Bloomington Real Estate Agent Closes Masters Showing

Stepping off the course on Friday at Augusta National Golf Club after his “surreal” journey to the Masters, Brandon Holtz had a four-bedroom house to close on and a new listing to publish.

The 39-year-old amateur golfer and professional real estate agent from central Illinois didn’t have the golf game he was hoping for in the first two rounds of the Masters. He finished +15 and tied with four others for 86th — out of 91.

“Obviously the golf game wasn’t exactly what I wanted today,” he told ESPN after the first round. “But this isn’t my full-time job and it was hard today. I was out of position the majority of the day.”

But Bloomington-based Holtz being there at all was remarkable in itself. Holtz isn’t a touring professional, or a college-age quasi-pro that usually make up the ranks of the amateurs competing at Augusta. By day, he sells houses in the Bloomington-Normal community for Re/Max Rising.

Holtz secured his place at the Masters, and the U.S. Open in June, when he won the Mid-Amateur Championship at Troon Country Club in Arizona in September.

A former professional who played minor tours but never made a living from the sport, Holtz regained his amateur status in 2023 in order to “play with [his] buddies” in amateur tournaments, he previously told The Real Deal. He played college basketball for Illinois State University, where golfing was an outlet to take a break from hoops, he said.

In the first round on Thursday, Holtz finished nine over par, effectively ending his hopes of making the cut on Friday.

Sporting logos for Re/Max and Bloomington-based State Farm on his golf shirt, Holtz had a better game on Friday. He carded a birdie on hole 3 and played even through 6 — then the wheels came off. A brutal stretch of bogeys for the next eight holes, punctuated by a double on 11, set him back 9 strokes. But with a couple birdies on 15 and 16, and par on the last two holes, Holtz managed to finish the day better off than two of his competitors, tied for 86th place.

Holtz’s goal going in was to make the cut. Although that wasn’t realized, Holtz was by all accounts enjoying the experience of playing on hallowed golf grounds.

“You can’t explain it until you feel it and after you feel it it’s still hard to explain,” he told reporters on Thursday. “So it’s just been great.”

Regardless of his play, Holtz was a crowd favorite at Augusta National, with a group of friends there to support him, ESPN reported. Cheers followed him as he teed off across the 36 holes he played this week. His dad, Jeff — who’s been bringing Holtz to Augusta since winning annual tickets in a lottery in 2004 — was his caddy. His wife, Liz, six-year-old son, Baker and two-year-old daughter, Millie, were also there to cheer him on.

Even as he prepared for the big show, Holtz kept an eye on his career. His managing broker, John Armstrong, told the National Association of Realtors News this week that Holtz was setting up a listing to go live after his practice round on Monday.

“Brandon is truly a very humble man; he really is the every-day-[real estate agent],” Armstrong told the NAR news outlet.

Along with his contingent listing in Bloomington asking $279,900, Holtz has plenty of work lined up until his June tee-off at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club for the U.S. Open.