Lewis confident at ANA Inspiration
Stacy Lewis keeps her champion’s robe from the ANA Inspiration in a box in an upstairs closet of her Houston home. Nine years have passed, and she has yet to clean it.
“I didn’t want to wash the water out of it,” she explained.
The leap into Poppie’s Pond is the most well-known tradition in women’s golf. Inbee Park’s husband filled up a bottle of the murky water in 2013 so that his wife could celebrate with her father at the tour’s next stop in Hawaii. Dad didn’t get to jump in, but he got drenched all the same.
With triple-digit temperatures forecasted all week in Rancho Mirage, California, where the event will take place Sept. 10-13, the pond might look more refreshing than it actually feels this time of year. Typically billed as the year’s first major, the annual spring fling will feel more like a private sauna for the eventual winner, as she splashes around in front of a handful of media, volunteers, friends and family. The robe won’t stay on for long, but it will be cherished all the same.
“I would love to let (Chesnee) go swimming in that pond one of these days,” said Lewis of her 22-month-old daughter.
One of these days could be soon, in fact, as Chesnee made the trip from Texas, and Lewis comes in confident from her first victory as a mom last month at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open.
Lewis and Park, who finished fourth at the recent AIG Women’s British Open and feels good about her putting, highlight a short list of players to watch that includes World No. 2 Danielle Kang, Nelly Korda (No. 3), Minjee Lee (No. 5) and 2016 champion Lydia Ko.
Sophia Popov, the German who captured the hearts of sports fans around the globe with her improbable victory at the year’s first major at Royal Troon, controversially isn’t in the field. Her fiveyear exemption into the event starts in 2021.
The impact of COVID-19 pushed back the ANA five months and several highlyranked South Koreans, including defending champion and World No. 1 Jin Young Ko, didn’t make the trip to the desert. In addition to safety precautions for the coronavirus, the tournament also has made allowances for excessive heat. Caddies will be able to take carts during practice rounds and tournament rounds, and the white jumpsuits that are traditionally worn have been exchanged for lightweight bibs.
CHERISH YOUR VICTORIES
Lewis, 35, competed in her first ANA as an amateur in 2007 alongside eventual champion Morgan Pressel. The course played particularly hard that year, and Lewis, who tied for fifth, got a front-row seat to 18-year-old Pressel’s all-out grind.
The year Lewis won the ANA, she awoke in her room at the Holiday Inn Express to a forecast of high winds in the Coachella Valley. She knew that would play to her advantage going up against then No. 1 Yani Tseng.
The tougher the better for Lewis, who joins Juli Inkster, Catriona Matthew and Cristie Kerr as the only current players on tour who have won after becoming a mother.
This year Lewis’s husband, Gerrod Chadwell, head women’s golf coach at Houston, will join her at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course for the first time. With the fall season canceled in the American Athletic Conference, Chadwell’s calendar has opened up. Her parents will be there too.
Dale Lewis finds it harder to watch his daughter compete down the stretch from his home in the Woodlands, Texas. When Stacy had must-make putts down the stretch in Scotland last month, her mother Carol went to the laundry room.
“I had to yell at her both times when she made her par putts,” said Dale, laughing. “She did stay in the room during the playoff.”
When Lewis got back to Chesnee for the first time after that victory, Chadwell had hung a giant congratulatory banner outside their home that read, “So Proud of You Mommy!” and had planned a small get-together. The trophy, though on the smaller side, fit perfectly in Chesnee’s hands.
“Too often we move on from wins too quickly,” he told Lewis, “so I thought we needed to celebrate.”
Suzann Pettersen retired immediately after holing the winning putt for Europe at last year’s Solheim Cup. With son Herman in her arms on the 18th green, she felt her career was complete.
For Lewis, such thoughts never crossed her mind.
“I don’t know what’s possible with my age, and how my back is going to hold up,” she said. “I’d like to have another baby at some point, too.”