The Official Website of LPGA "Major" Winner Stacy Lewis - The Kraft Nabisco Champion!
Stacy Lands Another New Sponsor: Joins Phil Mickelson on KPMG Team
When Stacy decided to double major in finance and accounting at the University of Arkansas, she knew that it would be a heavy academic load to carry, especially while playing on the varsity golf team, but she knew that someday, it would pay off for her. Well, it has paid off a bit sooner than expected. On the eve of defending her Kraft Nabisco Championship title (March 28, 2012), Stacy announced her new sponsorship relationship with KPMG, one of the world's "big 4" audit, tax and advisory firms. Read the Press Release.
Attending the announcement, KPMG's Chairman & CEO, John Veihmeyer, made reference to the emergence of women in leadership roles in the business world and how a relationship with Stacy demonstrates KPMG's commitment to women amongst its clients and the KPMG family. The sponsorship also symbolized the recognition, by a global best-in-class company, that women's golf is on the move and that the LPGA platform is growing in its reach and importance to main stream sponsors. Also joining Stacy Lewis and John Veihmeyer on stage were LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, and Kraig Kann, the LPGA's Chief Communications Officer.
If you missed it, you can see both the website that was created for Stacy by KPMG as well as the TV commercial that ran during the Kraft Nabisco Championship at www.KPMG.com/Stacy.
Oh, and by the way, in her title defence of the KNC, Stacy made a heroic charge on Sunday, shooting 66 (that's 6 under par) in her final round to come within 2 strokes of the eventual winner!
Stacy's New Sponsor - Marathon Petroleum
Marathon Petroleum Corporation announced today that it has signed a sponsorship agreement with Stacy Lewis. The 26-year-old professional golfer is coming off a memorable 2011 season in which she captured her first major at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, had 12 top ten finishes and was ranked fourth on the LPGA money list. Read the entire Press Release.
Stacy's New Apparel Sponsor - Antigua
New season, new look! Stacy will be playing the 2012 season in a brand new apparel brand - Antigua. The Antigua Group is a leading designer and marketer of lifestyle apparel and sportswear under the "Antigua" label and can be found in the best golf courses and retailers around the country. Antigua also makes apparel under license from a number of pro leagues including the NBA, MLB and the NHL. Read the Press Release.
LEWIS' AMAZING 2011 SEASON AFFIRMS HER STATUS AS ONE OF THE WORLD'S BEST
The 2011 LPGA season is finally over and the year-end numbers speak for themselves.
4th on the LPGA Money List
1 Win (a major - Kraft Nabisco Championship)
2 Second place finishes (Evian Masters & CN Canadian Women's Open)
12 Top 10 finishes (a rate of more than 50%)
2nd in Birdies made
2nd in Rounds played under Par
Official Money Earned ($1,356,211)
1st in US Solheim Cup points earned
2nd in the Rolex Player of the Year race
10th and rising in the Rolex Rankings
All of the above translated into a magical season playing in 13 countries, participating in dozens of pro-ams, playing for her country in her first Solheim Cup, conducting hundreds of interviews, appearing on TV on multiple shows and signing thousands of autographs. And perhaps more importantly, her new elevated platform allowed to connect with and inspire thousands of more girls who have the same spinal condition (scoliosis) as her.
LEWIS IS #3 ON LPGA MONEY LIST
With the 2011 LPGA season drawing to a close, Stacy Lewis has clearly established herself as one of the very best golfers in the world. She has maintained her hold on the #3 position on the Money List for most of the season and is close to claiming bragging rights as the "best American player"!
Stacy has been quite busy off the course as well. She's appeared on the Golf Channel's Morning Drive, ESPN First Take, CNN International as well as in newspapers and magazines from Malaysia to Mexico to Toronto. She also appeared on another cover, this time on Lady Golfer, the leading golf magazine for women in the UK! She also found time to meet with and inspire scoliosis patients from Illinois to Malaysia! Stacy has even gone climbed into the Golf Channel broadcast booth to try her hand at commentary during the ShopRite LPGA Classic in June.
