Leading his team to victory over Chico State, the number one team in NCAA Division II, is one of the many reasons golfer Dale Smith received the Athlete of the Month honor for February.

“It was very cool recognition, as I’ve been working very hard these past few months…It felt very good and rewarding,” said Smith, a senior at CSUSM.

In February at the CSUSM Fujikura Invite and the Western Illinois Invite, Smith averaged 73.3 strokes over six rounds.

At the Fujikura Invite on Feb. 28 and 29, Smith tied for first in the individual leaderboard and boosted his team to first place over Chico State and 13 other teams.

To get to this level of play, Smith made changes to his approach to competitions.

“I’ve been focusing on my diet and working out a lot more, doing a lot of yoga,” Smith said. “I have an instructor in south San Diego that’s got me doing breathing exercises that I attribute to helping me stay mentally sharp.”

Seasons can run long, so in training for competitions, athletes look to different sources for inspiration to keep them going.

“One of my best friends passed away when I was 16. He had all the talent in the world, so when I’m having a hard time, I tell myself I want to do this for him and one of my coaches that passed away at my junior college,” said Smith.

With only a few tournaments left in Smith’s collegiate career, he has a few goals for himself and is in a good position to reach them.

“[I] want [to] continue what I’m doing, working out, doing well in school and of course, on the course. I want to win conference since we don’t have a chance to go to the matchplay portion. I want to put CSUSM on the map,” said Smith.

With Smith set to graduate in fall 2016 with a degree in business marketing, he is striving to play professional golf.  

“I’ve been taking golf seriously for the last six years of my life, so I feel I have to give it a run and see how things go. I plan to go out to Asia, where there’s a lot of competitions…I feel it’ll give me the best chance at succeeding, and help me get my feet wet traveling.”