Episode 60: Brandon Holtz
John: Welcome to Redbird Buzz. I'm John Twork from University Marketing and Communications. Our guest today is Brandon Holtz, an Illinois State class of 2010 alum who's United States Golf Association mid amateur tournament championship last September set in motion a golf experience that dreams are made of. As a 39-year-old amateur golfer and realtor in Bloomington-Normal, Holtz was among just 91 players from around the world to earn an invitation to the 2026 Masters in April, played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, and now he's preparing for the US Open golf championship, which takes place June 18 through the 21st at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York. Today, Holtz, who played on the Illinois State men's basketball team but not on the golf team, talks about his unlikely journey from pursuing professional golf for four years without great success, to regaining his amateur status to compete in local tournaments, to winning the USGA Mid Amateur Tournament, and a spot in two of golf's biggest stages, all while proudly representing Illinois State and the Bloomington-Normal community. It's my pleasure to welcome Brandon Holtz to Redbird Buzz, just ahead of the US Open. What's the word, Redbird? Tell us a little bit about yourself, Brandon, and what you're up to as you're making your final preparations here for the US Golf Open Championship next week.
Brandon: Yeah, perfect. Hey, John, I appreciate you having me on. This has been an incredible year, a crazy, wild, busy year. But it's been, you know, great to be able to, you know, do things like this and share this story, just because I think, one, it's unique, and then two, it just resonates with the everyday guy, you know, living the dream to play golf at Augusta and the US Open, so no, it's like I said, it's been a whirlwind of a year, and I'm excited, you know, I leave on Saturday for the US Open, so I'll be out in Shinnecock Saturday, get a practice round Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then tee it up officially on Thursday, so this week is just kind of trying to lay low, obviously, get everything packed, get some last-minute stuff done, but we're doing it.
John: It's here! You come from an athletic family, Brandon. Your younger brother, Brent, also was an Illinois State alum, played on the Redbird football team. I think both your parents are ISU alums, if I'm not mistaken, right? And you and Brent, I know both played golf growing up with your father, Jeff, who caddied for you at the Masters. Can you just talk about, what was it like growing up in the Holts household? Was it sports, kind of 24/7, and where did golf play a role in that?
Brandon: Yeah, definitely it was sports 24/7 and just competition, I feel like everything that we did growing up, whether be sport related or not, it was some kind of, you know, some form of competition, and I think that's just kind of how, you know, I'm living my life, how I'm kind of raising my kids, you know, so it's just it's fun for me, you know, to compete day in and day out, just for something, you know, my wife always gives me a hard time, just because she feels like I'm always competing with her, and I'm like, in a sense, I am a little bit, but you know, no, it's just again, that's that's how we grew up, that's just kind of the who our family is, so yeah, no, I mean, my dad on the bag at the Masters was great. It's always have that, you know, it's your, your father-son relationship, and not, not too many people can say that they had their dad on the bag at the Masters. And then my brother is actually going to caddy for me at the US Open. So this is a family affair year, and we've enjoyed every moment.
John: So, how old were you when, when your dad first took you out to the golf course?
Brandon: Yeah, when we were young, I'd say four or five, when we're, you know, finally able to walk. Yeah, we were never super competitive on the golf side, I mean, family competitive on the golf side, but we didn't really travel to play in any tournaments. We play in some of the local stuff, you know, obviously the father-son tournaments in town, but you know, golf was always kind of secondary for me and my brother, I guess. It was just kind of something that we would do. My dad always played, and you know, obviously, when you get older, golf's really the only thing you can do without taking a few days off, because you can't walk, you know, after playing basketball and stuff like that. But yeah, no, we've, we've always played, it's always been kind of secondary. Brent was a football player, I was a basketball player, so, yeah, that's that's kind of where it stood.
John: What were some of the things that your dad taught you on the golf course that have stuck with you through all these years?
