Montrose Area junior Austin Smith, recently competed in the State Golf Tournament at the Heritage Hills Golf Course in York. He placed 19th in the State.

Smith said, “It was a fun experience. The course was beautiful. It was a great experience to actually make it that far and show my talent and how much I’ve improved over the years.”

Smith started playing golf when he was just five-years-old and admits that the clubs were a little bigger than he was back then. He has been on the Montrose High School golf team since he was in seventh grade.
Of his coach, Mike Zuba, he said, “He’s always been there for me. He always laid out the courses for me every time we had a match. For States he got a book for us to look at the course and each hole. He’s always been a great coach to me.”

Prior to States the regular season was pretty good for Smith. “I lost one match to a kid I shouldn’t have lost to. I didn’t play that good during the season. I was probably averaging about 39 or 40, 3 or 4 over par. In States, I started playing really good.”

Smith says his golf team is a “great bunch of guys. We always have a lot of laughs. There’s never a dull moment with the guys.” Spending time with his teammates is his favorite part of golf, that and getting to States.

Smith was recently named as an All-Regional Player and a League All-Star for golf.

Coach Zuba says that Smith has a “dedication and love of the game. He really loves the game. He’s always out there striving to do his best. He will work at his game. We talk about the areas where he needs improvement and he will go out and work on it. He stays focused when he’s out there. His concentration is great. He really concentrates on what he wants to accomplish. Golf is a game where it’s really difficult to sustain that and he gets better and better every year. He proved it this year by how well he played at Districts, how well he played at Regionals and especially how well he did at States.”

At the District Tournament only the top six of 62 players advanced to the Regional Tournament. Two of the top six District players were from Montrose, Smith and Kory Morrison. “It’s the first time we’ve had two from Montrose go to Regionals. We’ve had one, but never two. The last time we had someone go to States was Stranburg in 2002. To get to where he got, just being able to qualify for States is phenomenal.” The top ten from the District tournament go to Regionals and the top six from the Regional Tournament go to the State Tournament. “If you look at how many kids letter in (class) AA throughout the state, you’re talking about 800 kids competing.” said Zuba.

Smith is the point guard on the Montrose Varsity Basketball team and played tennis last spring, but he plans to give up tennis to focus on golf. “Once you get there (States), you want to go back, you’ve got to do whatever it takes. You can’t just show up the day of practice.” said Zuba.

“I want to thank everyone who’s been there for me throughout my golf career, especially my dad who has been there and put the hard work in. I learned everything I know from my dad and I just want to tell him ‘thank you.’ My mom has always been there. She’s always supported me and come to watch me. I want to thank her.” said Smith.

Smith earned 19th place at States by scoring 163 in two rounds. He scored 80 in the first round and 83 in the second. Par is 71 at Heritage Hills, so with 36 holes, he was 21 over par, a score he plans to improve upon next year.