Brad Smith has accomplished a lot on the golf course.
He earned all-conference and all-American honors while attending Indian Hills Community College and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. That success led to a decade-long professional career, with Smith playing in tournaments across the globe against some of the world’s best golfers, including heavyweights like Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.
Smith, an Australia native who now lives in St. Louis, has since teed up a new career: entrepreneurship. He is co-founder of Flyt Golf, a golf products startup.
Flyt got its start in 2017 and targeted its initial efforts on developing a compression sleeve to help golfers improve their chipping. It has since launched two additional products aimed at helping golfers fine-tune their swing. Flyt, which began with a direct-to-consumer sales model, says its products are used by more than 50 PGA Tour players and instructors. Smith declined to disclose Flyt’s sales figures, but said the company is currently seeking fundraising to assist with its expansion strategy.
While Smith has turned his attention to entrepreneurship, he hasn’t left the golf course. He still plays golf regularly and is head coach of the golf program at Webster University.
Was it your goal always to leave Australia and play golf in the U.S.? I always wanted to. For me, it was always going to be about finances and whether I could find the right scholarship and be able to afford everything. I missed an opportunity the year prior to coming over. Right out of high school, you only lost eligibility once you turned 21. I actually took two years away from high school and once I finished where I worked full-time, like in the evenings, I basically played full-time golf as an amateur and traveled Australia and played out at the tournaments. In that time my game improved a lot. I had some very noticeable results, which helped from the interest level of coaches over here. That gave me an opportunity to actually kind of pursue a college career at the place I wanted to go. Some of the places I may otherwise have gone, like private schools, I just couldn't afford to do it.
As you look back at your professional golf career, what moments stand out? Other than having traveled and gotten to see a lot of countries I otherwise wouldn't have gone to, it's the players that I got to play in tournaments with and against. It's not the young guys now because they weren't professional yet, but it’s guys like Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Luke Donald. Who probably sticks out the most is Tiger Woods. Playing in the Australian Open when he was down there playing in 2011 was awesome. Hitting a golf ball two spots from your idol was pretty cool. I'll always remember that and my little brother was caddying, so that made it equally as special.
How was the experience transitioning out of professional golf? Difficult for sure. You just know one thing for so long you don't think about plan B because you always assume plan A is going to work out. I'd had a series of injuries, like bad back injuries really throughout my career in college and as a professional and that definitely hampered my ability to want to keep going. I think transitioning out, the hardest thing was figuring out what I wanted to do. Part of me wanted to go back to school to pursue a different degree, but then that’s multiple years away, not really making any money and spending more money. I ended up ultimately going into an opportunity with an insurance firm where we knew the brother and sister that ran the company. It was tough because at the same time I was developing Flyt. That eventually took over my time anyway so I ended up selling a book of business back to the insurance firm.
How does the Flyt sleeve work? It’s a compression sleeve that goes on your right arm and it inhibits the elbow and the wrist from bending and breaking in the backswing. It forces you to use your torso and upper body and what that does is just minimizes the variable. If you minimize the amount of movement in the club face, you've got a better chance of being more consistent and hitting it. Your misses are basically gonna be better.
What’s next for Flyt? It’s broadening our marketing efforts and the different areas that we're looking to sell our products. I think that was something we just overlooked in the start probably. You're just trying to get your feet wet and figure out if people actually want to buy it. But now we know that people like it and they like the other two products. The other thing is having multiple products. A brick and mortar and big box retailer is far more drawn to a company that has multiple things to offer as opposed to just one product because it allows them to display it better, it looks better, and I think that is going to help us long term. Our goal is to try and add at least one new product every year moving forward for at least the short term — five to seven years — until we have a dozen or so products is sort of the ultimate goal.
What do you do in your free time? I honestly play golf myself. I still enjoy playing and belong to a club here in town. The back issues I have had in the past have subsided for the most part. It flares up every now and then, but I feel like my game is really not that far off from where it was when I was playing. And then it’s hanging with my kids and my wife. I love spending time with my family here.
More about Brad Smith
Title: Co-founder, Flyt Golf; Head golf coach, Webster University
Age: 39
Family: Whitney, his wife; Bronson, his son; Kennedy, his daughter
Education: Smith has a bachelor of arts degree in communications management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an associate of arts degree from Indian Hills Community College.
Brad’s heroes: “I look at what my parents have been through, and I think of all the stuff they've been through and I feel like if they can do it, then anyone should be able to do it.”
