The post Pods, putting and personality tests: Captain Stacy Lewis outlines Solheim Cup vision appeared first on Golf.

The post Pods, putting and personality tests: Captain Stacy Lewis outlines Solheim Cup vision appeared first on Golf.

The LPGA Tour announced on Wednesday that Stacy Lewis will be leading Team USA at the 2023 Solheim Cup in Spain — which means the countdown Spain can officially begin.

Lewis, 36, brings plenty of experience to the table in the biennial event, contributing as an assistant captain in two competitions and playing in another four. But how will her version of Team USA look as she takes on the role of captain? Here’s what we learned from her first press availability following the announcement.

It’s all about the environment

First and foremost, Lewis said she wants to create an environment that is positive to set up her team for success.

“I want to create a really positive, fun environment where the girls can be successful,” Lewis said.

How does one create that environment? Lewis hinted at accommodating varying practice schedules that match the various personalities on the team, creating more downtime during the hectic week of competition, and administering personality tests to get a sense for the disposition of every team member.

“Most importantly I want these girls to have fun,” she said. “I want it to be a week that they leave there saying, ‘This was the best week of my life.'”

Pods are here to stay

The 2021 Solheim Cup featured captain Pat Hurst implementing a “pod” system to place her players into groups so that the appropriate personalities could team up during the week. That system will once again make an appearance under captain Lewis — with some tweaks.

“I’m going to keep the concept of [pods],” Lewis said. “It definitely works because I do think personality-wise it can be tough at times. But I do need to figure out a way to have some more flexibility with the pairings. It’ll be similar, but it’ll also be a little bit different.

“It kind of goes back to communicating with the players and making sure they know what to expect as far as who they could possibly play with, but I just felt like especially last year, we didn’t have a whole lot of options with our pairings as things kind of started to happen, so that’s going to be something that I kind of work on over the next couple months.”

A playing-captaincy is not out of the question

While rare these days, there are instances in which captains of team events shed the headset and call their own number to suit up (see: Tiger Woods at the 2019 Presidents Cup). At just 36 years old, and with her most recent win coming in 2020, Lewis fits the profile of someone who could be a playing captain. But while her skill-level might fit that profile, Lewis declined to provide a direct answer as to if that possibility is in play.

“I’m not going to say yes or no either way right now,” Lewis said. “If it gets to sometime next summer and my name is still on that points list and I’m in the mix and my team — if I need to build the best team possible and my name is a part of that, then I’ll do it.

“But it’s just going to be a conversation to have with my assistants,” she continued. “If they feel that that’s the right move to make for the team, because I also want to be able to be there for the girls during the event, as well. It’s not a conversation right now, but hopefully I keep playing well and it is a conversation we have to have.”

2021 Solheim Cuppers will (likely) be back

Team USA had a historically strong team heading to Toledo last fall, but all that theoretical firepower still fell short. However, Lewis is still confident most of the players from that squad are in line to make the 2023 team.

“I see the team probably looking pretty similar to Toledo,” Lewis said. “Those players are gaining more experience, and that’s what I think I didn’t realize at Toledo until we were sitting at opening ceremonies was how little experience we really had as a team.”

PGA Tour support is welcome

Bubba Watson generated tons of buzz in Toledo as he was on hand as an unofficial assistant captain for Pat Hurst’s squad. Lewis mentioned she’d welcome the support of men’s players once again, but the team room will be more tight-knit.

“I’d like to get [men’s players involved] as far as having them send videos to the girls and let the girls know that they’re supporting them and things like that,” Lewis said. “Whether they need to be there in the team room, I don’t know about because I really want the team to be those girls, their caddies, their significant others — that’s our team. And I really want them to take ownership of it. But I would love the support of the PGA Tour players.”

Putting will be at a premium

While Team USA has lost the last two Solheim Cups, they’ve still been in it until the very end. In both cases, the Cup has gone to the side that makes more pressure-packed putts. For that reason Lewis is looking for players who can come up clutch in nervy situations.

“It comes down to making putts,” Lewis said. “We didn’t do enough of that at Inverness. That’s what I talked about, being in these last groups and learning how to handle the pressure and the emotions of it. That’s really what the putting comes down to.”

Team USA needs winners

How do you learn how to make putts under the gun? You do it over and over again. And the only way to feel that pressure is to be in contention. Lewis wants players who have won before and know how to get the ball in the hole in big moments.

