By: Aaron Li

Known to many as the coach of one of the world’s top golfers, current world number one in golf, Scottie Scheffler, Randy Smith has established a name in the world of golf. But it hasn’t always been this way. Smith’s coaching philosophy and legacy goes well beyond just Scheffler.

50 years ago, Randy Smith was simply the head of the Royal Oaks Country Club. He was teaching one of his students to golf. That golfer was none other than the two-time Super Bowl winner and coach Tom Landry. When Smith devised a football play for Landry during one of these lessons, it turned out that Landry had already utilized this play, but with a different pre-snap motion. Nevertheless, it merely showed Randy’s grasp of sports and strategy.

28 years after this lesson with Landry, Randy meets a seven-year-old named Scottie. Scottie Scheffler, to be precise. A ten-minute lesson turned into a nearly two-hour lesson. Nearing the end, Smith was barely moving, speaking, or even blinking. All he muttered was the occasional, “Can you try … yep” and “how about … yep.” Smith immediately knew that Scheffler was a generational talent like none other.

To Smith, Scheffler looked just like a student he had 25 years prior, named Justin Leonard, but Scheffler showed more promise and skill. Scheffler was lucky that he had come to Smith. With any other coach, he would’ve had to conform to a traditional, unvarying golfing style. Instead, Smith strove for a figure-it-out-yourself type philosophy. He preferred simple and to the point strategies, ones that were intuitive and usually easy to execute, and tried not to change anything about his students. Normally, Smith would teach technique slowly, as he did with Scheffler, to keep his students engaged and his practices enjoyable.

With a strategy sharpened by Occam’s razor, there is no doubt that Scheffler, a golfer with a myriad of talent, was sure to reach the international stage. But many doubted him, because of his footwork. With his right foot sliding forward, and his left spinning, it seemed that Scheffler had “roller blades” on his shoes. And yet, according to fellow golfer Bryson DeChambeau, “He’s the gold standard.”