Art of balance

Epson player Kate Smith and golf broadcaster Shane Bacon teamed up to create Ground Under Repair Design, a graphics business that caters to the golf community. Photo: Courtesy Kate Smith. When Kate Smith sits down to do business as a graphic designer, clients don’t always realize she’s also spending half her year traveling the country to play professional golf. Likewise, pro-am partners sometimes don’t see past Smith’s game to her entrepreneurial side. Smith, at 23, embraces her alter egos. “I feel like Clark Kent all the time,” she said. “It’s fun to be in the background doing some of these things.” Smith played 21 events as a rookie on the Epson Tour in 2022, making 10 cuts, and initially expected to put the graphic design degree she earned from the University of Nebraska to use in a “really small, boutique freelancing” kind of way. Instead, Ground Under Repair Design came to life after Smith exchanged a few messages with Shane Bacon, a golf broadcaster, podcaster and children’s book author well-known for his aesthetic eagle eye. Th...