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KIA CLASSICMarch 25, 2015Stacy LewisCARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA Q. Good afternoon, I'd like to welcome Stacy Lewis and Marley Franklin into the interview room. Stacy, this week you have a very special guest here with you this week. Can you tell us a little bit about Marley and why she's here? STACY LEWIS: Yeah. Marley and I met last fall on "The Doctors," the TV show, and before the TV show, they got in contact with me, and I found out that Marley chose me as one of her favorite players; and they got in contact with me, and we actually talked a little bit over Skype on the show. And my sponsor sent her a few things, and I also invited her to come to this tournament for the week. So I'm hosting her and her family. And she played in the pro am with me today.  She walked around the practice round with me yesterday, the pro am party. Been pretty busy these last couple days. THE MODERATOR: Now, Marley, why is Stacy your favorite player? MARLEY FRANKLIN: I just know we both love the game and we both enjoy it a lot, and we just kind of like connect. Q. How excited were you to actually see her on TV at the show of "The Doctors" and then finally get to meet her in person? STACY LEWIS: I was shocked. It was cool. I said mom, she's talking to me. And then after she brought up the bag, I almost started crying. Q. Well, you brought up the bag. You used it today, didn't you? Did it help you play any better? MARLEY FRANKLIN: Yes, a lot. Q. How long have you been playing? MARLEY FRANKLIN: Two years. Q. Two years. Stacy, you got to watch her a little bit today. How would you critique her game? STACY LEWIS: Well, after two years, I can tell you she is right on her way. Great golf swing, swings on the other side of the plate, which is always good. We always need some lefties out here on tour, so I think if she keeps on the track that she's going, I think she'll be up here doing these interviews every single week. Q. And Marley, how important is golf to you? How often do you play, and do you really love the game? MARLEY FRANKLIN: Well, golf is very important to me. I love how it just makes me feel. I play almost like every day, kind of. So it's like an every day thing for me. Q. And is golf important to your family, too? Do any other family members play? MARLEY FRANKLIN: I'm the only person in my family that plays, but my sister, Maya is going to start playing. Q. Now, your sister, Maya donated some bone marrow to you, didn't she? MARLEY FRANKLIN: Yes. Q. And do you think that you inspire her to play now? MARLEY FRANKLIN: Yes, a lot. But she watched me. Sometimes she'll mimic me putt, and she'll be like, I made it. I'm going to beat sissy some day. Q. So overall today did you have a lot of fun? MARLEY FRANKLIN: Yes. A lot. Q. And do you think you played best in the pro am group out of everyone? MARLEY FRANKLIN: Yes. Q. And we should say that Marley's pro am group is currently tied for the lead in the pro am. So congratulations? STACY LEWIS: Yes. That's no surprise. We kind of all figured that was going to happen. Q. Well, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. STACY LEWIS: Thank you. MARLEY FRANKLIN: You're welcome. Q. So Stacy, you've talked about how you tried to swing a little flatter, but felt like it was getting stuck and couldn't swing that way. STACY LEWIS: Yes. Q. When did you start that change and what was the impetus for that? STACY LEWIS: It kind of started‑‑ just me and my swing coach talking in the off season. We were just kind of talking about what we worked on last year, what went right, what didn't, and we just found the flatter we tried to get my swing, the more the club essentially got behind me instead of being flatter and when the club is behind you, then you're fighting it all the way down, so it was really kind of us talking about it and just figuring out where we wanted to go for the next year. Q. Flatter swings are kind of becoming the rage where it seems like everyone is working on swinging flatter. Why do you think that is? STACY LEWIS: I think everybody‑‑ you know, you have this ideal image of what the golf club, what position it should be in at the top, which you should, but to an extent, you know, everybody's body is a little bit different, and I think when I try to get flatter with it, whether it's the way my back is or with the surgery or just the way I am in general, my hands are just going to always be naturally higher. And I played some of my best golf with my hands a little bit high, so it was kind of looking back at what had worked in the past and just figuring out how to really get back to that again. Q. Tiger's swing became flatter over the years, and he gets stuck in that position that you've talked about, that the ball goes bad right on his misses. Do you see any similarities there at all? STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I think you can definitely look at that. I think the problem with the flat swing is if you go hard at it with your body, it's stuck behind you. So a flat swing can work in you're not trying to go hard at it, which Tiger likes to swing hard. I like to go hard with my body at the ball, so really just, I mean, putting it in a position where you can swing at it and go hard. That's something that I like to do on the golf course. And so I don't know, I think everybody's swings are different. Everybody is going to try different things that are going to make it work, but if you can keep it may be just kind of in a range at the top of the back swing, I think you're in a good spot. Q. When did you start to work on getting back to the earlier swing, and with three executive top 3s, is it target to feel like it's working? STACY LEWIS: It started just in the off season, really kind of in January when I got back to work again after taking some time off. And a lot of the work was just on the take away, making sure the club stayed outside my hands because once it gets to the top it's in a good spot. So it took a little while. Ocala was a little bit rough, wasn't quite trusting it, but definitely the last few weeks it's gotten better, and now it's just kind of fine tuning and making sure the timing is good, but we're definitely working in the right direction. That's something that Joe and I have texted to each other multiple times the last few weeks, even when I finished second or third, we're going in the right direction, so it's not too disappointing. Q. Stacy, why is it important for you to not only support, but help develop a project like the All‑Star Invitational? STACY LEWIS: Well, you know, this event has been a long time coming, I think. You know, I've had an AJGA event these last couple of years, an open Invitational, and I just kind of figured I wanted to do something a little different, something that was more on line with things that I support, my initiatives, and that's to develop women leaders, and so we're trying to get the kids a little bit younger, get them more comfortable playing with the boys, that's kind of the whole objective of it, and to do something a little different for the kids. They play a lot of stroke play events throughout the year, and they'll be playing for their team, and I think everybody will be fighting hard. We have some cool belt buckles for the winners so it's going to be a really fun event. Q. What do you hope the young athletes take away from this experience? STACY LEWIS: I really hope the kids just have fun with it more than anything. It'll definitely be different. The boys and the girls aren't used to playing with each other at all. We never see the guys on the PGA TOUR at all, and I think that's something that should change. I think we should all be playing together, be playing‑‑ not every week, but playing some similar tournaments, and just to show that women can play with the men, whether it's at a junior tournament or the professional level or just playing with your buddies. There's plenty of pro ams where we don't have enough women playing. Q. Are you hopeful that other sports will view this as a model where young male and female athletes compete and develop programs of this kind across the country? STACY LEWIS: I think if you look across different sports, you look at tennis, they already have this. You know, they have the men and women competing at the majors together and at the junior level. So I think for golf this has been a long time coming, and I think it's something that is going to go over to other sports as well. But we've needed this for a while, and I'm just interested to see how it all plays out.  I'll definitely be cheering for the girls, but it'll be a lot of fun. Q. Great. Thank you so much, Stacy. STACY LEWIS: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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