Tag: Stacy Lewis

Stacy Lewis headlines group of 10 players added to U.S. Women’s Open field

Stacy Lewis highlights a group of 10 players added to the field for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, the USGA announced.

Houston resident and two-time major winner Stacy Lewis highlights a group of 10 players added to the field for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, the USGA announced. The contest’s 75th edition is set for Dec. 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston. With qualifying rounds canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire 156-player field is made of up exempt players.

The 10 spots were filled using the 2020 LPGA money list (top 10 players, not otherwise exempt). Those players are: No. 7 Jasmine Suwannapura, No. 10 Stacy Lewis, No. 25 Jodi Ewart Shadoff, No. 33 Cydney Clanton, No. 37 Andrea Lee, No. 40 Mina Harigae, No. 42 Kelly Tan, No. 46 Perrine Delacour, No. 48 Xiyu Lin and No. 54 Lindsey Weaver.

Lewis, 35, won the Ladies Scottish Open in a playoff earlier this year for her 13th career LPGA title and first since giving birth to daughter Chesnee. This marks her 14th U.S. Women’s Open appearance. She tied for third as a newly-minted pro in 2008 and finished runner-up to Michelle Wie in 2014.

Lee, a rookie on the LPGA, will make her fourth USWO appearance and first as a pro. The 2019 Mark H. McCormack Medal winner made the cut as an amateur at the 2019 Women’s Open at Charleston Country Club. The 22-year-old Stanford standout has two top-10 finishes in 2020’s abbreviated LPGA season.

Delacour will make her USWO debut this December. The Frenchwoman has posted three top 10s in 2020, including a third place at the 2020 ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.

Weaver has made headlines since July for playing most of the season without a caddie. She was on the leaderboard well into the weekend at the AIG Women’s British Open, using a push cart in trying conditions at Royal Troon. The Dallas resident ultimately tied for 19th. This will be Weaver’s third USWO appearance, with her first coming in 2015 as an amateur.

Marathon LPGA Classic
Lindsey Weaver hits her approach shot on the 4th hole during the final round of the Marathon LPGA Classic at Highlands Meadows Golf Club. (Photo: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports)

In Houston, Weaver will have two tracks to learn in short order with both the Cypress Creek Course and Jackrabbit Course being used for the championship due to reduced daylight.

Last month, the USGA announced that the Women’s Open would not have fans on site due to the ongoing pandemic.

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LPGA: Stacy Lewis hoping experience makes the difference in shortened Portland event

As for the LPGA’s Cambia Portland Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club, Stacy Lewis won this event back in 2017.

In a season that’s already anomalous, this setting is surreal.

After surviving intense Sonoran Desert heat last week, LPGA players have dealt with deep, dark mornings as steady smoke layers flow over the Pacific Northwest from nearby wildfires.

Thursday finally brought a little light, but the Cambia Portland Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club has been shortened into 54 holes, meaning it was a practice day for players in advance of Friday’s first round.

Stacy Lewis knows Columbia, she won this event back in 2017, and feels her experience could make a tremendous difference in the condensed format.

“Experience is going to be huge this week. Just knowing how this golf course plays, and it’s just going to be how firm are the fairways or how firm are the greens, you know just trying to get a feel for that more than anything,” said Lewis, who goes off the back to open Friday’s first round at 11:21 ET with Ariya Jutanugarn and Brittany Lincicome.

“But fortunately, my game is in a good spot where I don’t feel like I need to go grind like crazy right now.  It’s just kind of getting the rust off of the last few days.”

Lewis is hoping to build off last week’s showing at the ANA Inspiration, where she finished alone in fifth, three shots behind eventual victor Mirim Lee.

Stacy Lewis is lifted by her caddie Travis Wilson on the 18th green after her victory during the final round of the LPGA Cambia Portland Classic at Columbia Edgewater Country Club on September 3, 2017 in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

“Truthfully, I probably played better than the scores even showed,” she said of her score of 276, which earned her $128,524. “I just had a lot of putts that didn’t go in, but was able to really manage my game really good and hit the shots I wanted to hit, which is something that you know the last three or four years I haven’t been able to do.”