“You look at your best clutch putters over time, they have a lot of experience winning golf tournaments,” Lewis said. “They’re putting themselves in contention. They’re giving themselves opportunities to win. I look at last year’s European team, and as a team, they had a lot of wins. Whether it be LPGA or LET, they had won a lot more golf tournaments than our team. A lot can be said about having that experience and knowing what that feels like.”

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The post Team USA names Stacy Lewis as Solheim Cup captain for 2023 appeared first on Golf.

The post Team USA names Stacy Lewis as Solheim Cup captain for 2023 appeared first on Golf.

Stacy Lewis is among the most decorated American players in women’s golf of her generation, and soon, she’ll have a chance to add to that legacy. On Wednesday, Lewis was named as the Solheim Cup captain for Team USA in the upcoming competition to be held in Andalucía, Spain.

Lewis will lead the American side at Finca Cortesín Golf Club as Team USA looks to win the match for the first time since 2017. The 36-year-old has served as an assistant captain for the last two Solheim Cups.

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“To be named captain for the USA Solheim Cup Team is an incredible honor and I’m beyond grateful to the Committee for choosing me,” Lewis said. “I have so many amazing memories from my years on the team and the two opportunities I’ve had to work alongside the team. I absolutely love the Solheim Cup and I want 2023 to be as great an experience for my team as my years wearing Red, White and Blue have been for me.”

The two-time major champ follows in the footsteps of Pat Hurst, who led the Red, White and Blue at Inverness Club last summer as Team USA fell 15-13 to the European side.

Lewis appeared in four Solheim Cups as a player (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) and two as an assistant captain (2019, 2021). Her career Solheim Cup record in 16 matches sits at 5–10–1.

“I have learned so much from the past captains on the Solheim Cup Committee, and the fact that they chose me to lead this team is one of the proudest moments of my career,” she said. “I’m more than ready to step into this role.”

The 2023 Solheim Cup is scheduled to be played in Andalucía, Spain from Sept. 18-24, 2023.

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The post Defending champ Stacy Lewis returns to Women’s Scottish Open — and doubles down on slow play appeared first on Golf.

The post Defending champ Stacy Lewis returns to Women’s Scottish Open — and doubles down on slow play appeared first on Golf.

Stacy Lewis is back in Scotland and preparing to defend her Women’s Scottish Open title, where she emerged from a four-way playoff to win last summer. But ending a lengthy winless drought wasn’t the only thing on her mind that night. In her winner’s press conference, she voiced her displeasure with the pace of play. It took the final threesome 5 hours and 16 minutes to play the fourth round.

“It shouldn’t take that long to play,” Lewis said that night. “I knew it was going to; that’s the sad part, you know it’s going to take that long. 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. There’s just so much the announcers, that they can talk about to fill time.”

Now, one year later, Lewis is back. And of course that touchy slow-play subject was brought up once again when she spoke with the media on Wednesday. “Has the pace improved in the last 12 months?” she was asked.

“No, probably not,” Lewis said. “… But people are paying attention. Our officials have gotten on to people a little bit more. I know there’s been more fines and more penalties have been given out over the last year. Maybe it’s gotten a little bit better.”

Asked how she would fix slow play, Lewis said she’d like to see more spot-timing and penalty strokes, not just fines.

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“They have implemented a policy this year where you can be timed when you’re not out of position if an official happens to be there, and if you’re over, it’s just a fine right now,” she said. “But I would like to see if an official is there and you take too long, you should get shots. I mean, I would honestly like to see that. Because I think as a tour, we need to make this game more enjoyable, make it more fun to watch. You know, it’s just I think with Covid and all that, we could potentially be losing people coming to tournaments, losing eyeballs watching us, and I would like to see us be on the forefront of making the game faster and making it more fun.”

Lewis said she played her Wednesday pro-am round with a member at nearby Crail, who told her their club policy is three hours for a round.

“That’s how the game should be played,” Lewis said “It’s enjoyable, you can take three or four hours out of your day and you can go do whatever else you need to do. Where now, you’re literally spending half of your day at the golf course, and not a lot of people have time for that.”

While it might not be completely noticeable to some, there has seemed to be more of a watchful eye on slow play over the past year, even in crucial moments.

