For a woman who likes to play her golf briskly, it took a while for Stacy Lewis to grab LPGA career win No. 13. Nearly three years to be precise. A lot has happened to the 35-year-old former World No. 1 between her victory at the 2017 Cambia Portland Classic and her triumph Sunday at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open. Most notably, she and her husband, University of Houston women’s golf coach Gerrod Chadwell, welcomed their first child, Chesnee, in 2018.
“It’s amazing,” Lewis said of winning for the first time as a mom. “The only disappointing thing is that she’s not here to take a picture with this [the trophy], but I have been trying to get a trophy from the day she was born. That’s been my goal. I just called them, got to FaceTime with them. My husband said she was hitting the TV screen with her plastic golf clubs when I made that putt. So it’s just pretty cool. I can’t wait to get home with them in a week or so and celebrate.”
Lewis shot a one-over 72 in the final round for a five-under 279 total at Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, then made 23-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to the pars of Azhahara Munoz, Cheyenne Knight and Emily Pedersen to claim the title. The win came with its own milestone: The $225,000 first-place prize puts Lewis’ career earnings past the $13 million, making her just the eighth player in LPGA history to reach the mark.
Heading into Sunday, Lewis was nervous about what lay ahead. Pace of play from her group on Saturday, which included Munoz and Jennifer Song, was troublesome for Lewis, who was worried that it would mess with her rhythm. And yet she was paired with both again on Sunday.
“Honestly,” Lewis said after her third round, sitting one shot back of Munoz in second place, “my biggest challenge is to figure out with that pace of play how I can get into a good rhythm and how to keep myself in a rhythm of playing golf and not feeling like you’re waiting so long in between holes and shots and different things.”
Lewis’ worries proved warranted as pace of play was an issue again in the fourth round (it took the group five hours and 20 minutes to complete 18 holes). They was put on the clock on the 11th hole, and Lewis made double bogey on the 11th, her only double of the tournament, that offset two early birdies in the round.
However, Lewis focused on what she could control and was able to regain her rhythm and played the last seven holes even par.
To deal with the situation, she made a promise with herself to not bring it up with her caddie. By not talking about it, she hoped she wouldn’t think about it as much.
“I stayed more in a rhythm of my game and kind of the way I was thinking about shots,” Lewis said. “I knew that was going to be the biggest challenge of the day, and overall, I felt like I did a really good job with it.”
While excited about her victory (her first in a playoff after going 0-3 in her three previous tries), Lewis is thinking about more than her own rhythm when she verbalizes her concerns about slow play. She’s trying to help the tour overall. “I do think an effort needs to be made across the board to play faster, because obviously I wasn’t watching it on TV, but I’m sure it couldn’t have been fun to watch on TV,” Lewis said.
It was fun, however, for Lewis to be a winner again. Suffice to say, Lewis hopes career win No. 14 will come a tad bit quicker than No. 13.