The first round will be shown on tape delay on the Golf Channel, starting at 9 p.m. ET on Friday night.

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ANA Inspiration forges on without fans, but there is still so much at stake

Whoever jumps into Poppie’s Pond at the 49th edition of the ANA will relish the chance in the oppressive desert heat.

Sometimes when Brittany Lincicome makes her way down the Walk of Champions at the ANA Inspiration, she’ll glance down at the plaques below. Her name is listed twice there (2009, 2015). Sometimes she’ll look over at the 18th green and strategize her next shot. Sometimes she’ll look up and high-five the fans who are leaning over the railing. 

The walk will be eerily quiet this year with no spectators on property. Lincicome joked that she might high-five the air on her walk by Poppie’s Pond. 

“With fans there’s so much more adrenaline,” said Lincicome, “and you just feed off of their energy and smiles and support.”

The LPGA will have staged five tournaments, including a major, without fans before the tour gets to the Coachella Valley. But silence at the ANA, often referred to as the Masters of the LPGA because of its history on the same course and longstanding tradition, will be the strangest feeling yet.

Three years ago, the excitement at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course was palpable after Lexi Thompson received a four-stroke penalty on the back nine of the final round. Fans willed her around the course, chanting “Le-xi! Le-xi!” as she came to the final hole needing eagle to win the championship. 

The atmosphere was even more spine-tingling in the playoff. And when it was over, as a defeated Thompson collapsed in her mother’s arms, a crowd of kids lined up outside the autograph tent to meet America’s best player.

None of that will happen this year. High-octane drama isn’t the same without people there to share it.

But in this COVID-19 era, the next-best things are often better than expected, certainly more appreciated. 

Whoever jumps into Poppie’s Pond at the 49th edition of the ANA will relish the chance and happily slip on that white robe in the oppressive desert heat, because by today’s standards, it’s somewhat of a miracle that it’s happening at all.

Jin Young Ko jumps into Poppie’s Pond after winning the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. (Photo: Kelvin Kuo/USA TODAY Sports)

“It would still be sweet,” said Stacy Lewis, the 2011 champion, “doesn’t matter how many people are there.”

Lewis played the ANA as an amateur in 2007, finishing tied for fifth, and came back that summer to play in LPGA Q-School and described it as a totally different course.

Mission Hills also put in $3 million worth of changes over the summer. For starters, they’ve pulled out 100 large eucalyptus trees and trimmed all the remaining trees.

“Aesthetically the course is going to appear to be much more open to them than what it has in the past,” said Mission Hills general manager Michael Walker. 

But while recovery shots might look more appealing, pulling them off might be a different story. The additional sunlight pouring through means the rough will be much thicker and deeper than in the past. And it will grow fast in the summer heat.

The club also has expanded some of the runoff areas in key locations: two par 3s (14th and 17th) and the par-5 18th. Balls that miss those greens are now more susceptible to rolling off into trouble.

Plus, the warm-weather Bermuda grass will present a completely different feel than the over-seeded rye that players see in the spring. 

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“I think it’s really going to start to favor the pickers verses the gougers,” Walker said. 

Every bunker on the course has had work done, and five fairway bunkers were added.

And then there’s the heat. Temperatures in mid-September range somewhere between 90 and 105 degrees. Caddies will not be wearing the traditional white jumpsuits but instead have bibs.

The quiet will be noticeable with the lack of bodies. Players are allowed two preregistered guests on property, and surely there will be residents who live along the course watching from their patios. There are usually around 600 volunteers during tournament week, but with no pro-am and no spectators, that number is down to 150 this year. 

While there won’t be any seats around the first tee or the 17th or 18th greens, there will be scaffolding and signage. That’s of particular interest for those who like to go for the green in two on the closing hole: There will still be something there to stop the ball. 

As for scoreboards, there will be an electronic one on 18.

