I talked to U.S. Mid-Am winner Andrew Bailey on this week’s episode of The Loop podcast. Bailey is a former pro who took down another former pro, Nate Smith, in the 36-hole final match. Former pros re-entering the amateur ranks has become a HOT topic of discussion on Golf Twitter over the last few months. At last year’s U.S. Mid-Am, six of the final eight competitors were former professionals. Just a month ago, Mike Sposa, who made over 170 starts on the PGA Tour, won the U.S. Senior Am. That was the same week that former tour pro Colt Knost revealed that the USGA had put his bid for amateur reinstatement on hold as it re-evaluates its reinstatement guidelines. Knost made 199 starts on the PGA Tour and made over $4.3 million in his career. As for Bailey, who now works for men’s golf apparel company Holderness and Bourne, he never made a single start on the PGA Tour. In fact, the only reason he has a profile page on the PGA Tour’s website is because he earned “the most conditional of conditional status” at Mackenzie Tour Q School in 2015. He briefly tried the mini tour life before realizing it was making him miserable and destroying his love for the game. After a rock-climbing injury knocked him out for six months, he applied for reinstatement. Here’s Bailey explaining the full timeline below