Feb. 17, 2016
By Jerome Boettcher | Subscribe to Commodore Nation
Dusty Smith knows about working his way into the fold.He didn’t make his varsity team at Woodlands High Schoolin Texas until his junior year. In college at Lamar, on a teamwith three future PGA Tour professionals, he earned PingAll-American honors as a junior and helped the Cardinals toa program-best third place at the NCAA Championships asa senior in 2007. He spent three seasons at his alma mater,Lamar, as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’sgolf teams before coming to Vanderbilt in 2011.
Is golf a sport you’ve been around your whole life?
I grew up from as long as I can remember with a club in my hand. My dadintroduced me to the game. I grew up playing it. I played other sportsâ€â€I swam and played baseball. About seventh grade… it got to the pointwhere I wanted to play golf all the time. That’s when I really started. My dadjoined the local country club. There were a bunch of young kids my age.I started hanging out there all day long in the summer time. That’s whenI really started getting into it. Started playing competitively, just like localtournaments, the Houston Golf Association. Got into high school, I actuallywas on the freshman team my freshman year and JV squad my sophomoreyear. I didn’t make varsity until my junior year. I was a bit of a late bloomer. Igot in my starting five my junior year and we won a state championship.
Were you surprised when you earned All-American honors?
It was very surprising, to be honest with you. My teammate, (current PGATour member) Dawie van der Walt, he was an All-American his sophomoreyear. We were the same class and there is a tournament out in El Paso thatall the All-Americans from the previous year play in. Dawie was like, ‘Youhave to get there because it is the coolest tournament in the world.’ Notthat was my only motivation; I obviously had personal motivation. Butthat was kind of like I wonder if I could ever get there? I was taught by mycoaches just put your head down and go to work. The biggest thing for mewas I never was this stud so I wasn’t afraid to ask, ‘Hey, Chris Stroud (nowon the PGA Tour), how do you hit this shot? Shawn Stefani (also on thePGA Tour), how do you do this? What do you feel in these situations?’ I wasalways trying to learn because I always felt like I was a step behind. Thatended up helping me become an All-American.
Have you instilled this same belief of working hard and trusting theprocess when you coach?
Absolutely. Especially for the guys like (senior) Carson Jacobs. He came inhere and he wasn’t a high recruit but he put his head down a lot like I did.It gives guys who are on the team, who are young, who may not be in thatstarting five, it gives them a little bit of hope of, ‘Hey, if I put my head downand do my job and come out with a plan to get better every single daythere is no telling where I can be.’ Kind of like (senior) Zack Jaworski did thispast semester. He didn’t play well in the fall and then all of a sudden you’dsee him in the offseason. It would be 20 degrees and him and Carson wouldbe out there just working. You look at those guys, they have a plan and theyare on a mission. It is really cool to see it play out and unfold.
What has attributed to the program’s recent success, especially in thelast couple years as the team reached match play of the NCAA Championshipsand finished fifth?
If you’re around coach (Scott) Limbaugh, you just know his personality andhis energy is contagious. I just remember meeting him for the first time(four years ago) and talking to him on the phone and being like, ‘This guy isabout to bring it. These guys don’t know what is about to happen.’ He justcame in here and changed the culture. We didn’t go in and get in the hittingbays with the guys and change their golf swings. We just tried to changetheir mentalities. All the credit goes to Coach Limbaugh. He was able tocome in here and do that. We are not where we need to be it but we’vecertainly made steps in the right direction. Our deal is we don’t talk aboutresults or championships. We just talk about going out every single day anddoing your job and getting better every single day. Then, when you look up,you might be holding a trophy. That’s how we look at it.
What has been biggest the highlight for you in your five yearsat Vanderbilt?
Obviously, (Limbaugh) hiring me back (after a head coaching change in2012) was a huge highlight for myself and my wife. But as far as golf goes,the first time we made it to the NCAA Championships in 2014… that teamwas really special. Our best player, Matthias (Schwab) was out with an injury.Everybody had written us off. That team was really tight. You could justfeel it was a true team, family environment. For that team to get out of theNCAA Regional in San Antonio, it wasn’t easy. Because we had a big cushionbut we made it through. Just to see those guys get to the NCAA Championshipwas a highlight.