On the course, Stacy has turned in a total of 11 top 10's including two 2nd place finishes at the Evian Masters and the CN Canadian Women's Open. Stacy also achieved her goal of representing her country at the Solheim Cup.
In September, twelve of the best players from the United States travelled to Ireland to compete in the twelfth rendition of the biannually held event against the top 12 golfers from Europe. When it was all over, Europe came back in the last 30 minutes to win for only the 4th time in the event's history. Despite the loss by the American side, many considered this the most exciting Solheim Cup of all time. While it didn't end the way that Stacy would have wanted to end, it was every bit the experience that she thought it would be! To represent the United States under the most pressure packed situations is an honor and challenge that Stacy will look forward to every two years!
LEWIS WINS A "MAJOR"!!! - THE KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP
On April 3, the best story in golf got even better! In just her third year on tour, Stacy Lewis made her first LPGA tournament win a "major" by winning the prestigious Kraft Nabisco Championship! The Kraft Nabisco is the women's equivalent to the Masters, and Stacy made the traditional leap into Poppy's Pond after coming back from 2 strokes behind to overtake the #1 ranked player in the world and win by 3 strokes!
How big is this? Well, first, Stacy just moved to #3 on the LPGA Money List and #15 on the Rolex World Rankings. It also made Stacy a virtual lock to make the US Team for this year's Solheim Cup in September in Ireland! The last time she represented the US was at the Curtis Cup as an amateur at St. Andrews where Stacy went undefeated going 5 & 0. Could this portend more good things this year in the UK? And, Stacy has gotten herself on the covers of both GolfWEEK and GolfWORLD!
This spring, Stacy burst out of the gates with a 2nd place finish at the ANZ RACV Ladies Masters in Australia, followed by a top 20 finish at the Honda LPGA in Thailand and a top 10 finish at the HSBC Women's Champions tournament in Singapore. One might think that she did nothing this winter but practice. Actually, she did do some of that, however, Stacy took at trip that would change her entire perspective on life and on golf. She and her mother, Carol, joined LPGA Hall of Famer, Betsy King, on a mission trip to Africa for Betsy's charity, Golf Fore Africa where they helped children who have been orphaned by AIDS and where Stacy got to meet the little girl that she has been sponsoring in Rwanda.
So, the updated version of Stacy's fascinating story. Diagnosed with scoliosis at 11, Stacy Lewis wore a back brace for 7+ years, 18 hours a day and only took it off to play golf, just to be told at the age of 18 that she had to have surgery to place a titanium rod and 5 screws her back. She thought she lost her scholarship only to have her gracious coach red-shirt her saving her a spot on the Arkansas team. She can barely lift a club for most of the year after surgery, but then comes back to win the NCAA Championship 2 years later. She then wins an LPGA event as an amateur only to be told it doesn't count because it was rain-shortened. Then she turns pro, almost wins her first pro tournament, the US Open, only to have the winnings NOT count toward qualifying for her LPGA Tour card. Undaunted, she goes to Q-school and ends up winning it but a certain 6 foot Hawaiian gets most of the attention. Then, after a disappointing rookie season and a steady but winless sophomore campaign, she goes to Africa to help AIDS affected orphans and comes back re-energized and not only wins the 1st major of the year, but does so with a heavy heart because her grandfather passes away before her first round! This story must be real because you can't make stuff like this up!
Stay close because this story is not only the best story in golf, now, Stacy Lewis is also one of the very best players in golf!
Read about this trip, along with all of the great articles about Stacy's Kraft Nabisco win in the "In The News" section of this site!
