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SWINGING SKIRTS LPGA CLASSIC PRESENTED BY CTBCApril 22, 2015Stacy LewisSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA MODERATOR: Happy to be joined in the media center by Stacy Lewis here at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic. Stace, runner‑up at this event last year. What do you like about the golf course at Lake Merced? STACY LEWIS: I like the challenge of the place. It's a hard golf course. It's one you really have to kind of play smart and miss it in the right places. So I like the challenge of it. I think it's one of the best golf courses we play all year. I think the field and everybody here shows that. MODERATOR: Coming off two weeks off, you don't get a lot of the those during the season. What did you do? STACY LEWIS: Went to the Masters; got an award there. I kind of relaxed and took some time off. Didn't touch a club for I think it was about four days after ANA. So it was really good just to kind of get to relax a little bit and just to really get ready for this next stretch of tournaments. MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Last year you were so close to winning here. What are some things you carry from last year to this year? STACY LEWIS: The biggest thing is that I played well on this golf course. Coming back there are a lot of good memories. You remember certain shots and certain holes. I remember the weather was not very good last year, so hopefully we get a little bit less rain this year. But just really good memories coming back. I was really close to winning. Felt like I hit a lot of shots that could have won the tournament. I've been looking forward to coming back here since last year. Q. Just one follow‑up. Paula yesterday talked about her comment about having a women's Masters. STACY LEWIS: Uh‑huh. Q. Thoughts on that? STACY LEWIS: I think it would be a great thing if we could eventually play at Augusta. I don't know if it happens right away, but, I mean, I would welcome it. I think there are not a whole a lot of women that wouldn't. I've gotten to play there once. Been there for the Masters. It's just an incredible venue and golf course. Our schedule, you look at the major and the big venues and golf courses we're starting to play now, the times are starting to change a little bit. Hopefully eventually we'll be there. Q. You have so many second‑place finishes. You play well and you're right there so often. STACY LEWIS: Yeah. Q. How do you compartmentalize that? How do you put it into perspective so it doesn't frustrate you? STACY LEWIS: My goal every week is to give myself a chance to win. If you're going to do that, you're not going to win every time. There will be chances where you finish second, third, whatever it is. You know, especially after the last one, I tried to really see it as a good thing, because it was. I played a lot of good golf; a lot of really good things came out of it. If you start seeing runner‑up as a bad thing, then it gets frustrating and you think you need to do all these things different. I've tried to just really see it as a good thing. There are a lot of players that would like to have been in my shoes the last couple weeks to have opportunities to win like I have. I don't know, I see it as a good thing. I think that's helped me move on a little bit quicker and just go on to the next week. Q. Small things make a difference when it's that close. Ended up in a divot in like two out of three tournaments. STACY LEWIS: Uh‑huh. Q. Do you look at that as luck should maybe be in your favor next time? STACY LEWIS: Well, I practiced hitting out of divots last week. I don't know. It's hard, because golf is a lot about the bounces and getting the right breaks. You know, they just haven't quite been there. Just shows you maybe it wasn't meant to be and there is something bigger coming down the road. Maybe I'm saving that win for a bigger week or a tournament for me. So I don't know. It's definitely hard when things like that are kind of out of your control. But I was really proud of the way I handled myself on Sunday and the way I handled being in that situation and the pressure and the nerves and all that. There was so much good that came out of there, I really honestly kind of moved on pretty quick. Q. You mentioned having a big‑picture mentality; handling yourself well. Who has been the most influential person for you in your career so far? STACY LEWIS: I don't know. I feel like I've had a lot of the kind of older players, Hall of Famers that I've gotten to know pretty well. They've helped me a lot. I think game‑wise probably I watch what Karrie does, just the way she prepares and goes about things. Then Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel have helped me a lot with the off‑the‑course stuff. Not being so busy and not saying no to things. They were probably one of the first couple text messages I got last week just saying how well I handled things and they were really proud of me. I got really a lot of cool messages like that. So it really kind of puts in perspective finishing second or third or whatever it is. Q. Having amateurs that you'll be playing with today, for you, what's the most common swing tip you tend to give them out there in the pro‑ams or just when you play with amateurs in general? STACY LEWIS: Usually in the pro‑ams it's just swinging too hard. The guys get out there and just think they should hit it super far and just kind of swing out of their shoes. I try to tell them to swing a little bit smoother. Usually by the end of the day they realize they need to practice their short game more, which is what I tell most kids and just average players, too. Q. Second annual tournament; pretty rousing first one. Big kind of a duel, you and Lydia. How do you see this particular venue? STACY LEWIS: Well, I mean, as I said before, I think it's one of the best venues we play all year. There is so much golf and history in this area that it's just really cool for us to be playing here. You know, I think the golf course, the prize money, all that kind of just sets up for a great finish. You got so many top players playing. Our schedule now, we're getting so competitive with the tournaments and who is going to play each week that it's getting rare that all the top players are playing together. This is one of those weeks just because of the venue. Q. I know Lydia was asked yesterday, and she had a hard time picking out the star of the future. STACY LEWIS: She didn't want to say herself. Q. Yeah, other than herself. She was like, Well, could be any of a bunch of them. Is that the way you see it, too? STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I mean, you never really know. Everybody plays their best golf at a different age, so your next star could be somebody 26, 27 or could be somebody 17. I don't know. I don't know who it's going to be. I think Lydia, she is turning 18 this week, so she's still an up‑and‑coming star, as long as she's been around already. You look at some of the young Koreans, and they're definitely playing some great golf. They're fearless. They're not scared of getting into a battle there on 18 and having to make putts at the end. Q. Speaking of those Koreans, did you see Sei Young's shots last week, and what were your thoughts on those? STACY LEWIS: Let's see, I think I turned the golf on for about five seconds and saw the flag sticks blowing sideways and was really happy that I was sitting all home. But I saw it after the fact, the finish there. It's just unbelievable, because I know how hard that 18th hole is. To pull off those two shots was pretty amazing. Q. You were talking about your second‑place finishes, your near misses recently. For you though, what's been the best moment so far just in your career? So many top 10s in majors and the two wins in majors, but what's the best moment? STACY LEWIS: Best moment is still British Open at St. Andrews. Just the history. Just winning a major at St. Andrews, not a whole lot of people have done that in their career. Just the memories of playing 17 and then walking up 18 with all the crowd and people hanging out of the buildings, it's one of the scenes I'll never forget and a win that will be hard to top going forward. Q. Is St. Andrews your favorite course outside of the U.S.? Is that fair to say? STACY LEWIS: Oh, for sure. I fell in love with St. Andrews when I played Curtis Cup there in 2008. I played it 11 times in 7 days between the matches and the practice rounds just because I loved it and I wanted to get out there and learn it. It's definitely one of my favorite places. Q. What about your chances this week? Are you upbeat?  Obviously did great last year. You think you have a run at the championship this year? STACY LEWIS: Oh, for sure. Now I'm getting to the point where I kind of learn how to prepare in my off weeks. I'm not going to go to a tournament unless I'm there to win. I feel like I've done some good preparation the last week or so. I love this golf course. I've been in contention a lot, so I see myself hopefully there again on Sunday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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