Brandon: Yeah, you know, we grew up at Lakeside Country Club. If you're familiar with Lakeside, it's pretty much surrounded by roads and buildings, and you know, the famous Casey's gas station, right there, that gets hit quite regularly. But he, you know, he always put the driver in my hand, and he said, "You'll, you'll never be a good player if you, you know, can't hit driver. You know, a lot of people grew up out there hitting irons off tees, and we grew up hitting drivers off tees. Now, couple windows, a couple dents in the car doors, but you know, as I'm playing today, the driver's a strength in my bag, and I think it's just because I grew up hitting it, and I had to learn how to hit it straight.
John: Yeah, is that the same Caseys that you get breakfast burritos from, which I heard a staple of your pregame golf ritual?
Brandon: The small town Caseys just have a little bit more passion in their food. Go to a small town Casey's.
John: I hear you. Now you and Brent both went to Bloomington High School. I also went there, full disclosure, so I'm a fellow proud Purple Raider, and honestly, one of my favorite sports memories is I was in the stands when you hit the game-winning shot to lift Bloomington High School, coached by Ron Rose, now the head coach at Illinois Wesley, into a championship over Chicago Simeon. There was a player named Derrick Rose who unfortunately was injured on the bench, maybe fortunately for Bloomington, but you know that was an unbelievable moment, and so you have, you know, you made some really great basketball memories. You also were on the golf team, and you led the Raiders to a couple of conference titles, three top 10 finishes at the state tournament. Why'd you decide, though, on basketball instead of golf at the college level, presumably you could have played either.
Brandon: Yeah, I mean, I didn't have a whole lot of interest in golf, just because of the, you know, I needed something more fast-paced, a little bit more physical, and golf did not provide any of that, obviously. And, you know, I just, I had more fun playing basketball, you know, you know, hindsight is 20/20, if I could go back and do it all over again, I don't know if I'd go the golf route, but you know, looking at it now, I wish I would have maybe explored it a little bit in college, you know, after, you know, maybe my four years of basketball, just to kind of see where I, you know, stack up, and that's, you know, not to get too far ahead of us here, but that's kind of the reason I went and played on the mini tours for a few years, is just to kind of see where I've stood, you know, against these guys. So, yeah, I mean, basketball was always number one, it was always going to be number one, golf was always secondary, it was like an avenue to get me out of the gym sometimes, and that's kind of how I, you know, treated it all all the way up until I'm done playing college basketball, and you know, too slow and too fat to keep playing basketball. So I decided to, you know, turn my way to golf.
John: What was your experience like as a Redbird, getting to play, you know, at Redbird Arena, a venue that you grew up going to as a fan, and playing on a court that you surely saw lots of games on, played, I think, a maybe sectional championship game on, if I remember right. But what was it like playing at ISU?
Brandon: It was great. You know, that was one of the reasons, you know, coming out of high school, I believe I had 12 or 13 offers, a lot of mid-major, a lot of Missouri Valley teams, but ultimately the real reason I went to ISU was one, just to play in front of my, you know, friends and family, specifically, you know, my grandparents, they traveled all over the place to watch me play in high school, you know through the AAU summer deals, where we're down in, you know, Texas and New York and Florida, you know, they're traveling, so I thought it was, one, a great opportunity, obviously, to play in front of your hometown, and you know, at that time, ISU was losing four senior guards, so that was another, you know, thing that played a factor in me going there, but ultimately I just wanted to stay in front of my friends and family and play there. And I had a great experience. I mean, we were not the best my freshman year, but we had a 20 win season my sophomore year, and then we were on the bubble both junior and senior year, so we kind of turned the program around. It just was kind of in the, I guess, dying years, and then we got there and kind of turned it around. We unfortunately didn't ever make it to the tournament, but you know, kind of created that buzz again, and you know, to this day, I think ISU with Coach Pedon coming in, I think you know he's really turned the tables for ISU, and we, you know, have gotten the Final Four with NIT last year, so he's doing big things there as well.
