MARATHON CLASSIC PRESENTED BY DANA

July 10, 2021

Stacy Lewis

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Stacy Lewis. Bogey-free 65. That's a great way to spend your Saturday. Lots of fans out there. You've got to be pretty happy right now.

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, very happy. Probably one of the most solid rounds of golf I've played all year. Just lots of fairways, lots of greens. Hit a lot of good putts that didn't go in. One little hiccup there on 17 but I still made par, so.

I mean, it was just a really solid actually pretty easy day.

Q. Always take easy days, right?

STACY LEWIS: Yes.

Q. Your at home here. Many levels. So much family. Originally from here. Does the momentum from the crowd and the family help?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, a little bit. You know, just having fans out, you know it's nice to hear some cheers and roars. Heard a loud one back there on that 14 corner so maybe a hole-in-one.

It's nice to hear that again. You get some energy from that. The ball starts to go a little bit further. You know, that's why you play.

Q. You had six birdies on the day. Tell us about those. Open and start the round, book ended it. Any holes that stood out?

STACY LEWIS: First hole of the day hit it to two, three feet, so that was a nice start. But that stretch from -- I birdied 8, 9, 10. That really kind of got things going in the right direction.

Just, I mean, just a lot of really solid golf shots. There wasn't really grinding too much on par putts. Just like I said just easy, easy golf.

Q. And we've got an interesting leaderboard. You're up there, Mina, Nasa, Yuka, so many other players from different countries sure different places in their career. What do you think that says about where the LPGA Tour is right now?

STACY LEWIS: It's exciting. I mean, I got to play with Yuka Saso the last two days and, gosh, what a talent, just fun energy, just really likable kid.

She actually came up to me after the round and I signed her glove for her. I said, Is this for you, and she kind of put her head down and said, Yes. So I put her name on it and everything.

So just really fun to see the young talent like that. I'm 16 years older than her, but if that's what's coming up, we're in a great spot.

Q. You might be 16 years older than her but still giving her a run for the money. I always say do it for the grown ups.

STACY LEWIS: Yep.

Q. Did that feel good to you? You're definitely in contention for wins in back to back years. It's been a little while since you've done that, but you're proving that golf is age less, right?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I think a good short game you can -- I think Phil showed that with winning a major, that a good short game can play with anybody.

There is certainly golf courses that I maybe don't hit it far enough on that I'm going to have to putt it and chip it really, really good. But like I think that's been my goal over the last year, is see how good I can get my short game. I still feel like I can be really competitive there.

And playing smart, too.

Q. We had a beautiful day today, but tomorrow looks like it's going to be kind of iffy. What does the mental preparation go into that going into a day we have no idea what's going to happen?

STACY LEWIS: It was play good today. Usually when conditions get like that it's hard to make a run, just if it's raining, wet golf ball, wet everything.

So first things first was play good today, and we'll worry about tomorrow when we get there. Just got to stay patient. I played 32 holes on Saturday last week, so it's not going to be that bad compared to that.

So, I mean, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to hopefully making a run tomorrow too and posting another good number.

Q. Finally, you had so many autographs and family pictures to sign. Is it more special to have family out this year knowing what we had last year and gone through the last year?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, it's just the Lew Crew has grown over the years. We got little babies involved now and everybody is kind of different points in their life.

But it's just great that they keep coming back every year and watching me and supporting me. I don't have to worry about a meal this week. They take care of all of our dinners and Chesnee gets to go swimming, so all is good in our world.