UVM SPORTS
photo by Barbara Smith
Rookie year
Two-sport star Libby Smith '02 gets in the swing of the LPGA Tour
In professional golf, one shot could make or end a career. For a veteran, there’s at least the security of knowing redemption could be only a week away at the next tour stop. For a rookie like Libby Smith ’02, however, a missed putt could mean the difference between playing professionally one week and looking for a new job the next.
Talking on her cell phone while stuck in traffic in Queens, N.Y., Smith discusses the realities of being among the 37 rookies on the LPGA Tour. So far, it’s everything she expected it would be: highly competitive, glamorous, travel-intensive, exciting, and pressure-packed. It’s also been a game of survival for the only native Vermonter to play in the LPGA aside from Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan.
“The pressure can get to you when you’re sitting around on the weekend (after missing a cut) or while you’re practicing, but you’ve got to keep working hard and telling yourself that you’re getting closer,” she says. “I feel like I definitely belong here, but I have to be patient and stay mentally tough. Just a few shots change everything.”
Smith has come tantalizingly close to making the cut in many of the dozen tournaments she’s played, breaking through just once at the Takefuji Classic in Las Vegas, where she finished thirty-fifth and earned her first and only paycheck of $5,406. She sealed making the cut with a 20-foot chip-in for eagle on the eighteenth hole. “It was my brother Zach’s birthday (also her caddie) and I hadn’t bought him a present yet. So I turned to him and said, ‘Happy birthday, brother.’”
Moments like these have been rare, however, and Smith, a healthy mix of realist and dreamer, knows that if she intends to extend her childhood dream, there must be more of them. Her goal for the season is to keep her player card and exempt status by placing among the top 90 money earners for 2006. Based on previous years, she will need to make about $100,000; something she could do with one victory or another combination such as 10 finishes in the 25th-place range, which usually pays about $10,000.
Despite the challenges of the tour, Smith believes she has a number of things going for her that will result in a breakthrough. Currently the thirty-fifth best driver on the tour with an average of 259 yards per drive, Smith says the athletic skill and mental tenacity she developed as a member of the Catamount women’s basketball and men’s golf teams has served well.
“Basketball really taught me a lot about mental toughness,” says Smith, a 1,000-point scorer who led the Catamounts to the 2000 NCAA Tournament. “There really is a lot of carry over from playing at UVM. I’ve used what I learned in college to help get through some tough situations.”
Smith also has a lot of professional golf tour experience for a first-year LPGA player. Since graduating from the University, she’s played on the Futures Tour and more recently on the Ladies European Tour. She took the next step in December by qualifying for one of the 24 exempt spots on the LPGA tour by finishing tied for second at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament with rounds of 75-70-73-68-69 to finish five under par. Since joining the tour, she’s posted a low round of 68 at Takefuji and a 71 at the Michelob Ultra Open in Virginia and SBS Open at Turtle Bay. “I just need to put some of these rounds together. If I improve my iron play I think that will happen.”
The edge Smith needs could come from outside sources. At the LPGA Qualifying event, she said a man wearing a UVM basketball shirt showed up every six holes and yelled “Go Cats Go,” then disappeared again. Other small groups of UVM supporters and people with ties to the state of Vermont have showed up at tour events from Hawaii to Atlanta, where about a dozen people on a business trip from Smith’s hometown of Essex Junction cheered her on.
“There have been 10 or 12 Vermont supporters at every event,” she says. “It’s been great. Some of them saw me at UVM or knew me from high school. I’m probably the proudest Vermonter there is, so I want to represent the state well. I know I can make the scores. I’ve just got to keep working hard and good things will happen.”SPORTS SHORTS
The UVM Equestrian team’s Alexandra Joyce placed first in the intermediate equitation over fences competition at the 2006 Intercollegiate Horse Show Association's national tournament. Teammate Sara Muntyan earned a second-place finish in novice equitation on the flat. The pair of riders led Vermont to fifth place overall.
UVM sophomore Carmen Lagala won the 800 meters by a two-second margin at the New England Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Prior to the NCAA Regionals, Lagala was 15-1 at any distance from 400 to 1,000 meters over the 2006 season.
After a 2-24 start, the Catamount baseball team made a remarkable turnaround and went on to win its second America East Regular Season Championship in four seasons. Bill Currier ’84 won his third America East Coach of the Year honor and senior Kyle Brault received the conference’s Player of the Year award.
On May 9, UVM celebrated its student-athletes at the Second Annual Rally Awards, held at Burlington’s Flynn Theatre. Senior student-athletes were honored as well as each team’s MVP. The athletic department also handed out seven awards: Athletic Department Award, UVM Provost John Bramley; Jeff Stone Memorial Award (community service), Rebecca Witinok-Huber (swimming), Jaime Sifers (men’s hockey); Underclass Athletic Achievement Award, Carmen Lagala (track and field), Mike Trimboli (men’s basketball); Semans Trophy (for loyalty, leadership and respect among peers), Kate Crawford (Nordic skiing), Chris Marsh (baseball); Russell O. Sunderland Memorial Trophy (overcoming obstacles), Nikkie Hessney (women’s soccer), Jay Iannoni (baseball); Wasson Athletic Prize (top scholar-athlete), Anja Jokela (Nordic skiing), Matt Naimoli (baseball); J. Edward Donnelly Award (top student-athlete), Jamie Kingsbury (alpine skiing), Jaime Sifers (men’s hockey).
For the latest on Catamount sports: uvmathletics.com.
(for UVM staff)