LEWIS CLIMBS INTO TOP 20 ON MONEY LIST
There has been no sophomore slump in 2010 for Stacy Lewis. With one tournament left to go in the season, Stacy has ascended to a place among the LPGA's elite players at #19 on the LPGA Tour Money List. She has done it with consistent play all year finishing in the top 20 twelve times. Stacy finished 2nd at the Tres Marias Championship in Mexico and 3rd at the Mizuno Classic in Japan, where she tied a course record by shooting 64 in the 2nd round. Talk about knowing how to make your sponsor happy! She has also finished in the top 20 in 3 of the 4 majors this year. All in all, it is clear that Stacy has become pretty comfortable out on tour now. So comfortable in fact that she just concluded a streak of 78 consecutive holes without a bogey, the longest such streak on the LPGA Tour this year. What is also clear is that she is knocking on the door to her first LPGA win!
So far in 2010, Stacy has played in 23 tournaments in 10 countries, made the cover of another golf magazine and even appeared in a Titleist commercial.
So, with all of that golf and all of that travel nearly behind her this year, one would think that she is looking forward to relaxing at home after the LPGA Tour Championship wraps up the season on December 5th? Nope, not Stacy!. She will be leaving the next day on a 2 week mission to Africa, where she will help try to better the lives of HIV/AIDS affected orphans through an organization called Golf for Africa (www.GolfforAfrica.org) that was started by LPGA Hall of Famer, Betsy King.
Safe travels Stacy and congratulations on a great 2nd year on tour!
STACY'S SECOND YEAR ON TOUR
What a year it was for Stacy in 2009. From winning Q-school, playing as an LPGA rookie on incredible golf courses that she had never played before, to meeting some great people on tour, and traveling to Asia for the first time, Stacy had an adventurous and rewarding first year on tour. Off the course, she did some amazing things too including filming her first ever Public Service Announcement (PSA) on behalf of her charity, the Scoliosis Research Society which was seen on TV by over 50 million viewers. She was also honored to meet hundreds of brave, young scoliosis patients all over the US and even did a scoliosis awareness outreach visit to a hospital in Kobe, Japan! And this year, she is the subject of an episode of "Athlete 360" a series on Fox Sports which profiles professional athletes who have overcome debilitating injuries or medical conditions to thrive in their sports.
Even with these successes, one senses that for Stacy, there is a bit of a feeling of unfinished business. So, with a full year of LPGA experience under her belt, Stacy is determined to build upon the many great learning experiences from last year. She started her season by warming up at a pro Suncoast mini-tour event in Florida and won it, over a field of pros that included many LPGA stars. She then played the LPGA's first 2 tournaments in Thailand and Singapore and played well and followed that with 2 of the LET's (Ladies European Tour) most prestigious events in Australia. It was a good thing that she decided to go down under because she contended in both Aussie events and came away with an 8th place finish at the ANZ Ladies Masters and a 7th place finish at the Handa Women's Australian Open. This was against a stacked field full of LPGA, LET, JLPGA and KLPGA stars.
Stacy continued to play strongly at this year's first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she again contended early before finishing with another top 20 result! Then, in Mexico, the week of Lorena Ochoa's retirement announcement, Stacy shot a final round 66, while playing with Ochoa, to narrowly finish 2nd, one stroke behind winner Ai Miyazato. She has started the year off well and we are very excited to see how she does as the heart of the domestic LPGA Tour schedule approaches!
Stacy's Blog: All of the rookies on the LPGA Tour, have blogs so here's how to follow Stacy's journey during her rookie year. Go to the "Rookie Blog" section of www.lpga.com or go directly to Stacy's latest blog entry through this link:
http://www.lpga.com/entertainment_content.aspx?pid=20073
June is Scoliosis Awareness Month so look for the PSA on TV, or go to http://www.srs.org and click on "About Stacy Lewis" and then on "Stacy's Public Service Announcement" to see it online.
CONGRATULATIONS STACY for WINNING Q-SCHOOL & earning your LPGA Tour Card!!!
