Stacy Lewis, a two-time major winner on the LPGA Tour, knows there’s more to life than golf – now, perhaps, more than ever.
But that doesn’t mean she still isn’t as focused to try to win another major championship this week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
“The golf course is good for me. I actually really like it,” said Lewis, whose daughter Chesnee was bopping around the golf course on Wednesday. “I played with a member yesterday in the pro-am and they've been hitting off mats for two months to get ready for us, and I can't recall another tournament that's done that for us before."
“It just makes you feel like they want us here and they want us to be here. They want to show this place off. I just feel really welcomed this week.”
On Wednesday Lewis’ #DriveOn story was released, part of a collection of digital content videos by the LPGA Tour wrapped in the off-course successes, struggles, and stories of some of the best golfers in the world. Lewis’ story was a letter to her daughter.
“I’ve always been a fighter,” Lewis starts the video by saying. “That’s why I endured six-and-a-half years in a back brace and a painful surgery to still become the best in the world. Now I fight for something bigger. I fight for all the working moms who want to show their kids you don’t have to choose between your family and your career.
“And I fight for my daughter so then she can see you’re never wrong to fight for what’s right.”
Lewis said the crux of her involvement in the campaign was the hope that in 20-30 years the conversations about inequalities in the workplace or in sports aren’t happening anymore.
“I've always been the person to ask why, why do we make less money than the guys? Why don't we get on better golf courses? Why? If somebody can give me a legitimate reason, then OK, but let's make things better across the board and continue to push the envelope, push the bar,” said Lewis.
“It's just everything I do now is for Chesnee, and I hope when she's older, she sees what I did as far as just having her while I was still playing.”
So far this season Lewis has played very solid – having missed no cuts all year – but has just two top-10 results. Still, that steady play will hopefully be rewarded this week at a tough major venue in Atlanta Athletic Club.
She said she’s been trying to get better off the tee the last few weeks. This week, specifically, she said she was trying to tighten things up on the greens.
“The last few weeks I’ve had two good days or three good days and just haven’t put four days together yet,” she said. “That’s really the goal this week is to try to put four good days together and see what happens.”
But regardless of Lewis’ result on Sunday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, she should – thanks to her message to the other working moms out there – absolutely be considered a winner already.
“It's just fun to be together as a family,” Lewis said of having her daughter around this week, “and still be able to do what I love.”
