Ritchie Smith, left, with star pupil Min Woo Lee.
RENOWNED West Australian golf coach, Ritchie Smith, has made two life changing decisions albeit years apart.
The first was to quit playing the Australian PGA Tour once his wife, Lou, became pregnant with their first child.
“It was the perfect time for me to quit the tour. I was turning into a bit of a wanker, anyway. I did not like the person I was becoming,” Smith says frankly.
The second big decision was not that long ago cutting his client list from 1000 to just 12.
“It was just killing me. It was too hard,” says Australian golf’s coaching man of the moment who will travel to this year’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush to oversee three of his charges – Min Woo Lee, Ryan Peake and Elvis Smylie.
Lee and Peake are long term students of Smith, with Smylie coming under his tutelage just 18 months ago.
During coaching journey Smith has guided many fine players, Hannah Green, Minjee Lee, Oliver Goss, Matt Jaeger and, more recently, Sue Oh, among them.
“I was at the Australian Institute of Sport in the third year of my traineeship. I could play but, in my mind, I always had weaknesses. But I was good at disguising that at the AIS. I think they thought I was a better player than I thought I was. I had that inner self-doubt.”
In hindsight, he says he would have amounted to very little but for the influence of cutting-edge elite coaches Ramsay McMaster and Ryan Lumsden, believing his time at the AIS still helps him when he’s dealing with the complexities surrounding the many talented players who have come under his tutelage.
“All I really aspired to be was the head professional at Melville Glades Golf Club, which I did for 14 years. I was coaching most of the time anyway, so I decided to do it full time.”
He speaks openly about his own journey and the three very different players he will support at Royal Portrush.
Peake, 32, the big hitting left hander who spent time in jail after joining an outlaw motorcycle gang, is in the Open after winning in New Zealand Open this year.
A great story, Peake was working with Smith as a talented 17-year-old.
“Like a lot of youngsters that age he fell out of love with the game. I don’t think, to be honest, he ever felt comfortable or that he ‘belonged’ in the game.
“He was always a tremendously talented and a very loyal person.
“(As a youngster) Ryan went searching for somewhere to belong…it could have been a footy club, a cricket club or any group he could be with.
“Unfortunately, he chose a bikie gang and it was by loyalty to those people that he landed himself in jail.”
The big hitting left hander, now, 32, is now writing a new chapter in his life, thanks to the man who mentored him as a teenager.
“I had lost contact with him so wrote a letter and was stunned when he replied in a letter from inside prison.
“It was beautifully written and in it he apologised for letting me and so many other people down. I said he had made a mistake and encouraged him back into the game.”
Min Woo Lee, like Peake, has been coached by Smith since he was a teenager. But that’s where the similarity ends.
Ritchie Smith back in 2017 with a young Minjee Lee.
Min’s greatest asset is his “lack of fear when performing on the big stage”, his coach says.
“He’s not afraid of failure and he likes the limelight. He has long been world class driving, chipping and putting.
“He’s a very difficult student. The hardest one I have. He has a short attention span but he’s had incredible results. The big thing he has had going for him right from the start is his preparation off the course. He looks like he’s a party boy, but he never has been.”
Smith says Min has never been that interested in the technical side of the game until relatively recently.
“He was only interested in ball flight He liked to concentrate on what he saw.”
Smith says all his charges are complex and adds, “it’s just how you unravel them to get the most out of each one.”
Asked what he thinks he brings to the table as a coach, Smith says simply, “genuine care, patience, knowledge and experience. Trust, honesty and an ability to connect with them are also vital ingredients.”
Above all he demands a strong work ethic.
Smylie has only been under Smith’s tutelage for 18 months and had to agree to take on an entirely new team including a psychologist, physiotherapist and bio mechanist before he could join the stable. All Smith-coached players work under his specially assembled support crew.
“Elvis is a talent but still very much a work in progress.”
Smith thinks he’s been fortunate to be able to guide such a great group of players.
“I am enjoying it. My journey here has been a relatively upward trajectory. It has not had too many up and downs, although my wife might disagree,” he says jokingly.
“I still look back at tournaments my players have lost and I feel responsible for that. But that’s part of elite sport, I guess.
“Though it’s nice when you hear your words come out of their mouths, when they have done well.”
One thing all Smith proteges have shown is a capacity for hard work, with talent alone not enough.
“There are a lot of very talented golfers selling golf tees over the counter at Drummonds,” he concludes somewhat dryly.
Smith and Green recognised at the WA Golf Industry Awards
RITCHIE Smith was named PGA WA Coach of the Year for an eighth time, while Hannah Green received the Outstanding Golf Achievement Award, as well as being announced as the WA Golfer of the Year at the ADH Club Car WA Golf Industry Awards held at Crown Perth.
The two high profile Western Australian professionals were just two winners at the annual event, which is a joint initiative event between GolfWA, the PGA, Golf Course Superintendents Association of WA and Golf Management Australia (WA).
Green, who enjoyed a three-win season on the LPGA Tour in 2024, beat out a quality list of finalists to win her second WA Golfer of the Year accolade, with Minjee and Min Woo Lee, Kirsten Rudgeley and amateur stars Isabella Leniartek and Spencer Harrison amongst the other nominees.
And while Smith’s award came in the High Performance category, Mark Tibbles of The Vines Golf & Country Club was awarded PGA WA Coach of the Year – Game Development, for a second time.
Hannah Green, named WA Golfer of the Year for a second time.
Busselton Head Professional Grant Williams was the Hilary Lawler PGA WA Club Professional of the Year for the second consecutive year, with his young colleague Jeremy Crabb the PGA WA Associate of the Year.
Busselton was called to the winner’s podium for a third time in taking out the Outstanding Game Development Program category, where the highly successful ‘Swing & Sip’ Women’s Beginner Program was recognised.
Margaret River Golf Club was another to collect three gongs on a night which featured 17 separate award categories, headlined by the club being announced as the Regional Golf Facility of the Year after an outstanding 2024 where they added 151 new members and increased revenue by $168k, allowing for significant reinvestment in course improvements and facilities.
In recognition of the role he played in driving this success, the PGA WA Management Professional of the Year went to Margaret River’s GM Andrew MacAuslan, while Jackie Dickson took home the Volunteer of the Year Award.
Kalgoorlie Golf Course and Lake Karrinyup Country Club won the respective Regional and Metropolitan Golf Course of the Year categories, with Mandurah Country Club – host of the 100th WA Open last October – the Metropolitan Golf Facility of the Year.
Lake Karrinyup stalwart John Hopkins, who has held key positions with Golf Australia and was previously President of the Australian Golf Union, received the Distinguished Service Award. Hopkins has also served as a referee at major tournaments around the world, including The Open Championship, US Open and Australian Open.