So, with that mindset, Stacy is set to take on her next big challenge and earn her spot at the top of the 2009 LPGA Tour rookie class and maybe even earn her way unto the US Solheim Cup team! She also wants to thank all those people who supported her this year in her quest to get sponsors exemptions as well as those tournaments who gave her a chance to play. She especially looks forward to playing in those tournaments in 2009. Also, she extends a special thank you to her sponsors and to her friends and family in Arkansas, Texas and around the country who have helped her along the way.
It wasn't all that long ago when she was wondering if she would ever be able to play golf again with a freshly implanted metal bar screwed into her back. Now, with the help and encouragement of a lot of people, she is not just playing golf again, but playing it at the highest level!
Spirit of a Fighter
Stacy's route to the top of the US Amateur rankings was not your typical golf journey. From the age of 11, Stacy wore a back brace for 7 1/2 years to correct curvature in her spine from Scoliosis. The only time that she took it off was to play golf. So, for 18 hours a day, she went to school in, ate in, and even slept in a back brace.
At 18, her dedication was rewarded when she was granted a golf scholarship by the University of Arkansas. But her joy proved to be short-lived, when she was informed by her doctor that after 7 1/2 years in the brace, it hadn't worked. The curvature in her spine was measured at more than 40 degrees and would require surgery. Stacy thought that she might never play golf again. She redshirted her freshman year at Arkansas, had her surgery, and after several months of near immobility and 6 months of rehab, she began slowly swinging a club again.
Demonstrating her great determination, Stacy soon earned her way unto the University of Arkansas women's golf team and in 2007, Stacy became the NCAA champion and the #1 amateur in the country.
Why is Stacy Lewis the Best Story in Women's Golf?
Stacy holding the Curtis Cup after posting a record of 5 wins & no losses and leading the US Team of amateurs to a win at the Old Course at St. Andrews (May 2008)
When Stacy decided to double major in finance and accounting at the University of Arkansas, she knew that it would be a heavy academic load to carry, especially while playing on the varsity golf team, but she knew that someday, it would pay off for her. Well, it has paid off a bit sooner than expected. On the eve of defending her Kraft Nabisco Championship title (March 28, 2012), Stacy announced her new sponsorship relationship with KPMG, one of the world's "big 4" audit, tax and advisory firms. Read the Press Release.
Attending the announcement, KPMG's Chairman & CEO, John Veihmeyer, made reference to the emergence of women in leadership roles in the business world and how a relationship with Stacy demonstrates KPMG's commitment to women amongst its clients and the KPMG family. The sponsorship also symbolized the recognition, by a global best-in-class company, that women's golf is on the move and that the LPGA platform is growing in its reach and importance to main stream sponsors. Also joining Stacy Lewis and John Veihmeyer on stage were LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, and Kraig Kann, the LPGA's Chief Communications Officer.
If you missed it, you can see both the website that was created for Stacy by KPMG as well as the TV commercial that ran during the Kraft Nabisco Championship at www.KPMG.com/Stacy.
Oh, and by the way, in her title defence of the KNC, Stacy made a heroic charge on Sunday, shooting 66 (that's 6 under par) in her final round to come within 2 strokes of the eventual winner!
Stacy's New Sponsor - Marathon Petroleum
Marathon Petroleum Corporation announced today that it has signed a sponsorship agreement with Stacy Lewis. The 26-year-old professional golfer is coming off a memorable 2011 season in which she captured her first major at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, had 12 top ten finishes and was ranked fourth on the LPGA money list. Read the entire Press Release.
Stacy's New Apparel Sponsor - Antigua
New season, new look! Stacy will be playing the 2012 season in a brand new apparel brand - Antigua. The Antigua Group is a leading designer and marketer of lifestyle apparel and sportswear under the "Antigua" label and can be found in the best golf courses and retailers around the country. Antigua also makes apparel under license from a number of pro leagues including the NBA, MLB and the NHL. Read the Press Release.
