SMU's Special Colt

SMU Golfer Colt Knost Nears End of Great Run

CUSA Fans SMU Correspondent Rick Atkinson brings you his latest SMU sports update.

Colt Knost wasn't heavily recruited out of small Pilot Point High School, north of Dallas. Kind of makes you wonder what everybody was thinking.

Now a senior at SMU, Knost is considered by many to be the top golfer in Conference USA, with six career wins, and All-Conference and All-Region recognition two years running.

And since his arrival, the Mustangs have won three consecutive conference championships. Before that, SMU's last title was in 1988. Of course, others have contributed greatly to the current streak - but, I'm just sayin'…

SMU's Colt Knost, of Pilot Point, Texas, has 6 career collegiate wins.

This season, Knost is posting an average score of 71.88, with a low of 67. He's been named C-USA Player of the Week four times, most recently, last week after finishing tied for second, two stokes back of the winner at the Pinehurst Intercollegiate in Pinehurst, N.C.

Knost also has a current string of nine straight top ten finishes, including six top fives. He has three wins this season.

SMU head coach Jay Loar said it's been "reassuring" having Knost on the team.

"You can count on Colt to be there," Loar said.

66 Was Key

Knost, the 2003 3A state champion and three-time district champion at Pilot Point, didn't start playing tournament golf until he was in high school. But once he started, he went full bore, giving up football, basketball and baseball.

As a senior, Knost began golf instruction with the highly-respected Randy Smith, the head golf pro at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas. Soon, Knost said, he "started getting some looks from schools."

Loar said while he'd noticed Knost's accomplishments at Pilot Point, something else caught his eye: Knost's 66 at an American Junior Golf Association event at The Woodlands, Texas, in the spring of 2003.

Senior Colt Knost and the Mustangs have won three straight conference titles.

"I just knew that with a 66 at an AJGA tournament, he had to have some kind of game," Loar said, adding that his son had won the same tournament and he knew the course was tough.

"So, I just brought him in and we made a deal in thirty minutes," Loar said. "He liked what I had and he liked what SMU had."

Said Knost, "I'm very grateful for the opportunity that [Loar] gave me to come play here. It's been really fun for the four years now. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't gonna miss it."

Near 3-Peats

Knost was shooting for his third consecutive win at Pinehurst last week.

"It actually came down to the last hole," Loar said. "Even though there was a two-shot deficit, Colt missed a short putt, and the other boy made a nice putt. If it had been the other way around, there would have been a playoff."

As a team, the Mustangs were also aiming for a 3-peat at Pinehurst. They led after one round and were two strokes back after Day Two. On the final day, SMU faltered on the back nine and dropped to fifth.

Loar said conditions this year at Pinehurst were challenging, including tough pin-placements and tricky, mounded greens. There were also thirty-plus mile per hour winds from opposite directions on successive days and two two-hour frost delays.

In Loar's post-tournament report, he noted Knost was the only Mustang "with the experience, discipline and patience to effectively compete on this ‘tour-quality' set up."

"Colt has just been one of the most consistent performers I've ever had," Loar said.

Forty-footer

Of Knost's collegiate wins, none was more dramatic than his first win at Pinehurst in 2005. With a large gallery looking on, Knost sank a forty-foot putt on his final shot to beat Indiana's Jeff Overton, a current member of the PGA Tour.

That big left-to-right-breaking putt also gave SMU its second consecutive Pinehurst team title. Knost said the scene erupted in wild celebration as the ball rolled in. It's one his favorite moments as a Mustang.

Knost said when he first arrived at SMU, he wasn't sure how well he'd do in the college game.

It didn't take long for the answer.

"I ended up qualifying for my first tournament," he said, "and finished top-ten in my first ever college event, and kind of felt like I kind of belonged, maybe."

Knost went on to receive WAC Freshman of the Year honors in 2004, with an average score of 73.9 over 44 rounds. His first collegiate win came as a sophomore at the Club Glove Intercollegiate in Malibu, Calif.

What's the best part of his game? "Just the way I manage my game," Knost said. "I think my way around the golf course very well. And I very rarely make mistakes."

"I think I can improve in all areas, still," he said. "I honestly feel I haven't even come close to peaking at my game, because I started so late."

Knost calls himself an average-length golfer. "I mean, average length in college," he said. "No one hits it that far."

Knost said his mom, LuAnn, has been a great influence on his life.

"She's just always been there," he said. "She's helped me out with everything and comes to all my tournaments."

Knost's two siblings, Angie, 29, and Judd, 31, live in Ohio.

Another C-USA Title?

This year's C-USA Tournament will be held at the Texarkana Country Club in Texarkana, Ark., April 29-May 1.

Loar said he's not counting the Mustangs out of the hunt for a fourth consecutive title just yet.

"Our team so far this spring … hasn't really gelled and we haven't really shown what we're capable of," he said. "I think that by the time [the conference tournament] gets here, we should be a contender."

"I'd say, Tulsa may be the team to beat," Loar said, "but we might have some firepower kick in by then to be able to give them a run for their money."

"Oh, for sure," said Knost when asked if the Mustangs can make a run at Texarkana. He agreed Tulsa will be favored, but said SMU has matched up well with the Golden Hurricane of late.

"They're a great team," he said. "But, we've had their number over the past few years. They haven't done very well against us. So, I know it's in their heads. They want to beat us pretty bad."

Knost said he'll remain amateur throughout the summer, and hopes to make the U.S. Walker Cup team, an amateur squad that competes against Great Britain and Ireland. This year's match is in Ireland.

Knost also plans to attend PGA Tour Qualifying school in the fall.

Don't bet against seeing Knost on the Tour one day.

Said Loar, "I've never had a kid that loves to play and loves to compete like Colt."

Of course, that doesn't guarantee success - but I'm just sayin'…