John: The article I read about you on ESPN said that you might be the only Division One men's basketball player to have played in the Masters. What a cool stat that is. What a cool place to put your name in history. And you mentioned, you know, driving is sort of the key to your game, and you're bigger than your average golfer. How do you use both from a physical standpoint and maybe from a mental standpoint, some of the mental toughness that maybe you picked up as a Division One college basketball player, but how do your basketball playing days influence your golf playing days now?
Brandon: Yeah, I think you said it perfect, John. I think the competitiveness, and, you know, I've been in some situations through basketball that have, you know, mentally gotten me to where I am today, I guess I’d say. Golf, I feel like, it's just you and the golf ball, you're not really working through a whole lot of, you know, teammates or situational things, and basketball presents all that, you know, you're working with teammates, you're working against defenders. Golf doesn't have any defenders, outside of, you know, the elements of, you know, the golf course, but you're just in a different competitive mentality, and specifically for the mid end, you know, you play in a two day qualifier, 36 hole qualifiers, and they take the top 64 into match play, and then, you know, if I got to match play, it was kind of, you know, more in favor for me, just because I got to bring really some of that basketball mentality back to the golf, because it was just me and me versus you, one on one, so it wasn't necessarily me playing the golf course, it was me playing my opponent, and I think that you know that that was just, for me personally, was an advantage.
John: Tell me about during your time as a basketball player, were you still golfing just kind of for the fun of it?
Brandon: In the summers, you know, we would play maybe once or twice a month. We
had some time off, you know, being from Bloomington, you know, and playing at Lakeside, we could hop over there and play in an hour, so it was pretty convenient, but I wouldn't say, nothing regularly, though. We really didn't have a whole lot of time. It's pretty much just class, gym, you know, workout, and then bed, exactly. You're pretty much on a tight schedule.
John: So, after those four years were over, you ended up getting a degree in business from Illinois State, and then you decided to try your hand at professional golfing. Played on some mini tours for four years, from 2010 to 2014. You touched on this earlier a little bit, but can you just elaborate a little bit more about why you decided to try your hand at professional golf.
Brandon: Yeah, you know, I just wanted to see where I stood against these guys. Obviously, being a competitor like I am, you know, I just felt like I didn't really, you know, get that bucket full of what I needed, and you know, golf was another avenue to try, and, you know, I told myself, you know, let's give it two years. I obviously talked to my parents about this, and I was like, you know, I'm gonna give myself two years, and if I'm, if I'm not getting noticeably better or making money, then, you know, we'll probably just give it up. I wasn't making a whole lot of money, but I was noticeably getting better, and the mini tour life, you're just not going to make money playing on mini tours, and you know, I was there, was nothing affiliated, nothing PGA sanctioned, so it was really a glorified rec golf tournament, you know. Hey, I pay 1000 bucks, and I'm trying to win five. So yes, was it professional golf? Sure, but let's categorize it a little bit, because, you know, if I'm playing on the Corn Ferry, obviously a different story, but me playing, I played on the Peach State Tour, and I can bet your butt that no one knows what the Peach State Tour was in Atlanta, Georgia, so yeah, it was really just to see where I stood up against everybody, and just realized, after four years, like, this just isn't going to go, you know, kind of where I wanted it to go, and kept my professional status for a handful of years after, you know, quitting full time, just because I could, you know, with the couple of jobs I had, I had the flexibility to just, you know, go away for a couple days and play, and I was playing at some local events. Illinois Open was one of them, had success there, got second twice, but you know that second place finish is a $15,000 paycheck. So then I'm looking at it like, okay, well, I'll just play in one or two of these a year and hopefully catch fire and bring home a little bit of extra money, and it got to the point then where I just wasn't, I didn't have the time to do that, wasn't playing a whole lot, I wasn't practicing, got married, had two kids, so that took up a lot of time, and ultimately made the decision to get my amateur status back, just so I could kind of play in these local events and play with my buddies. I always knew, you know, in the back of my mind the US and the US mid-Am were opportunities to go play, you know, the Masters in the US Open, but that really wasn't my reason of getting my amateur status back. It was solely to play with my buddies in the, you know, city tournaments. Yeah, and obviously went out to the Mid Am and got hot and ended up winning, and here we are.
