ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Stacy Lewis is back sitting at the top table of the media room, answering a belated question from someone too shy to shout over the gusts of wind during the press conference. Her five-year-old daughter Chesnee wants to know if she can get a swimming pool — “a big one” — if her mum wins here, as she did in 2013.
Advertisement “I think I might be able to sort you out, girlie,” says Lewis. Eleven years have passed since the Texan shot birdie-birdie on the final two holes to clinch the Women’s Open by two shots. The second shot into 17 remains the best of her career, so much so that the 5-iron is the only club she has kept for her office.
But in that time, as motherhood has usurped golf in her list of priorities and made her less tunnel-visioned, the demands of the LPGA Tour have become even more all-consuming. This year’s tour started with two Florida events and ends with another three in the Sunshine State. The intervening 10 months? A map of tangled zig-zags across the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia that would not look out of place in Chesnee’s school jotter.
This week’s Open is the fifth major in as many months, not including the Olympic Games at France’s Le Golf National earlier this month. St. Andrews closes the majors season, but with the Solheim Cup in September and another Pacific leg this fall visiting China, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and Hawaii in the space of just 35 days, the schedule is rammed and not ending.