Ritchie Smith, mentor to the likes of Minjee Lee, Min Woo Lee and Hannah Green, has won the prestigious Coach of the Year award at the SportWest Awards in Perth.

The Royal Fremantle instructor beat out a field that included Shelley Nitschke (cricket), Colin Batch (hockey) and Simon Redmond (swimming).

It is his first win in the award although he has won a slew of golf specific coaching awards, including PGA national coach of the year.

Smith’s clients had outstanding results in 2021. Minjee Lee won her first major championship, the Evian Championship while Green had a solid year in America and Min Woo Lee won the Scottish Open and found himself inside the top 50 in the world for the first time.

Minjee Lee was nominated as a finalist for the WA Sports Star award, but the winner was Paralympic star Madison de Rozario.