As golf established its place within the Olympic family at Paris 2024, no person had a greater influence on the Australian team than PGA Professional Ritchie Smith.

As swimming coach Dean Boxall guided the fortunes of 10 athletes in the 44-person Australian swim team, Smith (pictured far left with Hannah Green, Minjee Lee, Min Woo Lee and physiotherapist Marty McInnes) had three of the four golfers who wore the green and gold at Le Golf National under his stewardship.

In the men’s competition, Min Woo Lee fought back after a 76 on day one to finish tied for 22nd, Minjee Lee was also tied for 22nd in her third Olympic appearance while Hannah Green finished one shot shy of a playoff for an Olympic medal.

The 27-year-old from Perth was outright third by the time she walked off the ninth green at 7-under par but hit her tee shot on 10 into the water left of the fairway and made double-bogey.

Green thought at that point that her medal hopes had vanished, yet as players around her rose and fell, she fought to stay in touch with the top three, ultimately finishing one shot shy of Australia’s first Olympic golf medal.

Green’s Olympic campaign was just part of a stellar season in 2024 that she and Smith plotted back in January.

Part of that process involved a putter change that turned good ball-striking weeks into victories.

There were three in total on the LPGA Tour in 2024, the last of which came on the same day that Smith was watching another of his players, Elvis Smylie, win the WA Open for his first professional victory.

As Green was named Greg Norman Medal winner for a second time at the PGA Awards in November, Smith was honoured as PGA National Coach of the Year – High Performance for a fourth time.

Five days later he was celebrating again as Smylie showed remarkable composure on the back nine at Royal Queensland Golf Club to win the BMW Australian PGA Championship.