At the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in October 2020, Klara Spilkova received a two-stroke penalty for violating the slow-play policy and missed out on some cash. More recently, at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play in May, Carlota Ciganda birdied the 18th hole to seemingly beat Sarah Schmelzel 1 up, but after the match Ciganda was told she had been assessed a slow-play penalty on the 18th, which meant she lost the hole and the match.

“It is harsh, and it looks harsh to the media and everybody on the outside,” Lewis said. “But I do think we need that. Because you start playing with shots, that affects where you are on the leaderboard, affects how much money you’re making, it affects your status at the end of the year. That affect things a lot more than a $1,000 fine does ultimately. I’m okay with it and I’d like to see more of it.”

The Women’s Scottish Open is Thursday to Sunday at Dumbarnie Links in Fife, Scotland. Lewis is grouped with Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul for the first two rounds.

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The post Players air frustrations after muddy third round at U.S. Women’s Open appeared first on Golf.

The post Players air frustrations after muddy third round at U.S. Women’s Open appeared first on Golf.

HOUSTON — “Brutal” and “crazy.” Those were just a couple of words players used to describe the conditions in the third round of the 75th U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club.

After heavy rains on Friday, course conditions were soggy throughout the day Saturday as players tried to make their way up the leaderboard to put themselves in position for the final round. But with a long, wet course and no shortage of mud balls, most players were unable to make nearly enough birdies to make a move.

“Between the three of us we probably had six mud balls apiece out there, and they definitely affected shots,” said Cristie Kerr, who shot a third-round 74 and now sits five shots behind Hinaku Shibuno’s lead heading into Sunday. “It was pretty muddy out there.”

At most LPGA events, saturated conditions can result in preferred lies — also known as lift, clean and place — but in a major championship this ruling is rarely implemented.

Players largely lauded the setup during the first two rounds of this two-course championship, crediting the USGA for preparing the Cypress and Jackrabbit courses evenly without giving players on one course too much of an advantage. But at least some of that goodwill took a hit during the third round.

“[The mud] was an extreme issue,” said Lindsey Weaver, who shot a four-over 75 on Saturday and, at two over, is now six off the lead. “I’ve never played golf having this many mud balls. I didn’t even know what to expect … Sometimes it was a major factor, and sometimes it was okay, but it was brutal. Really, really brutal.”

After relatively benign conditions in the first two rounds, a cool, breezy and damp third round caused scores to soar. Just two players broke par on the Cypress Creek course, and the scoring average was a meaty 74.7 — nearly a full stroke harder than on Friday.

U.S. Opens are not meant to be easy, but with an already lengthy course and tucked pins, mud balls made birdies a rarity.

“In a way, it was hit it and hope,” said Sarah Schmelzel who played alongside Kerr and shot a third-round 76, which included four bogeys and a double. “It’s out of your control — it’s just luck what can happen to it.”

Schmelzel added that the demanding set-up was also a missed marketing opportunity, as the women’s game has the stage to itself this week with the PGA Tour off. The conditions, Schmelzel said, didn’t allow the players to showcase their best stuff.

“I think women’s golf deserves to be highlighted a little bit better than that,” Schmelzel said. “We want to see good shots on TV. We want our coverage to be fun for viewers. From my experience, and the experience of the girls in my group, it might not have been the most fair.”

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Houston resident and Champions member Stacy Lewis shared a similar sentiment. Although Lewis has more experience than most players in the field on the Cypress Creek course, she struggled to a six-over 77, all but guaranteeing that she won’t win her first U.S. Women’s Open on Sunday.

Lewis appeared upset after the round and spent nearly an hour on the range as dusk settled in.

“We get on network TV, we get on this big stage — there’s no other golf events going on — you want us to look good on TV more than anything,” Lewis said. “Either they need to play the ball up or they need to adjust their setup. Mud balls combined with the way they set the golf course up today set us up for long rounds and bad golf.”

Hope as some of players may for preferred lies in the final round, historical precedent suggests that won’t happen. But with more messiness in the forecast for Sunday, the problem isn’t likely to go away, either.

“It’ll be interesting with the rain coming tomorrow,” Kerr said. “ [I] doubt the USGA will play it up, but they should consider it.”

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The post Here are five of the best performances from the LPGA in the last decade appeared first on Golf.

The post Here are five of the best performances from the LPGA in the last decade appeared first on Golf.

