Adam Schupak Golfweek
Hanging in the pro shop of the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex is a recent addition. It is the signed caddie bib from The American Express in Palm Springs, California, of the local boy who made good. That’s where Austin Smotherman met with junior golfers from the Sacramento municipal courses and told them that if they work hard, they too could someday make their dreams come true.
Smotherman, a 32-year-old pro, cut his teeth at Haggin Oaks and Ancil Hoffman and grew up playing all over Northern California and the Golden State against the likes of Cameron Champ and Bryson DeChambeau, who took a faster track to the winner’s circle on Tour.
Smotherman’s journey started long ago in Loomis, California, where golf clubs were ever-present around the family house as well as his grandfather’s place in Lincoln. Smotherman’s first clubs as a kid was a set of plastic Snoopy irons. Eventually, his grandpa cut a Sam Snead 7-iron blade and persimmon head 5-wood down to size and used duct tape and electrical tape for grips. Smotherman still counts both as treasured possessions tucked away at his mom’s house.
His earliest golf memory is hitting balls in his front yard with his dad. He was five years old when he hit one onto the roof of their one-story house, and he eventually hit a ball over it and into the backyard. Before long, he joined Little Linkers, a developmental skill building program designed to help kids develop their athleticism and learn the game, at Haggin Oaks. “That was my first real consistent go and practice and be with a junior group activity,” Smotherman recalled.Explore how to live where you love to play Access community guides, golf real estate insights, trusted agent connections, and content built for passionate golfers.
Mostly a self-taught player, he estimates he had fewer than 10 lessons by his junior year of high school. During those formative years, he worked as a cart boy at Twelve Bridges (now Catta Verdera Country Club in Lincoln) to earn practice privileges.
He beat DeChambeau by one stroke at the 2011 Cal Junior Amateur, with an 18th hole birdie, cementing his reputation as a standout Sacramento-area talent. SMU men’s golf coach Josh Gregory, who has helped Smotherman with his short game and putting this season, walked that final round with DeChambeau, his star recruit, but by the end of the round he was ready to offer Smotherman a scholarship too.
“Two weeks later, I was having an official visit and six months later, I was starting college golf at SMU and Bryson and I had become teammates,” Smotherman said.
The bond with DeChambeau grew in college and when Smotherman graduated he and his wife, Jessica, got a townhouse in Dallas and DeChambeau became their tenant.
“It was just a glorified storage unit for him where he knew everything was going to be safe because he was hardly ever there, and it was a way for him to help us out with paying some rent,” Smotherman said. “He knew I wasn’t necessarily rolling in the dough.”
That first summer out of college, Smotherman was playing state Opens and the Adams mini tour. He was squeaking by but as a measure of his belief in Smotherman, DeChambeau wrote a check for $5,200 to pay his entry fee into PGA Tour Q-School. Smotherman shot a bogey-free final-round 5-under 67 with a birdie at the last and was T-8 when he finished. The top 19 and ties would advance to the final stage and lock up at least Korn Ferry Tour status. Smotherman drove home, sat on his couch enjoying a late lunch and watched in horror as he tumbled to T-21. He ended up playing two seasons on PGA Tour Latinoamerica, the equivalent of AA baseball, but it turned out to be the best thing for him as a person.
“Going to South America was an incredible experience,” he said. “If you have the opportunity and that’s where your journey takes you, I always tell guys to lean into it.”
