John Peterson didn’t just pull a leather scorecard holder out of a drawer; he pulled open a debate that the golf world thought it had closed.

The former NCAA title holder recently posted a picture of his fifteen-year-old LSU Tigers scorecard holder from his college days and captioned it, “Haven’t used this scorecard holder in 15 years. Figured this was a good time to break it back out. See you soon @jonescupinv.”

The 26-year-old Peterson won the Jones Cup in 2011, beating Jordan Spieth on the first playoff hole with a birdie. Little did he know that this would kickstart the best year of his amateur career. He then won the NCAA individual title while at LSU, was named a first-team All-America selection, and later that summer made the Round of 16 at the U.S. Amateur.

He turned professional shortly after, but injuries to both wrists derailed his career fully in 2019 while he was still competing on KFT. But on Friday, January 8, Peterson will return to Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, for the first time as a reinstated amateur and finally have a shot to defend his title.

“I do miss competitive golf, and you can play all the scrambles and four balls and things you want, but you really don’t know how good you are until you tee it up in a real event against the best amateurs in the world and see how you stack up,” Peterson said. “I love to compete, and that fire still burns within me to do it.”

His issues began at the Memorial Tournament ’15 when he felt his wrist was on fire. He took eight or nine Advil to help alleviate the pain and get through rounds. He then underwent surgery at the end of 2015 to shave the bone down. Two years later, tragedy struck again.

He tore two ligaments in his left wrist while hitting a tough shot at a KFT event in Kansas City. He then got another surgery done and did rehab for 7 months, but his wrist never healed. By 2019, he decided to walk away from professional golf.

“After I got hurt, I couldn’t play and watched all the guys that I grew up playing against and watched them stay out there; there was a jealousy factor there,” Peterson said. “Like, why couldn’t I stay healthy, you know? Why couldn’t that be me? And it took a couple years to get over that.”

Jealousy and anger filled him, but he realized he needed to be a better husband to his wife, Amanda, and a better father to his 4 children.

He flipped homes to make a living but later started a garage door company named Westoplex Garage in Texas, with a vision of providing honest pricing for people in his local community. But a fire to compete slowly returned once he got his amateur status back in 2024, which he applied for in 2019.

He started practicing again and even tried to qualify for the U.S. Open. But he narrowly missed the big event after losing to Zac Blair on the fourth playoff hole at the Springfield Country Club qualifier. This small success gave him the confidence to enter the Jones Cup again, but he does not have high expectations for his return to the big stage.

“If I start playing well and knocking some flags down, that’d be great. But if I don’t, you know, it’s not going to define me, right? I’m not a golfer anymore, you know?” Peterson said. “I’m a dad and a husband, and those are the things that matter.”

And his return to the fairway caught the eye of his old college friends. Smylie Kaufman saw the post and joked, “Let me know if you need a ‘get back to even’ PB&J out there,” referring to the snacks players eat to stay calm after making a bad bogey.

The comeback is brave and inspiring, but it also reopens an uncomfortable conversation about Pro-to-Am transformation. Remember the controversial case of Colt Knost?

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Colt Knost might just be the next John Peterson

Knost, who made 199 PGA Tour starts between 2009 and 2020, won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2008, with career earnings that exceeded $5 million across all circuits, and was once the top amateur golfer, sweeping the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Amateur Public Links in 2007 before helping Team USA win the Walker Cup. He applied for his amateur status back in late 2025. This decision caused a massive backlash from the golf community.

Many career amateurs flooded his private messages with angry and mean words. Brendan Porath from the Fried Egg Golf podcast said Knost’s motivation for the application was to create buzz and hype. Fellow golfer and now NBC Sports broadcaster Smylie Kaufman said he shouldn’t have been allowed to play if he were in Knost’s position. Even Paige Spiranac threw a sarcastic jab at Knost for applying for amateur status.

Though Colt Knost publicly said that the USGA’s earliest timeline for his reinstatement is 2028, the criticism continued. Despite all of this backlash and criticism, returning to amateur status is actually a very common thing in the golf world.

Around 800 former professionals apply for their amateur cards every single year. The USGA never says no to these players if they follow the waiting rules. Rule 5 helps golfers like Peterson and Knost find a place to play again. For example, six out of the eight players in the 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur quarterfinals were players who once played pro golf. Brandon Holtz won the 2025 Mid-Am after years on the mini-tours and earned spots in the Masters and the U.S. Open through this victory.

That’s why everyone is not angry about these players returning to the amateur ranks. PGA Tour star Billy Horschel publicly supported Knost’s dream. “You have got my vote for future Walker Cup Captain!” Horschel wrote on X.

The lines between professional and amateur golf are becoming very blurry, so understanding the rules is important. But Peterson’s personal life journey is truly the heart of the matter.