THE LPGA DRIVE ON CHAMPIONSHIP

January 24, 2024

Stacy Lewis

Bradenton Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, joined by Stacy Lewis here at the LPGA Drive On Championship. Stacy, how are you? I know you have an announcement.

STACY LEWIS: I do. I'm doing well. Excited to start another year. Pretty cool day for kind of my camp of people. My instructor Joe Hallett got the PGA of America's Teacher and Coach of the Year. Just wanted to give him a little shout. Super proud of him.

We both have known for a couple months, so it's nice let it cat out of the bag and get to celebrate with him.

Q. What's he meant to you? Any fun stories you guys have together?

STACY LEWIS: Gosh, well, we started working together the end of my rookie year, so worked together for a long time. Just always been a great sounding board. Keeps things super light. Has some really bad dad jokes.

You know, just he's put in so much work. I think the stat that I heard is he also has won the Horton Smith Award and is only the second PGA professional to win both awards.

So he's worked really hard for this and just proud of him.

Q. How has it been since we last saw you? What did you do this off-season? What have you been working on?

STACY LEWIS: This off-season was a lot of time with the family. Went by way too fast. Lots of family time in December. Went on a few trips. Christmas was a lot of fun with Chesnee.

Really after the first of the year got back into it, working on some things with my golf swing. Just want to play better golf this year. Struggled with my golf swing last year, and Joe and I have been working hard the last few weeks to get some momentum more than anything and get things feeling a little bit better.

Q. How does the swing feel? How have you felt on the course and how has the course played for you?

STACY LEWIS: I would say it's still a work in progress. It's some changes and some things I need to fix that aren't going to be fixed in a week. It's going to take a little bit. It's good to get some reps on the golf course. It's always different than being at home or being on a driving range.

Just getting some reps will be helpful because I'm not going to play again until March. Good of like figuring out what to work on for the next month or so.

Q. Any big goals for 2024? Obviously it's another Solheim Cup year. Outside of that, any personal, on-the-course goals for you?

STACY LEWIS: I don't want to play Solheim, so that one is not on the list. There is no way you can play and captain. I know I went back and forth on that last year, but there is no way you can do it.

Just want to put myself in contention a little bit more, give myself some more opportunities to win. I still feel like the game is there. I still feel like my head is still there to do it.

So yeah, that's basically it.

Q. And speaking on Solheim Cup, the doc that aired on Golf Channel last week, what kind of went into that? How has that relationship with KPMG helped you through your captainship?

STACY LEWIS: A lot went into it. It was a lot of me talking, so a lot of interviews. I wish I could have told more, but didn't want to give any secrets away to the other team.

But it's just amazing how much it helped our team, it helped (audio cut out) really has made things a lot easy for right now. I know these players, I know their games. I do think I'm going to have a better idea of who they're going to play with now further out, just understanding how all this works.

Q. It's a unique experience having back-to-back years. Do you see that as an advantage?

STACY LEWIS: I think so, especially for us. I don't think our team is changing a whole lot and it's still fresh on the girl's minds. They were not happy with the tie, and neither was I.

So it's good that it's still fresh. They're still asking questions. They're already asking questions about a lot of stuff, so it's been fun. It makes planning easier. Our staff is staying the same behind the scenes, so really makes things pretty easy for us.

Q. I know you get asked this I'm sure a ton, what specifically as the season is starting, we as fans and media can kind of look for, what are you looking for in terms of how you want to build your team this year?

STACY LEWIS: Well, if you look at last year, the play spoke for itself. I didn't have to make a whole lot of decisions. The girls took care of it at the end.

I hope it's similar. I still need to do some more number crunching and figuring out the golf course we're going to play to figure out what type of player I want there.

We're really set up really well now with those younger ones getting a full Solheim Cup under their belt. They figured out by Sunday what Solheim Cup was and the pressure of it and handled it all remarkably well.

Q. Anyone you got your eye on that wasn't on the team last year that could slide in? I know I think last week, someone said -- I don't know if you saw the leaderboard, but someone said inside the top 10 there were a lot of American players. Were you keeping an eye on that? Who has stood out to you so far?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, always watching, always watching. Alison Lee, the fall she had was unbelievable. We ranked 26 Americans and she was second in strokes gained in the fall. That didn't include her LET win, so obviously she was playing really great at the end of the year.

And then Alexa Pano, she was the only one that worked her way into CME that wasn't on my list before. Then obviously got the great start last week.

So those would be two outside of the team from last year that we're paying attention to.

Q. How difficult is it (indiscernible) your own game when you're also paying close attention to the Solheim Cup and the team? I know you give 100% to just about everything that you do. Has that been tough?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, it's been hard. I would be lying if I said that it hasn't affected my game. As I've gotten older, I can't go beat balls the way I used to, so that's been a factor as well.

I've honestly enjoyed the Solheim Cup so much. Like I wouldn't change anything for the world. I'll take a little bit of a slump in my game because I've had so much fun. These girls have been so great.

Just the staff and the tour as allowed me to be really creative and open to change and open to pushing this event forward. That's been great to see, too.

Q. Has it been easier now this is the second time, now that you know what to expect?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, much easier. December got to relax a little bit and didn't have to do so much planning. Helpful our same group of core people that helped me is going to be the same. It is going to be a little more difficult being at home though. More people involved in general. More asks from me.

Then the players are going to have more people around them. Going to be a little bit different of a challenge, but, yeah, just having the one under our belt, we have a blueprint and now we are going to add to it.

Q. Stacy, how important do you feel like the culture shift that you created last year was to the future success of this American team?

STACY LEWIS: Well, I mean, gosh, we're not going to know that for a couple years probably. My goal is that it transfers outside of me being captain, it goes to whoever is next. I've started a notebook that I'm going to pass on to the next captain just of everything we've done and communication. They can use it as much as they want or as little as they want.

If we can keep this blueprint in place for the players, that it becomes very similar from year to year, I think it makes the transitions from captains more seamless and makes it easier on the players, which you make it easier on the players they're going to play better.

Q. Seemed like a shift in the American mindset when it comes to the Solheim Cup. This year in particular being at home, how hungry are the girls to bring the Cup back to soil?

STACY LEWIS: We've got a lot of the girls on this team that have never experienced winning a Solheim Cup. They're more than hungry. A lot caddies that have never experienced winning the Solheim Cup.

That's why Lexi was in that last match on Sunday. She had all the experience. There is nobody I trusted there more. We're in a great spot as far as our leadership and the veterans that have stepped up.

I'm going to do that with my assistant captains. I want people that have had a lot of experience to experience winning so these girls know what it's like.

But they are hungry. I know that. They want to win week in and week out, so we don't have to worry about that.