John: Here we are getting ready to go to the US Open next week. So what is the process for getting into the USGA Mid Am, and why did you decide to pursue that route?
Brandon: Yeah, so the Mid Am is for players that are 25 years or older. It kind of, I guess, gets away from the full-time college players, that's what they have the US Am for. So, the US Am and US Mid Am are very similar, same format, just a different field. The US Am is a bigger field, just because it has so many more young players involved. So the Mid Am, there's a local qualifier, so if you get through the local qualifier, and luckily for me, the local qualifier was at Crestwood Country Club, which, you know, we're members at, and you know, they took, what did they take, the top four out of, I think, 90 guys. I was able to end up winning that when I was a medalist there. And they have these local qualifiers all over. I think there was three local qualifiers in the state of Illinois. So, I don't know how many, I could pull up the number, but I believe through all the qualifiers, and then the exemptions, there's 256 guys out at Troon, I believe, and so you have a 36 hole qualifier, and they take the top 65 players, top 64 players, and once you get into the top 64 then they just rank it, you go straight into tournament style match play, and again, I think once my I had just mini goals, right, so my mini goal was, one, obviously to get out of the local qualifier, and then two, once I got out there Arizona, just make it the match play. Once you make it to match play, you know all kinds of things can happen, and that's what I did. You know, made, made it through the local qualifier, got to the match play, and you know, kind of breezed through. I was actually, I breezed through my first match, and then my second match, I think it was my second match, I was actually down three with five holes left, and ended up birding all the last five holes, and then got into a playoff and birdied the first playoff hole to beat him, and at that point I just knew, like, this was this was it, I'm playing good, this is going to be my year. I just made it through my bad match, and that's kind of what happened. Then the very next match I birdied the first four holes, so that day I had, I had nine birdies in a row.
John: Wow.
Brandon: So it was just, you know, just playing good, and that's a lot of golf, it’s timing. Playing good at the right time can change your life, and that's, you know. Obviously not change your life, but it creates opportunities that, you know, I didn't think I'd be here today, and here I am, leaving for the US Open, and already played in the Masters, so yeah. It's in the US Am it’s the same way, it's just they have a local, and then they have a sectional, so you got to go through two rounds of qualifying to get to the actual amateur tournament. The Mid Am is only one round of qualifying to get there, and, you know, and that's the other thing. The win of the Mid Am got me to the to the Masters, gets me into the US Open, and then I got a 10 year exemption into the Mid Am and a three year exemption into the US Am, so I have, you know, several more years. I'll be damn near 50 when my exemptions run out, so that's that's a story in itself, right?
John: You’ve got a lot to look forward to.
Brandon: For sure.
John: What was that moment like, hoisting that trophy, knowing that you won the US Mid Am?
Brandon: I think just a sense of relief, just because golf is hard, golf is a hard game, and it's not something that, you know, for 90% of the people it's not something that you see you know progress overnight, you know. I've been playing golf for a long time, and here I'm 39 and finally, like, got to where I wanted to be, and it's just.. it's hard, it's a grind. I mean, you got to have.. I'm thankful for my wife, my kids.. I mean, they understand my family, you know, they've been huge support for me, being able to.. you know, go out and play, go out, travel, and you know, luckily with, with real estate, you know, I have the flexibility. A lot of my work is done in the mornings and then at night, so that afternoon is pretty open, or it can be open, depending on, you know, what you want to make it, you know, you do your own scheduling, so that's allowed me to continue to practice and play throughout the year, and just super fortunate. I mean, this has been a heck of a year.
John: You're a realtor for Remax Rising here in Bloomington-Normal, and I think one of the stories I read, you were working on, you know, like maybe a listing or something, you know, in the moments before, you know, teeing off for the championship of the Mid Am, I mean, it's not like you're just taking a break from work, right? That, like, you still have a very much full-time job on top of everything else, right?