While the LPGA Tour is currently in full swing — and two majors arriving in the next six weeks — it’s never a bad time to reminisce, and look back at some of the most historic and memorable performances from past events. Even within the past decade, the LPGA has seen scintillating performances from youngsters, epic return-to-form performances from the best players in the game, and heart-wrenching and unexpected retirements. Here are five of the best individual performances from the past 10 years on the LPGA Tour.

1. Suzann Pettersen walk-off victory at the 2019 Solheim Cup

At 38 years of age, mother to a toddler, and having played in only three stroke-play events in the previous two years, Suzann Petterson may have appeared to be an unusual pick to lead the European Solheim Cup team.

Almost as if in a movie, the entire event rested on Pettersen’s shoulders: the score was 18-18, and Pettersen’s American opponent Marina Alex had barely missed her putt for birdie. Pettersen stepped up to her putt and absolutely sank it. However, the most shocking moment happened after the match-winning putt; it was when Pettersen announced she was retiring from golf.

“Now I know what it feels like to win as a mom,” she said. “I’m going to leave it like that.”

2. Lexi Thompson wins the Navistar LPGA Classic at 16

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With her win at the Navistar LPGA Classic in 2011, Lexi Thompson became the youngest champion ever on the LPGA Tour. However, this win wasn’t a surprise to many who had previously followed her achievements; at 15, she placed T-10 at the U.S Women’s Open. Since then, Thompson has become a staple in the women’s game, and while she is still chasing her second major victory, she has 11 Tour wins under her belt.

3. Stacy Lewis donates victory money to hurricane relief

Stacy Lewis’ win at the LPGA Cambia Portland Classic in 2017 was more than a victory to her; it was a long-awaited return to form, and an opportunity to give back to her community. At that point in 2017, the two-time LPGA major champion had been winless since 2014. However, more important to her, was what she could do with the $195,000 winners check. Lewis donated the entirety of her winnings to relief efforts for the devastation that Hurricane Harvey left in her home state of Texas.

4. Michelle Wie’s epic win in Singapore

Michelle Wie has been a phenom her entire career; at 10, she was the youngest person to qualify for a USGA amateur championship. Turning pro at just 16, her hype was astronomical. She won the U.S Women’s Open in 2014. Then, four years later, Wie was still searching for that next victory. It finally came, in 2018, at the Women’s World Championship in Singapore. Wie drilled an epic putt — a 35-footer for birdie from off the green on the 72nd hole — which cemented her victory. Wie calls it the best putt of her career.

5. Sophia Popov’s improbable 2020 Women’s Open victory

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While Sophia Popov’s victory at the 2020 Women’s Open is the most recent victory on our ranking, the list could not be complete without it. What Popov accomplished — win a major while ranked outside the top 300 — has only been done twice in this history of the sport. Popov, who primarily plays on the LPGA’s developmental tour, was one of only four golfers to finish the event under par.

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The post Stephan Jaeger closes in on history and 2 other stories you might’ve missed appeared first on Golf.

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Tyler Strafaci and Jim Herman nabbed the headlines last week with their respective unlikely wins, but there were other storylines happening in golf. Here are three stories you might’ve missed.

Stacy Lewis nabs lucky No. 13

Stacy Lewis claimed her 13th career LPGA Tour title Sunday as she won the Laddies Scottish Open in a four-person playoff. The win is the first in nearly three years for the former World No. 1. But it didn’t come without its challenges. Being grouped with Azahara Munoz and Jennifer Song during the final round, the pace of play was so slow that Lewis resorted to singing songs to herself in between shots to keep her mind occupied.

“I think having a kid has brought me some more patience,” said Lewis, who has an infant daughter, Chesnee, at home. “The patience was tested today. There were moments there on the back nine where I wanted to go at pins but knew I couldn’t. So I just — I really just tried to wait for my opportunity and just kept hanging in there.”

The playoff win is the first in Lewis’ career. She owned an 0-3 record in extra holes previously.

Stephan Jaeger closes in on history

Stephan Jaeger made history on the Korn Ferry Tour last weekend as he won the Albertsons Boise Open, his fifth career title on the PGA Tour’s top development circuit. The win makes him the 13th person to earn five wins on the KFT and puts him two wins behind Jason Gore’s all-time record of seven.

“Obviously I was on [the PGA] Tour last year and I want to win one of those,” Jaeger said. “But I’m on the Korn Ferry Tour this year so I’m going to try and win as many as I can by next August.”

