in them. \u2026 I think we can have 120-man fields. I think we can have a cut. A cut is part of professional golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
On who will take the leap toward stardom in 2026: \u201cI\u2019m very high on Jake Knapp. He\u2019s got all the tools, man. I think he\u2019s in a great spot. I expect a really big year from Jake Knapp.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 JAY POSNER<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colt Knost wasn\u2019t sure when his professional golf career would end, but he did know one thing: He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[32496,181,74,76,75,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-155526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}