With so many events on the LPGA’s schedule falling off in 2020, the major championships became more paramount than ever. The added cost of COVID-19 protocols combined with a loss of revenue in ticket sales, pro-ams and corporate hospitality created an impossible situation for many. 

“It was never a doubt that we were going to play this event,” said ANA executive director Teo Sodeman. 

A warm water dip awaits.

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Laura Davies to hit historic first tee shot at Royal Troon to mark 40th appearance

Laura Davies is one of the LPGA stars to play at Royal Troon for the LPGA’s first major of the season, the Women’s British Open.

Dame Laura Davies will pull a 2-iron from her bag on Thursday and strike the first blow at Royal Troon at 6:30 a.m. local time. With bunkers down the left-hand side, there’s no need for driver. (Shame because who doesn’t love to see her craft that pyramid tee out of turf with her wedge?)

Instead, she’ll aim to get one out there safely about 220 yards, leaving herself with an 8-iron for the approach.

There won’t be any fans to see to see this action, of course. Just her playing competitors – Alena Sharp and Olivia Mehaffey – and their caddies and perhaps a handful of R&A officials. But the golf world will be there in spirit because few players in the game have shaped it so.

This marks Davies’ 40th appearance in this championship, and she’s not just competing, she’s commentating, too. She’ll be working on the broadcast team for Sky Sports, which will be beamed to viewers worldwide, including Golf Channel/NBC.

“I think it’ll be a cracking week,” she said.

A general view of the 18th green and clubhouse ahead of the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon (Photo by R&A – Handout/R&A via Getty Images)

It’s an honor to hit the first tee shot, but more importantly, noted the World Golf Hall of Famer, she gets a clear course. And after last week’s spotlight on slow play at the Scottish Open, it’s a welcome sight.

“I played 18 holes yesterday morning at 7:30, basically on my own, in two hours and 15 minutes,” said Davies, “played every hole properly, chipped and putted on quite a few. I’m not saying we can get ’round in two hours and 15 minutes, but we should be ’round in under four, as long as the weather is not crazy. If the weather is crazy then obviously you get up on those holes around the turn, anything can happen. You can spend half an hour on the tee if you’re unlucky.”

The weather on Thursday doesn’t look promising, with wind gusts of up to 55 to 60 mph predicted around 9 a.m. Tournament Troon will look nothing like what they’ve faced in the practice rounds thanks to what they’re calling, “Storm Ellen.”

The first major of the year brings in 144 players from 32 countries to a carefully constructed and sanitized bubble. While a number of top-10 players are missing from the field, two headliners – Inbee Park and Brooke Henderson – make their return to the LPGA this week.

World No. 1 Jin Young Ko has yet to compete on the LPGA this year and joins Sung Hyun Park, Sei Young Kim, Hyo Joo Kim, So Yeon Ryu and Jeong Eun Lee6 as a continent of top South Korean players who have delayed their restarts.

Even so, staging a major with players from over the globe in the COVID-19 era is a victory for the women’s game. The fact that it’s on a classic course like Troon for the first time makes it all the more meaningful.

“This is a big week for women’s golf,” said Stacy Lewis, who won last week in Scotland. “To be playing here on a golf course that’s been in the men’s rotation for a very long time, and didn’t even allow female members to come play this golf course for a very long time, so this is a really big week.”

Davies praised the conditions of Troon this week, declaring these the best links greens she’s ever putted on. After five months away from tournament golf, the four-time major winner said she hit some of the worst shots of her career last week at The Renaissance Club, but she has no plans of slowing down.

“I think if you still have that fire in your belly, that you just think maybe this is my week when you get there on Thursday morning. … I’m 56 now and I’m not saying I could ever win again, that would be asking too much, “ said Davies, “but I’m thinking that hopefully this COVID has not done too much damage to my game.”

Georgia Hall of England speaks to Laura Davies of England during a practice round ahead of the 2020 AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon. (Photo by R&A – Handout/R&A via Getty Images)

Georgia Hall pulled into her reserved parking spot at Royal Troon, marked 2018 champion, and looked down the row to see Davies’ decorated with 1986. Hall made sure to mention to Davies that she was born a decade after that victory.