LEWIS' AMAZING 2011 SEASON AFFIRMS HER STATUS AS ONE OF THE WORLD'S BEST
The 2011 LPGA season is finally over and the year-end numbers speak for themselves.
All of the above translated into a magical season playing in 13 countries, participating in dozens of pro-ams, playing for her country in her first Solheim Cup, conducting hundreds of interviews, appearing on TV on multiple shows and signing thousands of autographs. And perhaps more importantly, her new elevated platform allowed to connect with and inspire thousands of more girls who have the same spinal condition (scoliosis) as her.
LEWIS IS #3 ON LPGA MONEY LIST
With the 2011 LPGA season drawing to a close, Stacy Lewis has clearly established herself as one of the very best golfers in the world. She has maintained her hold on the #3 position on the Money List for most of the season and is close to claiming bragging rights as the "best American player"!
Stacy has been quite busy off the course as well. She's appeared on the Golf Channel's Morning Drive, ESPN First Take, CNN International as well as in newspapers and magazines from Malaysia to Mexico to Toronto. She also appeared on another cover, this time on Lady Golfer, the leading golf magazine for women in the UK! She also found time to meet with and inspire scoliosis patients from Illinois to Malaysia! Stacy has even gone climbed into the Golf Channel broadcast booth to try her hand at commentary during the ShopRite LPGA Classic in June.
On the course, Stacy has turned in a total of 11 top 10's including two 2nd place finishes at the Evian Masters and the CN Canadian Women's Open. Stacy also achieved her goal of representing her country at the Solheim Cup.
In September, twelve of the best players from the United States travelled to Ireland to compete in the twelfth rendition of the biannually held event against the top 12 golfers from Europe. When it was all over, Europe came back in the last 30 minutes to win for only the 4th time in the event's history. Despite the loss by the American side, many considered this the most exciting Solheim Cup of all time. While it didn't end the way that Stacy would have wanted to end, it was every bit the experience that she thought it would be! To represent the United States under the most pressure packed situations is an honor and challenge that Stacy will look forward to every two years!
LEWIS WINS A "MAJOR"!!! - THE KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP
On April 3, the best story in golf got even better! In just her third year on tour, Stacy Lewis made her first LPGA tournament win a "major" by winning the prestigious Kraft Nabisco Championship! The Kraft Nabisco is the women's equivalent to the Masters, and Stacy made the traditional leap into Poppy's Pond after coming back from 2 strokes behind to overtake the #1 ranked player in the world and win by 3 strokes!
How big is this? Well, first, Stacy just moved to #3 on the LPGA Money List and #15 on the Rolex World Rankings. It also made Stacy a virtual lock to make the US Team for this year's Solheim Cup in September in Ireland! The last time she represented the US was at the Curtis Cup as an amateur at St. Andrews where Stacy went undefeated going 5 & 0. Could this portend more good things this year in the UK? And, Stacy has gotten herself on the covers of both GolfWEEK and GolfWORLD!
So, the updated version of Stacy's fascinating story. Diagnosed with scoliosis at 11, Stacy Lewis wore a back brace for 7+ years, 18 hours a day and only took it off to play golf, just to be told at the age of 18 that she had to have surgery to place a titanium rod and 5 screws her back. She thought she lost her scholarship only to have her gracious coach red-shirt her saving her a spot on the Arkansas team. She can barely lift a club for most of the year after surgery, but then comes back to win the NCAA Championship 2 years later. She then wins an LPGA event as an amateur only to be told it doesn't count because it was rain-shortened. Then she turns pro, almost wins her first pro tournament, the US Open, only to have the winnings NOT count toward qualifying for her LPGA Tour card. Undaunted, she goes to Q-school and ends up winning it but a certain 6 foot Hawaiian gets most of the attention. Then, after a disappointing rookie season and a steady but winless sophomore campaign, she goes to Africa to help AIDS affected orphans and comes back re-energized and not only wins the 1st major of the year, but does so with a heavy heart because her grandfather passes away before her first round! This story must be real because you can't make stuff like this up!
