Rick Smith has won dozens of awards and accolades for his skill as a golf course designer. The list includes his Signature course in Gaylord, Michigan, Arcadia Bluffs on Lake Michigan, Wuskowhan Player's Club in Mount Olive, Michigan, R&S Sharf course at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and the Shenandoah course at Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York which has hosted several PGA Tour Events. Additionally, Rick is a Partner in the Phil Mickelson Design Group. Rick and Phil have completed design work in China and are currently working on numerous course designs in Canada and Bali.

In addition to achieving great success as a course designer, Rick Smith is regarded as one of the PGA Tour's best sounding boards for swing advice. In 2009, Rick was ranked as the number two golf instructor in the world by PGA Tour players and since 2000, Rick has been consistently ranked as one of the top ten golf instructors in the world; both polls were done by Golf Digest Magazine.