“She’s a great friend and person and idol to look up to,” said Hall. “I actually texted her last night saying, ‘Oh, look at you hitting the first tee shot ­– don’t hold us up.’ ”

Hannah Burke played nine holes with Davies on Tuesday at Troon and told Davies that she was once was her standard-bearer at an event. Brittany Lincicome did that too.

Only a handful of players in the field at Troon have been alive more years than Davies has played in this event.

“It’s remarkable,” said World No. 2 Danielle Kang, “because Dame Laura Davies is a legend, an absolute legend.”

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Money milestones: Webb Simpson, Stacy Lewis reach new plateaus

Only 18 players in PGA Tour history have made more on the course than Webb Simpson. Meanwhile, Stacy Lewis is up to No. 8 in LPGA history.

Webb Simpson’s strong season continues, and the big paychecks filling his bank account prove it.

Thanks to two wins, a second, two thirds and seven top-10s, Simpson has made more than $4.7 million in on-course earnings on the PGA Tour – in 12 events – this season.

Simpson is fresh off a T-3 finish at the Wyndham Championship on Sunday. That payday was good for $312,400 and pushed him over the $40 million mark in career earnings. He checks in at $40,080,881 to be precise, good for 19th place on the all-time list.

Charles Howell III soon could be the 20th $40 million man on the PGA Tour. He needs just $3,065, which could come this week at the Northern Trust at TPC Boston.

Tiger Woods is the all-time money winner on the PGA Tour with $120,743,445.

On the LPGA, Stacy Lewis won the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open on Sunday. It was her 13th title on the LPGA. The $211,680 winner’s check moved her to $13,135,753 in career earnings.

Lewis was the eighth player in LPGA history to break the $13 million threshold. She less than $900,000 behind Juli Inkster on the all-time list.

The all-time LPGA money leader is Annika Sorenstam with $22,573,192.

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Stacy Lewis calls out fellow contenders for slow play at Ladies Scottish Open

Stacy Lewis called out her playing competitors for their pace of play at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.

Stacy Lewis has never shied away from the issue of slow play. Last year during the Evian Championship, she took to Twitter to call out the near six-hour rounds in France.

This weekend in Scotland Lewis got more specific, calling out her playing competitors for their pace of play at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.

“I think the biggest challenge for me tomorrow is staying in what I’m doing,” Lewis, “and the pace of play is dreadfully slow, and that doesn’t play into my favor. People I’m playing with are pretty slow.”

Lewis was paired with Jennifer Song and Azahara Munoz in the third round and is back with them again in Round 4. The former No. 1 entered the final round alone in second at 6 under, trailing leader Munoz by one shot. Song began Sunday two back at 5 under.

“I had to really kind of stop watching at some points and just kind of go into your own world and think about something else, sing yourself a song or do something,” said Lewis. “You really kind of get out of rhythm and it’s hard to keep things going.”

Lewis, 35, is searching for her first victory since giving birth to daughter Chesnee. A 12-time winner on the LPGA, Lewis last won at the 2017 Cambia Portland Classic, when she donated the entire check to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in her hometown of Houston.

Speaking of Houston, a strong finish in Scotland boosts Lewis’ chances of getting into this year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club. She is not currently exempt.

Munoz, the 2012 Sybase Match Play champion, has yet to win a stroke-play title on the LPGA. Song is searching for her first LPGA victory. In 2009, Song won both the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links.

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Stacy Lewis’ continued strong play leads to share of Ladies Scottish Open lead

Stacy Lewis fired a 5-under 66 to take a share of the second-round lead at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.

For Stacy Lewis, last week’s Marathon LPGA Classic ended on a high note. She closed the week at Highland Meadows in Sylvania, Ohio, with a 6-under 65 (that left her inside the top 10) and felt like it could have been much lower.