While Jaeger has just 11 top 10s in his career, he’s been stellar converting when in contention. And that conversion percentage will have to stay high if he hopes to catch Gore and pen yet another entry in the KFT record book. Jaeger also owns the 72-hole scoring record (30-under 250) and single-round scoring record (58).

With the win, Jaeger has also positioned himself well to secure one of five U.S. Open exemptions up for grabs during the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Championship Series.

“It would be awesome to play in the U.S. Open because I could see Jason Gore and try to beat his record,” Jaeger joked. “Playing in the U.S. Open would be great, but it’s kind of icing on the cake after this win.”

Kirk Triplett shows support for Black Lives Matter movement

Kirk Triplett had a new insignia on his bag at the Senior Players Championship with a simple message — Black Lives Matter. With the message on his bag, Triplett became the first Tour player to openly support the social justice movement on their clothing or bag.

For Triplett, who has a Black son, the movement is personal. He felt it was important to share the message.

“This seems like a good venue where maybe this message maybe doesn’t get spread as much,” Triplett said. “That’s a conversation that I think for people around golf, it just doesn’t hit home.”

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The post Stacy Lewis sounds off on slow play at Ladies Scottish Open appeared first on Golf.

The post Stacy Lewis sounds off on slow play at Ladies Scottish Open appeared first on Golf.

Stacy Lewis claimed her 13th career LPGA win at the Ladies Scottish Open on Sunday, but the thrill of victory didn’t stop her from calling out her playing partners for what she believed was excessively slow play.

Lewis was grouped with Azahara Munoz and Jennifer Song for both Saturday’s third round and Sunday’s final round and said she had a hard time staying in rhythm, even throughout Round 3.

“I think the biggest challenge for me [going into the final round] is staying in what I’m doing,” Lewis said after her third round. “The pace of play is dreadfully slow, and that doesn’t play into my favor. People I’m playing with are pretty slow. So that’s honestly going to be 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.”

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Lewis fired a one-over 72 on Sunday to get into a four-way playoff with Munoz, Cheyenne Knight and Emily Kristine Pedersen. Lewis eventually triumphed by draining a 23-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.

But the thrill of her first victory since 2017 didn’t dampen her continuing disdain for the slow playing conditions, which she said she tried to plan for ahead of her final round.

“We really had a good plan for the golf course itself,” Lewis said. “I told [my caddie] on the second tee, I said, ‘I’m not allowed to complain once about the pace of play.’ So I didn’t allow myself — I didn’t allow it to affect me. I was singing songs in my head, just getting away from everything, just trying to pass the time. So I’m just really proud of the way I handled that.”

Lewis’ group played the final round in five hours and 16 minutes as a threesome.

“It shouldn’t take that long to play,” Lewis said. “I knew it was going to; that’s the sad part, you know it’s going to take that long. 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. There’s just so much the announcers, that they can talk about to fill time.

“I’ve been an advocate for changing our pace of play, getting people to play faster for a long time, and we’re still going the other way unfortunately.”

Lewis also has some ideas regarding what should be done to combat slow play in the future.

“I would like to see it be penalties instead of fines,” she said. “I think it needs to be aggressive. I think it needs to change because we’re going — we’re going in the wrong direction.”

Lewis is heading to Royal Troon this week to compete in the AIG Women’s Open, where she hopes to claim her third career major championship, and second Women’s Open.

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The post Stacy Lewis withdraws from Solheim Cup with back injury, replaced by Ally McDonald appeared first on Golf.

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Everything you need to know about this week’s Solheim Cup

Inkster was aware of Lewis’ backs issues and made sure McDonald, the team’s first alternate, arrived with the team on Sunday instead of coming on Wednesday as originally planned. Inkster and Lewis decided Lewis needed to make a call if she was going to play or not by Tuesday, since alternates aren’t allowed to play practice rounds.

Lewis said this WD ranks “pretty high” in terms of career disappointments. “I’ve had time to process it and the team’s been super supportive,” Lewis said. “The girls have been great. They’ve helped me a lot through it. It’s just really, really disappointing because this is my favorite tournament we have. And that first tee, there’s nothing like it. So I’m just disappointed I don’t get to hit that shot. But I’ll be watching.”

With McDonald on board, the Americans now have six rookies on their 12-player roster. The opening day of the Solheim Cup is Friday at Gleneagles in Scotland.

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The post Stacy Lewis: Inspire Greatness appeared first on Golf.

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The LPGA star discusses her evolution of becoming a role model and her love of charity.

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