Brandon: I'm doing as much as I can, and at the same time, you know, I want to be fair to my clients too, and if I can't be there and, you know, have the ability to help them, then I will pass them along to, you know, some of that, my other colleagues at Remax, but yeah, no, I mean, there's.. I'm definitely working. I mean, I got three meetings later this afternoon that I'm, you know, going to, and you know, throughout the week, just.. just, you know, I got a couple aggressive buyers, and they want to find a house, so my job is to find them a house, and that's what I'm doing. Either, either I'm hoping I can find them on this week, because I'll be gone for the next week and a half after that. I’ve been fortunate that, you know, my clients also understand the opportunity at hand with me. So it's again the community support, the work support. It's been very, just very blessed. I mean, it's been a very fortunate year.
John: So, by winning the US mid-Am, you knew for sure that you were going to get a spot in the US Open, likely you'd get a spot in the Masters, but you didn't know for sure, right? And so, can you take me through getting that invitation and how that went about?
Brandon: Yeah, so the Masters, they just kind of have their own way of doing things, and that's the, they do that for everybody. Only the champions, past champions are pretty much exempt. Everybody else is a likely invitation, but if you go back and look, I think the Mid Am is well, I don't even.. I didn't go back, and I went back like 10 years, and the mid ams always usually invited, so I really wasn't sweating that part of it, but it was. I mean, it was. I got to a point, it was right around, kept hearing you get something around Christmas, get something around Christmas. So, you know, funny story is, I have two shipping notifications in my email, and I'm like, okay, this has got to be it, right? It's right around Christmas, you know, get a knock on the door, we open it. I yell at my wife to go get the camera, because we're, you know, trying to do all this social media stuff, and you know, I got a shipping notification from the USGA and one from the Masters, and I didn't, at that time, I didn't know which one was what, but it was a big box, so I'm opening this big box, or kind of celebrating the time, and open this big box, she's filming. I look at it, and it says USGA on it. I'm like, what the hell is this? I open it, and it's a big picture book from the US Mid Am, which was a totally awesome gift. I mean, it was super, super awesome, but it was like, you know, all this excitement, and then it's like, oh shoot, this is not the master's invite. So, you know, I'm kind of digging through my email again to try to figure out when this package is coming, and it's like, okay, well, it looks like it's supposed to be here tomorrow, so we kind of laugh and joke off about it, and then you know the next day comes, and my son and I are actually outside shoveling the driveway, and UPS guy pulls up and just hands me this really single tear-away envelope, and I'm like, this man is this, this is it? Sure enough, I walk inside, and you know, have the old lady get it again, and we open it up, and sure enough, it's just a plain one, you know, piece of paper invitation, and it's not like that's just what the Masters does, you know, they just do things their own way, and that was as simple as it can honestly get, but it meant so much, you know. So it was cool. Yeah, going from shoveling the driveway to opening a Masters invite,
John: It's a little poetic, I feel like, since the Masters is the first golf tournament, it's like for us living in Central Illinois, it's like there's light at the end of the winter tunnel, where Masters, you hear Jim Nance's voice, you know, and the Masters is on TV, and for you to be shoveling the driveway and get the invite, it couldn't be any better than that, really.
Brandon: No, I was, it was a pretty fast winter this year.
John: Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, and so, how did you obviously you couldn't play Crestwick to get ready for it, so where were you preparing for the Masters at?
