2016-17: Dusty Smith joined the Vanderbilt men’s golf staff in the summer of 2011 after serving as an assistant coach with the men’s and women’s golf teams at Lamar University for three seasons before his arrival in Nashville.
Smith is the Commodores’ recruiting coordinator and is in charge of the annual Vanderbilt Golf Camp at Legends Club every summer. He also spearheads Vanderbilt’s golf fundraiser, Vanderbilt Golf Day, every spring.
Along with Coach Limbaugh, Smith has led Vanderbilt to unprecedented new heights as a program. In all since his arrival in Nashville six years ago, the Commodores have:
- Won 12 team tournaments
- Captured the school’s first SEC Championship in April of 2017
- Had 10 individual medalists in his tenure
- Coached two first-team All-American Vanderbilt golfers and Eleven All-SEC selections, including four first-team members
- Had six All-American selections
- Four Palmer Cup members
- Coached Vanderbilt’s first ever SEC Player of the Year (Hunter Stewart) and SEC Freshman of the Year (John Augenstein)
- One Walker Cup member
- Three consecutive NCAA Championship appearances
- Had two golfers earn exemptions into PGA Tour events (Hunter Stewart and Matthias Schwab)
Vanderbilt finished fourth in 2015 and 2016 in the final Golfstat rankings, and in both seasons, the Commodores advanced to match play at the NCAA Championship. Both appearances marked the best-ever finish at the championship and the program’s first foray with match play, which pits the top eight teams from the four-round stroke-play competition.
Smith, a former Ping All-American, served as an assistant coach with the men’s and women’s golf teams at Lamar, his alma mater, prior to his stint with the Commodores.
During Smith’s three years at Lamar, the Cardinals men’s team won the 2009 Southland Conference Championship and finished second in 2011, advancing to the NCAA Regional at Virginia Tech in May. Smith helped lead eight men’s golfers to the All-Southland Conference team during his tenure, and also coached Southland Conference Player of the Year M.J. Daffue in 2011.
The Lady Cardinals picked up six tournament victories in his tenure at Lamar, and finished second in the 2011 Southland Conference Tournament. Five Lady Cardinal golfers earned All-SLC honors, with Therese Nilsson (2009) and Stine Pedersen (2011) being named the SLC Academic Student-Athlete of the Year for women’s golf.
A native of The Woodlands, Smith earned honorable mention Ping All-America honors as a junior at Lamar after tying for 10th at the NCAA Championships. The following year, Smith earned All-Southland Conference honors for the third time as Lamar finished third at the NCAA Championships.
Smith, who helped The Woodlands High School win the 2002 Class 5A state championship, is a 2007 graduate of Lamar with a degree in business administration.
Smith resides in Nashville with his wife Janie and daughter Adella Jane, who was born in June of 2016.