Stay close because this story is not only the best story in golf, now, Stacy Lewis is also one of the very best players in golf!
Read about this trip, along with all of the great articles about Stacy's Kraft Nabisco win in the "In The News" section of this site!
LEWIS CLIMBS INTO TOP 20 ON MONEY LIST
There has been no sophomore slump in 2010 for Stacy Lewis. With one tournament left to go in the season, Stacy has ascended to a place among the LPGA's elite players at #19 on the LPGA Tour Money List. She has done it with consistent play all year finishing in the top 20 twelve times. Stacy finished 2nd at the Tres Marias Championship in Mexico and 3rd at the Mizuno Classic in Japan, where she tied a course record by shooting 64 in the 2nd round. Talk about knowing how to make your sponsor happy! She has also finished in the top 20 in 3 of the 4 majors this year. All in all, it is clear that Stacy has become pretty comfortable out on tour now. So comfortable in fact that she just concluded a streak of 78 consecutive holes without a bogey, the longest such streak on the LPGA Tour this year. What is also clear is that she is knocking on the door to her first LPGA win!
So, with all of that golf and all of that travel nearly behind her this year, one would think that she is looking forward to relaxing at home after the LPGA Tour Championship wraps up the season on December 5th? Nope, not Stacy!. She will be leaving the next day on a 2 week mission to Africa, where she will help try to better the lives of HIV/AIDS affected orphans through an organization called Golf for Africa (www.GolfforAfrica.org) that was started by LPGA Hall of Famer, Betsy King.
Safe travels Stacy and congratulations on a great 2nd year on tour!
STACY'S SECOND YEAR ON TOUR
What a year it was for Stacy in 2009. From winning Q-school, playing as an LPGA rookie on incredible golf courses that she had never played before, to meeting some great people on tour, and traveling to Asia for the first time, Stacy had an adventurous and rewarding first year on tour. Off the course, she did some amazing things too including filming her first ever Public Service Announcement (PSA) on behalf of her charity, the Scoliosis Research Society which was seen on TV by over 50 million viewers. She was also honored to meet hundreds of brave, young scoliosis patients all over the US and even did a scoliosis awareness outreach visit to a hospital in Kobe, Japan! And this year, she is the subject of an episode of "Athlete 360" a series on Fox Sports which profiles professional athletes who have overcome debilitating injuries or medical conditions to thrive in their sports.
Even with these successes, one senses that for Stacy, there is a bit of a feeling of unfinished business. So, with a full year of LPGA experience under her belt, Stacy is determined to build upon the many great learning experiences from last year. She started her season by warming up at a pro Suncoast mini-tour event in Florida and won it, over a field of pros that included many LPGA stars. She then played the LPGA's first 2 tournaments in Thailand and Singapore and played well and followed that with 2 of the LET's (Ladies European Tour) most prestigious events in Australia. It was a good thing that she decided to go down under because she contended in both Aussie events and came away with an 8th place finish at the ANZ Ladies Masters and a 7th place finish at the Handa Women's Australian Open. This was against a stacked field full of LPGA, LET, JLPGA and KLPGA stars.
Stacy continued to play strongly at this year's first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she again contended early before finishing with another top 20 result! Then, in Mexico, the week of Lorena Ochoa's retirement announcement, Stacy shot a final round 66, while playing with Ochoa, to narrowly finish 2nd, one stroke behind winner Ai Miyazato. She has started the year off well and we are very excited to see how she does as the heart of the domestic LPGA Tour schedule approaches!