Brandon: You know, I tried my best to travel during the winter, you know, with having two kids and a wife, like that, it's just not all that feasible, and it just doesn't work, you know. The last thing I wanted to do is have a relationship with my kids over Facetime, you know, that just wasn't comfortable doing that, so you know, I would travel a couple days, you know, every other couple weeks, just, you know, whatever cheap flight I could find, head down to Florida, head to Texas, wherever, mainly just Florida, though, and would just play, play as much as I could when I was down there, would be, you know, two, three day trips, and you know, that's. Thing about being in Illinois, playing in April, I just wasn't totally ready, you know. The golf game just wasn't totally ready, and I told my wife jokingly, I'm like, hey, if, if you know, if I end up winning the Am or the Mid Am again, and we're, you know, get these invitations back to Augusta, we're moving to Florida for a month before, you know, just to be down there and just to keep playing, because it, I don't feel like I played that bad at Augusta, didn't score very well, and I think it's just because of some of the rustiness coming, coming off the winter, and that's why I'm a little bit more anxious for the open here next week, just because right now I've played, I played enough golf, I feel like my golf game's in pretty good shape, and you know, we'll see what happens. I, I don't really have any expectations, you know. At the end of the day, I really already won, you know. 39 I played in the Masters, I'm playing the US Open. These are like this is the golf Mecca, right? So, you know, I don't have any high expectations. I just, I just want to go play well. I want to play well, that way I can say, you know, what, play in the US Open, played pretty much the best I could, and wherever that lands me, it lands me. So, I don't know, I'm again, I feel, I feel way more in golf shape, I guess.
John: You had the great privilege of going to Augusta, and that not being your first time ever there, so your dad won the ticket lottery. For folks who don't know, it is extremely hard to get tickets to see the Masters, and your dad kind of hit the jackpot there and won the ticket lottery. So you had been there as a fan before. What was it like, though, to get to go on the other side of the rope, so to speak, and just, what are some of your prime memories from playing in the Masters?
Brandon: Sure, no, yeah, my dad won two badges, two tournament badges, back in 2004 for life, so we've been going down, mean, I think I've been down there 15 times, and it's, it's, I'll tell you what, it's way different being inside the ropes compared to outside the ropes, right? And I think that's one of the one of the cooler things about being at the Masters was the accessibility I had to everything, you know, the buildings that are behind closed doors, no one knows about, you know, the restaurants, the, the pro, you know, just the pro shop in general, you know, just those those things that people can't go in and see, so that that was really neat. Obviously, playing with these guys, man, I got to play a practice round with Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Jason Day, Bubba Watson, you know, again the icons of golf, and just be able to talk to them one about golf, but really a lot of our conversations were just about life, and my story is a little bit different, because I am 39 I'm damn near older than all those guys out there, and most of the time you get these 25 year olds or younger, they're like all the amateurs out there, where I think we're like 19 and younger, and I'm out there as might be their damn dad, almost, you know. So our conversations with the tour guys were just probably a lot different than that they're used to, you know. I thought it was really neat. So Jordan Spieth, we were talking, I was talking to Spieth, and I talked to, I'm saying these guys' names like they're my buddies, but definitely not, you know, I don't have, I can't just call Jordan right now, that just doesn't, that's not how it works, but you know, I was talking to him, we were walking down number eight fairway, and he was talking just mainly about how him and Rory's wife kind of started the babysitting services for the PGA Tour. I thought that was an extremely cool story. One, those obviously those two guys and their wives starting that whole deal was just crazy. Obviously, you're going to do something for those guys. And then two, just to, I mean, right now the PGA Tour, week in and week out, they have babysitting services at these events, just allows you know the family to go out and watch, and you know we're we get home on Monday morning, and we're kind of watching some of the reruns, and they're interviewing Rory, and he's got his daughter Poppy. They've showed a picture of them. My son kind of perks up, he's like, "Hey, that's my friend, and you know, my wife and I look at each other, like, what's he talking about? Sure enough, he played with Poppy that entire week. Well, not the entire week, we took him there a couple days, but it's just like that's a memory that he's got now, you know. So, that's that's just pretty cool stuff.
John: So, you may not be able to call up Jordan on his cell phone, but maybe your son can call up Poppy, right?
Brandon: But you know they sent us a picture too of all the kids in the, in the babysitting services, and it's just cool to, you know, my kids in there with, you know, Shane Lowry’s kids and Rory’s kids and Spieth and Scotty's kids, it's like this is this is a surreal stuff here,
John: Yeah, yeah, now your kids, Baker and Millie, are your two kids, right?
Brandon: Baker is six and Millie is two.
