REMAX Agent Prepares for Golf’s Biggest Tournament

When it comes to being a real estate agent and being on the precipice of playing on golf’s most revered course, Brandon Holtz can’t help but find similarities.

Holtz, a REMAX agent with REMAX Rising in Bloomington, Illinois, said there are parallels to selling real estate and prepping to play in this year’s tournament at Augusta National (April 9-12).

“Time management,” he said. “You have to really be able to adjust your schedule to play golf and make sure you’re serving your clients. You have to be able to handle adversity. Golf has a lot of ups and downs and in a transaction, there can be good and bad. You have to be able to adapt to your clients’ needs, and you have to be able to adapt on the course and different shots.”

Holtz has managed both beautifully.

The former Division I basketball player at Illinois State University, won the 44^th U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Troon Country Club in Arizona late last year. And just before leaving for Augusta, Georgia, in early April, he sold two houses and won another listing.

“It’s been chaos,” said Holtz, who will have the REMAX logo on his bag and some apparel. “It’s been tough logistically. But you do whatever you have to do.”

Holtz’s win at the U.S. Mid-Amateur in September 2025, earned him an invitation to Augusta this year, as well as an exemption in this year’s U.S. Open – two of golf’s majors and arguably the two most prestigious tournaments in the world.

“It’s still all pretty surreal,” Holtz said. “As I get closer to being down there, I get more excited. When I won, I don’t think I understood the magnitude of all of this. It was definitely unexpected and new to me. It’s honestly been overwhelming at times but a good overwhelming. I’m not complaining about anything.”

In between showing properties and writing contracts, Holtz has had to balance prepping for the tournament and running his business.

The Illinois weather hasn’t been great for golf prep, so he’s taken multiple trips down to Florida and Georgia to practice.

Holtz said balancing both has taught him to take advantage when things are going well.

Something he showed at the Mid-Amateur championship.

Holtz advanced through 72 holes of stroke play to the 64-man match play bracket. He won his first two matches fairly easily, before finding himself three holes down with five to play in his quarterfinal match.

“Then I found something,” he said.

He certainly did. Holtz birdied the last five holes to push the quarterfinal to a playoff, where he birdied the first hole to win.

In the semifinals he birdied the first three holes – making that nine birdies in a row – to advance to the finals. Holtz beat Jeg Coughlin III 3 and 2 in the finals to win.

All told in his last three matches of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, Holtz had 21 birdies.

Now he’ll head to Augusta, where he said the goal is to play the best he can. He hopes to make it through the first two days and make the cut and hopefully be the low amateur.

It will also be a full-circle moment. Twenty years ago, his dad Jeff won two badges to the tournament. The two have been going every year as spectators. Now, with his dad as his caddie, Holtz will get to play.

“We’ve been out there so many times,” Holtz said. “We’ve always said, ‘What’s behind that rope or in that building?’ Now we get to see.”

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