Lewis said she was feeling reenergized after making a posture change in her golf swing. A week later and an ocean away, it sure is looking that way. Lewis fired a 5-under 66 on Friday at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, to take a share of the second-round lead at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.

Azahara Munoz is also at 5 under after rounds of 68-69 at the Renaissance Club.

“I finished really good in Toledo. Hit it awesome the last day,” Lewis said. “The golf swing has felt better every single day. I truly love playing in Scotland. I love links golf. All the different shots you get to hit, the different weather. You have to battle the elements which we did yesterday. I was just more than anything excited to come play some golf.”

Lewis won the Women’s British Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews in 2013. She’s always had a love for links golf and credited her caddie at the 2008 Curtis Cup at St. Andrews as being the one who truly taught her some of the nuances to playing that style of course.

“He picked out all these shots for me and helped me visualize things,” she said. “I really think it was the experience with him and playing the Old Course as many times as we did last week is what made me fall in love with it.”

This two-week stint in Scotland is only the second two-week span Lewis has ever spent away from daughter Chesnee, who is not quite 2 years old. Lewis also took an extended leave last year to play the Evian Championship and the Women’s British Open.

With her daughter another year older, FaceTime goes a little smoother.

“Now it’s actually fun on FaceTime because as soon as my face pops up, she says ‘Mama’ and she’s all excited,” Lewis said. “She’s showing me all her toys and all the stuff she’s getting into.

“It’s not full-blown conversations yet, but she at least knows I’m there and understands that I’m on the phone and talking to her. It makes it a lot easier being here.”

Behind the leaders, Jennifer Song is solo third at 4 under. Olivia Cowan and Amy Olson share fourth at 3 under and then it’s a crew of youngsters tied for sixth: rookie Andrea Lee, Cheyenne Knight and Nanna Koerstz Madsen along with Nicole Broch Larsen.

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Old swing footage led Stacy Lewis to a posture change that might prolong her career

Stacy Lewis and husband Gerrod Chadwell scoured the internet to find video of her swing from 2012. That’s when Chadwell noticed something.

SYLVANIA, Ohio – Stacy Lewis walked off the 18th green at the Marathon LPGA Classic feeling good about her day but still shaking her head.

“It should’ve been about a 60,” said Lewis, who closed with a 6-under 65 at Highland Meadows to vault into the top 10.

It wasn’t all too long ago that 35-year-old Lewis wondered how many more years she’d be able to compete. A rib injury sidelined the 12-time winner prior to maternity leave for daughter Chesnee and again at the 2019 Solheim Cup, forcing her to withdraw.

Was the woman who rose to No. 1 in the world with a metal rod and five screws in her back due to scoliosis going to be forced out earlier than desired?

Lewis and husband Gerrod Chadwell, head women’s golf coach at Houston, started scouring the internet for video of her swing from 2012. Chadwell noticed her posture back then was a lot taller than it has been in recent years.

“I think I had gotten just really bent over because that’s more of the modern swing,” said Lewis. “Come to find out I couldn’t do that. … my back can’t function that way.”

Marathon LPGA Classic scores | LPGA schedule

Lewis’ physios back home in Houston confirmed it.

“They are the ones that helped me get my body back in shape,” she said of the adjustments that have helped keep the inflammation out of her joints.

“Now I feel like I’ve been reenergized,” she said of playing pain-free.

The Marathon is a somewhat of a home event for Lewis as her dad’s side of the family resides in the area. With no spectators allowed this year, however, it’s a different vibe. No “Lew Crew” shirts on the course, but her mom and dad were allowed to follow along as every player was allowed two guest passes.

“My cousins have had kids now, so the crew is growing,” she said. “I would say we’re probably in the 20 to 25 range. But it’s my dad’s whole side of the family, so they’re all immediate family, all cousins.

“They have gotten married and had kids of their own. Just getting together for dinners and hanging out. That’s really all we can do. Let Chesnee go play with them and play with their dogs and things like that.”