John: Awesome. And they also got to participate through the par three contest with you. Can you describe what that is and how special of an experience that is?
Brandon: Oh, honestly, I was more nervous than the par three than I was a week. No, the par three was awesome, and my wife was caddying for us. My son was out there, he hit - I had him hit every putt just to keep him involved, and my daughter, I think she showed every one of her personalities. She was happy, then she was sad, then she was hungry, then she was tired. I mean, she was all over the place.
John: Sounds like a typical round of golf, right?
Brandon: Exactly. And they do a great job. I mean, that's a really, really fun day. The kids, the kids eat it up, and really the players too. I'm sitting there just in awe, like I played nine holes on a par three, and I don't remember playing any of it. It went so fast, you know. And my son, the first tee ball, we're on number one. It's like a little wedge, and I kind of pull it a little left of the green and hit it up there about five feet, just kind of like this downhill bender, you know, it's moving right to left pretty good. And I call Baker over, and he steps up there and it drains it right in the back of the cup, and I'm like, okay, this is real stuff. So he had a blast with it. We, I mean, we all did, the whole family did, and I played with Bubba and Jason Day, and they have kids, they were running all around the place too. So that was it, was a great day, great day.
John: Now, your wife, Liz, she was quoted in, I think, the ESPN story about you saying that, you know, you, you were people were calling you the people's golfer, America's golfer. You mentioned, you know, so many people can relate to your story, being a 39 year old realtor playing in the Masters. You just talk about, I mean, you were, you had stories on ESPN, Golf Digest, New York Times, and I know there were, there are many others, but just like, did you, did you expect that for one thing? I mean, I would assume you sort of expect to be kind of a no name going into the Mid Am, but you weren't like it, people knew who you were and what your story was, was that kind of surprising, and did you embrace that?
Brandon: Yeah, definitely embraced it, and again, I just, it's a fun story, I mean, it's, it's something like I said earlier, it just resonates with the, you know, the golfer, the everyday golfer, and obviously going out to the Mid Am, I understood that if I won, you get your likely invitation, the Masters, you get your exemption, the US Open, but I didn't understand the magnitude of all this, just, just the everything that that's involved with it, right? And I think a lot of people were really tuned in just because of the story resonating with the everyday golfer, and you know, the whole story of me being a basketball player turned into golf, you know, that's that's just something you don't really see a whole lot, and you know, I was happy to represent that, that guy, you know, or that, you know, whoever, that golfer. So, yeah, I think I think people really gravitated to it, and really hold, held on, and really, you know, Friday I'm teeing it up with Bubba, the Masters, and they're chanting my name. He just got done shooting 82 like, what the hell you chant my name for? But really that whole week I took, I took the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday practice rounds, and I, you know, I made it a point to slap all the kids, you know, high fives and fist bumps, and you know, was talking to everybody because it made me comfortable too, not only, not only did I not want to talk to these guys, this is cool stuff, but it made me comfortable, you know, rolling around and just having small conversations, and you know, high fives to kids, signing autographs, like it was just a lot of fun for me.
John: You got off to a great start on your first hole, I think, made par on that one, and then, like you said, you didn't end up making the cut. What from a golf perspective did you take away from playing the Masters, and how has that sort of influenced maybe your preparation here for the US Open?
Brandon: Well, there's a lot of, you know, you don't know what you don't know, and there was a lot of that at Augusta. I didn't - I wouldn't say I was uncomfortable, but again, you don't know what you don't know, so I'm out there, and I'm like, okay, well, when, where do I go next? How does this work? And the whole week, you know, I felt like we ran the entire week, and we had a dinner on Monday, then we had a dinner Tuesday, another dinner, or a cocktail hour Wednesday, so I didn't, I didn't know what the whole week looked like, and I wouldn't say I was physically tired by any means at all, you know, I was, I was just, I think, just mentally just overwhelmed, yeah, and it's, it was a good thing, it's not like I'm mad about it, it's an, it's an opportunity that we don't, you know, I've never been there, I'd love to do it again, but I think a lot of that. I'll take into the US Open just understanding what the whole week looks like, and having, I guess, a bit of a more comfortable feeling. Player registration, I understand what that looks like now. Tee times, I understand what that looks like now for the practice rounds, and then just having an overall idea, overall picture of how that week works. When I was at Augusta, I hadn't, you know, I had no idea. I mean, Monday I was out there from 7am to 7pm like that's probably not what you want to do, but I was just taking it all in, and it'll definitely be a lot different come the US Open.
