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MARATHON CLASSIC PRESENTED BY OWENS CORNING AND O-I

July 10, 2018

Stacy Lewis

Toledo, Ohio

THE MODERATOR: I'm here with a woman who needs no introduction, Stacy Lewis. Welcome home. You didn't necessarily spend a lot of life here, but come back here to visit family. You seem to have a lot of family here. What's it like to come back to one of them?

STACY LEWIS: Yes. Well, I love coming back here. This was my first LPGA tournament I played in. It was one I came to as a kid, when I was a little kid getting autographs. I still have all the stuff that I had signed for me. So just a lot of memories here.

So I'm going to get back with some family. We had a family baby shower last night, which was fun. So it's a fun week for all of us to get together and hopefully play some good golf too.

Q. How surreal is it to kind of think back to the days when you were outside the ropes getting those autographs and now you're the one inside the ropes giving autographs?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, that was the craziest thing for me. Especially the first couple years I played here, just reminiscing of being that little kid and being outside the ropes. The tournament was usually 4th of July, so we came back and saw all of our family and everything. So it's just, you know, my parents especially being born and raised here, it's really special for them. They get to come back and see all of their crew and all the people they grew up with and went to high school with. So it's more fun just seeing family and friends.

Q. And you mentioned in the next phase of your life, you're going to keep the ball rolling with that little baby girl down there. But you mentioned the family baby shower, and people are seeing you for the last time before becoming a mommy, right?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, it's been good. And everyone's been asking, is this the last one? And yes, it is the last one. Just taking it day by day, resting as much as I can. Getting pretty tired and the heat obviously doesn't help things. So just kind of minimizing the practice, and maximizing what I can get done in a short amount of time, and rest up for the next day.

Q. So Serena Williams won earlier today, so we've got a mom in the semis at Wimbledon, and that is been the whole story line, and certainly one we've been talking about. What has the experience been like for you over the past few months of really starting to bring awareness to women, female athletes who want to do it all and can do it all?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, from KPMG and since then the last few weeks it's been pretty crazy. Just to see the stories I've been reading about, and the attention to females in the workplace and having babies and how that is all going to work out. I just want to show people and kind of prove to myself that you can have a family, have a career, be successful out here, and you can travel -- sometimes travel all over the world, I mean, we'll cut back a little bit. But we can travel the United States and have a family, and show my little girl to see that she can do whatever she wants, you know.

She can -- hopefully if she wants to play golf, she can play more now, and hopefully sees that she can go out there and do the same thing. I want her -- she may not ever remember it, but just for her to know that she's part of it with me.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
STACY LEWIS: It's a little bit frustrating, and honestly being a female, I don't know where that comes from because I've played some pretty decent golf. (Indiscernible) it's pretty amazing. It's crazy just the day that we live in that, you know, just with what KPMG did with paying me for my full contract, it's kind of like eye-opening, I guess.

It was a shock of I never really thought of that before. It's just crazy that it's taken so long to get to that point. So I'm out here trying to change things and make it better for the girls behind me. And these girls know they don't have to take a year off of golf to have a family. That you can still play golf and make money and do what you need to do and have a baby at the same time.

Q. (Indiscernible) how important do you feel like that's going to be for you?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, the day care, obviously, is a huge part. It's a huge help, really. It's a huge -- I don't think I'd be able to play and do what I'm doing without it. You get the time that you're playing plus three hours around it. So you can work and get basically eight hours of day care for free, which is a pretty big deal. It's going to make my job a lot easier. It's going to make it easier on my husband or whoever is kind of there helping me, that they can get a little bit of a break too.

I know it's not going to be easy. I know we're going to have some sleepless nights on the road, and we're going to have some good days and some bad days, but just to have that comfort in knowing that she's going to be taken care of when I'm inside the ropes and have security with them all the times, there is a lot of comfort there in the day care that the tour provides.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
STACY LEWIS: Honestly, the timing of having the baby worked out perfect. It worked exactly as it was planned. Because from here we start our international travel, and I had KPMG, Arkansas, and here were kind of my three tournaments that I really wanted to play in. Honestly, when my husband and I kind of mapped it out and did the timing, it couldn't have been more perfect.

It's a good ending. It's not going to be easy, but it's a good ending.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm worried about it. I just think right now where it falls in the schedule it's tough. Coming off a couple majors and going into traveling overseas, it's in a really hard spot in the schedule. I honestly think that's the biggest issue.

But I wouldn't worry about it. I think the tournament's doing fine. I think I heard an early projection for next year is we're going to have 20 in a row. So the other tournaments people are going to start picking and choosing more, so you're going to get some stronger players back as the schedule changes.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
STACY LEWIS: I'm due November 3rd. It's been interesting. Just in the last few weeks I kind of feel some movement and things like that. So you're standing on the tee and you feel a kick or something here and there, so that's kind of strange.

But the hardest part has been energy, to be honest. The golf swing really hasn't changed much. Just working on some putting because it's getting a little bit in the way. So there are some minor adjustments. But luckily, nothing major so far, just trying to keep myself hydrated and rested.

Q. I cover a lot of junior golf as well as the LPGA tournaments. What would you give as advice to some of the girls that I talk to -- like Lexi Thompson, Stacey, what would you say to them, something they should be doing or something that they should learn coming up?
STACY LEWIS: I would say to win as many golf tournaments as they can. I think learning how to win is the most important thing that these kids coming up can ever do, and not to rush. Don't rush into playing professional minutes and playing that level up thinking that you're going to get better. You're going to get better by playing and winning against your peers at that age.

So I tell kids to win as much as you can. Once you win a lot, then go to the next level. Win a lot of amateur golf. Then go win a lot of college golf, and then you'll come out here and be ready to go. So I think that's what I always tell kids, and I think that's what we need more of in the junior golf ranks.

Q. What do you think your emotions will be on Sunday? Sad that you're leaving? Are you ready to go?
STACY LEWIS: I don't think I'll be sad. I think I'll be pretty ready, pretty tired. I definitely will miss the competitive part, because I love being inside the ropes and playing. It's just everything else is hard. You know, the energy level we talked about, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm looking forward to -- I haven't had a break in ten years. I've been fortunate with no injuries, so I haven't had a break in ten years. So I'm excited to go home and design a nursery and do all that stuff at the same time with my husband. I'm just really looking forward to these four or five months.

Q. Have you thought about your comeback after you've had a kid and getting your game back?
STACY LEWIS: Well, I don't know about getting my game back. All of this, the whole time, I just kind of take it as it comes and see how it goes. That's what coming back after having a baby is going to be the same thing. Just how it goes. We do have -- (Indiscernible) tournament in Diamond Resorts in January that I'm in from Portland last year, so I'd like to play that if I can, and kind of use that as a test run of traveling and how are things going to be. Then probably start more full-time in March out in Phoenix.

So we won't go to Asia to start the year, but I think by March I should be in pretty good shape.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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