Stacy's Blog: All of the rookies on the LPGA Tour, have blogs so here's how to follow Stacy's journey during her rookie year. Go to the "Rookie Blog" section of www.lpga.com or go directly to Stacy's latest blog entry through this link:
http://www.lpga.com/entertainment_content.aspx?pid=20073
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JUNE IS SCOLIOSIS AWARENESS MONTH This spring, Stacy took on the role of being the celebrity spokesperson for the Scoliosis Research Society (http://www.srs.org), her new charity. The SRS is the largest organization of its kind devoted to supporting and funding research in spinal deformities. As a former scoliosis patient, Stacy wanted to find a way to facilitate the advancement of treatments for spinal conditions like scoliosis and to provide encouragement to those who are going through what she went through. So, Stacy shot a Public Service Announcement ("PSA") that is airing all around the country on various TV stations, and especially on the Golf Channel and ESPN2. |
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PLAYING ON TOUR & GIVING BACK After winning Q-school, Stacy has been busy getting acquainted with all of the new courses and the new routine as a full time touring pro on the LPGA Tour. She is finding out that playing on tour is not just about playing tournaments. It's also about engaging with fans and giving back, something Stacy is only too happy to do. So far, she has helped build a house in Williamsburg, Virginia for Habitat for Humanity and helped raise funds and awareness for sick children at the St. Judes golf outing in Springfield, IL. |
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CONGRATULATIONS STACY for WINNING Q-SCHOOL & earning your LPGA Tour Card!!!
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Amidst perhaps the strongest field ever to seek LPGA status, Stacy won the LPGA Qualifying Tournament by 3 strokes to earn one of the 20 full LPGA Tour membership spots for 2009. Now, she is considered one of the favorites in win the Rookie of the Year award next year. In order to do so, however, she is going to have to beat out a rookie class deeper than any that has ever played on the LPGA tour. Her competition includes Ji-Yai Shin (3 time LPGA winner in 2008 as a non-member), Vicky Hurst (4 time winner on the Duramed Futures Tour in 2008), Michelle Wie (former teen phenom), Mindy Kim (3 time winner on the Duramed Futures Tour in 2008) Japan's Shiho Oyama (multiple winner on the Japanese LPGA tour) and Amy Yang (19 year old 2 time LET winner) among others. But, so far for Stacy Lewis, success in life and in golf has never come via the easiest route. Why would this be any different? |
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So, with that mindset, Stacy is set to take on her next big challenge and earn her spot at the top of the 2009 LPGA Tour rookie class and maybe even earn her way unto the US Solheim Cup team! She also wants to thank all those people who supported her this year in her quest to get sponsors exemptions as well as those tournaments who gave her a chance to play. She especially looks forward to playing in those tournaments in 2009. Also, she extends a special thank you to her sponsors and to her friends and family in Arkansas, Texas and around the country who have helped her along the way.
It wasn't all that long ago when she was wondering if she would ever be able to play golf again with a freshly implanted metal bar screwed into her back. Now, with the help and encouragement of a lot of people, she is not just playing golf again, but playing it at the highest level!
Spirit of a Fighter
Stacy's route to the top of the US Amateur rankings was not your typical golf journey. From the age of 11, Stacy wore a back brace for 7 1/2 years to correct curvature in her spine from Scoliosis. The only time that she took it off was to play golf. So, for 18 hours a day, she went to school in, ate in, and even slept in a back brace.
At 18, her dedication was rewarded when she was granted a golf scholarship by the University of Arkansas. But her joy proved to be short-lived, when she was informed by her doctor that after 7 1/2 years in the brace, it hadn't worked. The curvature in her spine was measured at more than 40 degrees and would require surgery. Stacy thought that she might never play golf again. She redshirted her freshman year at Arkansas, had her surgery, and after several months of near immobility and 6 months of rehab, she began slowly swinging a club again.
Demonstrating her great determination, Stacy soon earned her way unto the University of Arkansas women's golf team and in 2007, Stacy became the NCAA champion and the #1 amateur in the country.
Why is Stacy Lewis the Best Story in Women's Golf?
Stacy holding the Curtis Cup after posting a record of 5 wins & no losses and leading the US Team of amateurs to a win at the Old Course at St. Andrews (May 2008)