John: Do you have a goal going into the tournament, as far as what would you like to see yourself be able to accomplish?
Brandon: For sure. No, I mean, I'm not that.. I'm not a.. I'm a pretty realistic person going out there and saying I'm going to win the damn thing, probably very highly unrealistic. But yeah, just small. I just want to play good, and the realistic goal would be to make the cut. I believe I have the game to do it. You just got to do it. We can talk about it all day, but you just got to show up and play some golf and see what happens. So, I just want to, I just want to play again.
John: Yeah. What, what advice do you have for those who, you know, your story resonates with them, whether it's a little kid, you know, who, who's just starting to play golf, or maybe another 39 year old, you know, who's been playing it for years. You know, what is Brandon Holtz's advice to those golfers out there who can relate to your story in some way?
Brandon: Sure, I think for the younger generation, these younger kids, you know, don't focus on one sport, play them all, because you have, you have different scenarios, different situations that you are in. If I'm playing baseball, if I'm playing basketball or golf, you know, and I took a lot of my basketball mentality and the things I learned and did, and the situations I was in to the golf course, and you know, for the older generation, just, if you got a dream, you don't, don't stop chasing it, you know, I'll just be realistic as to what these dreams are, but you know, again, I'm 39 years old, I just played the Masters, I'm playing in the US Open, this was my dream, and here I am at 39 doing it, and hopefully it's not my only one and only time, you know, that's even more motivating, is because I don't want that, you know, first master's experience to be my one and only, so that's something that mentally is in the back of my head, for the, you know, the mid am coming this week at the end of September, like, I want to go out and beat these guys' asses again, because I want to go to Masters again.
John:You'll be even more prepared this time.
Brandon: Yeah, absolutely, exactly.
John: And something that resonated with me was, I think I saw on social media, you know, it was the Tuesday or so after you got back from the Masters, and you're back out of Crestwick, you know, and people around town are posting pictures of Brandon Holtz, and I assume that no matter, you know, no matter what happens at the US Open, that's right where you'll be back when you get back to town, right? I mean, this hasn't really changed you as a person, I guess, and I think that's really, really one of the coolest parts of the story.
Brandon: Yeah, no, it's, and it's not going to change me, obviously. You know that is funny. We get back from Augusta on Monday, and we go play Highland Park on, I think, Wednesday or Thursday. So I go from Augusta to Highland, it's.. it's just a little bit different, but you know, that's.. that's just who I am. That's who my family.. that's who we are. We're just.. we're the everyday people, and we have a lot of friends, and we.. we enjoy our friends, we enjoy our family, and that's that's just never going to change.
John: Well, Brandon, it's been a pleasure. You're doing Illinois State and Bloomington-Normal. Really proud, and best of luck as you head out to the US Open next week.
John: I appreciate you having me on again, John. And, yeah, no, I enjoy sharing the story, and you know, I tell this to everybody. If you have questions and you see me out, please come, please come ask. You know, I'd be happy to be happy to talk to you about the whole experience, because it, it was, I mean, that's in this short time, you know, I got to share a little bit of it, but there's a, there's a lot more too.
John: Well, we're looking forward to watching you next week, and hopefully we can have you on again sometime when you punch your second ticket to the Masters in the US Open.
Brandon: Appreciate it, John.
John: That's Brandon Holtz, an Illinois State class of 2010 alum who's preparing for the US Golf Open Championship that takes place June 18 through the 20-first at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in South Hampton, New York. Please be sure to tune in next time for more stories from beyond the quad. This is Redbird Buzz.