Lewis will now head solo on the LPGA’s charter flight to back-to-back tournaments in Scotland, including the year’s first major, the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon. All players and caddies who were scheduled for the charter were tested for COVID-19 on Thursday. All tests came back negative.

Lewis, the 2013 Women’s British Open champion, and her longtime coach, Joe Hallett, spent time early in the week working on shots she’ll need for links-style golf.

Spectators aren’t allowed at both events in Scotland – the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open and Women’s British. No parents or coaches either. Lewis wonders if that might give more experienced players the advantage at Troon.

There are risks going overseas in these times. But the charter flights there and back helped Lewis feel safe about her decision.

“But it’s Troon,” said Lewis, “and it’s a place that as a tour we’ve never played and women historically have had a hard time even playing there in general, so it’s something that I want to be a part of. I wanted to play the golf course more than anything.”

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Lydia Ko displays a wisdom beyond her 23 years in LPGA’s latest Drive On spot

Lydia Ko is the latest LPGA player to tell her story for the tour’s Drive On campaign.

Lydia Ko takes to heart the good advice she’s gotten from Stacy Lewis over the years.

“You can’t try to be someone that you were,” Ko said in reciting a line delivered from a former World No. 1 to Ko, who had come to occupy the position for the first time as a 17-year-old.

“I think that really resonated with me, and that made me realize, you know what, I can’t try and be somebody who I was before, and I’ve just got to be the best possible person of me today.”

Ko is the latest LPGA player to tell her story for the tour’s Drive On campaign. She has arrived at a beyond-her-years wisdom when it comes to pleasing others and trying to recreate the magic of the early, teenage years of her golf career.

“One thing I’ve learned throughout the journey these last few years,” she says in a short video, “is that you can’t make everyone like you. All you can do is make the best decisions you think at the time for yourself.”

In a corresponding letter the now 23-year-old Ko wrote to her 15-year-old self, Ko reveals an interaction between herself and Lewis at the CP Canadian Women’s Open, which Ko won as an amateur. It was her first of 15 LPGA titles and one of two she would win as an amateur, both in Canada.

Ko recounts Lewis walking beside her at that event telling her, “You’ve got this. You’re playing well. Now, finish strong.”

She encourages her former self to soak up that moment and to remember, “you’re a kid.” The moment will take your breath away, Ko tells her younger self.

These past few years, Ko has felt more than ever that she has the ability to take a step back and see the bigger picture. The tough moments – the ones that have forced her to grow – have also created a turning point.

“Your golf swing may come and go, but your family and friends, the people who care about you, will love you no matter what you shoot,” Ko wrote farther down in the letter. “Trophies are symbols of what you’ve accomplished in the past. Your family and friends represent who and what you can be in the future. Their hugs, their presence, their laughter is life’s greatest victory.”

At 15, Ko also won the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and even now names that as a career highlight. Asked at what point she began to soak in her many accomplishments as an adult, rather than a kid, Ko pointed to a recent coming-of-age moment: getting her driver’s license. Ko took the test just last week, in fact, in Orlando, where she lives.

Drive On thus has taken on a different meaning lately. Ko spent the down time forced by a global pandemic taking driving lessons. The test itself brought a familiar kind of pressure.

“I was very nervous,” she said. “I was like sweating, getting really sweaty in my hands.  It kind of felt like what it feels like on the 18th hole when you’re coming in with like a one‑shot lead.”

Otherwise, Ko’s social media during the LPGA’s long break has featured plenty of sports content, if not always golf content. She’s kept herself occupied with other hobbies, like tennis. Rock climbing has always been a way to stay active while offering fitness benefits for upper-body and grip strength.

Filling her platforms with the good things in life has become a way she feels like she can make a difference. Her Drive On campaign spot furthers that effort.

Suddenly, it’s not just time spent atop the Rolex Rankings that puts her in the same category as players like Lewis.

“I want to be the next Se Ri Pak or the next Annika Sorenstam, the next Brooke Henderson,” Ko said. “But at the end of the day all you can do is really, like I said earlier, be the best version of you.”

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