Colt Knost

Amateur career

Knost was born in Garrettsville, Ohio and grew up in Pilot Point, Texas. He was the Class 3A State Champion his senior year of 2003. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2007. While at SMU, he earned all-conference and all-region honors. He was also named the 2004 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year. Knost won three United States Golf Association events in 2007, joining Bobby Jones (1930) and Jay Sigel (1983) as the only players to do so. In July he won the U.S. Amateur Public Links over Cody Paladino, 6 & 4. In August he won he U.S. Amateur, 2 & 1 over Michael Thompson. In September he represented the United States at the 2007 Walker Cup. The United States won 12½ to 11½ and Knost posted a record of 2-0-2 (W-L-H). He was the number one ranked golfer in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for five weeks in 2007 before turning professional. Knost was awarded the inaugural Mark H. McCormack Medal by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in 2007.

Professional career

Shortly after winning the 2007 U.S. Amateur, he turned professional, forfeiting his invitations to The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the Open Championship. Knost played in three events on the PGA Tour as a professional in 2007, making two of three cuts with his best finish coming at the Frys.com Open, where he finished T-38. Knost went to qualifying school to try to earn his PGA Tour card for 2008 but his finish of T-85 was not good enough to earn him his card.

Knost played on the Nationwide Tour in 2008 and won the Fort Smith Classic and the Price Cutter Charity Championship. He finished 6th on the money list with $329,509 and earned his 2009 PGA Tour card. On the PGA Tour, Knost made only 11 of 24 cuts, with his best finish coming at the Bob Hope Classic where he finished T-25. He finished 193rd on the money list and returned to the Nationwide Tour in 2010.

By finishing 2010 at 15th on the Nationwide Tour money list, he earned his PGA Tour card again for 2011.

He finished only 156th in the Fedex Cup list for 2011, but was successful at the 2011 qualifying school (by the narrowest margin of one stroke). In 2012 he finished 120th to retain his PGA Tour card, but in 2013 he finished 184th and dropped back to the Web.com Tour.

In the 2014 Web.com Tour Finals he finished second (excluding the regular-season Top 25) and returned to the PGA Tour for 2015. He finished that season 91st on the FedEx Cup rankings to retain his Tour card.

Amateur wins (3)

Nationwide Tour wins (2)

Results in major championships

DNP = Did not play
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Yellow background for top-10.

U.S. national team appearances