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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 5, 2011

Stacy Lewis

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, we're very happy to welcome Stacey Lewis, who is the 2011 Nabisco, Kraft Nabisco champion, where she faced down Yani Tseng in the stretch to win her first major championship.
How does that affect your feelings towards your game coming into another major championship like the U.S. Women's Open.
STACY LEWIS: More than anything it just gives you confidence that you can play with the No. 1 player in the world. I mean, I hung with her for three days and you kinda tell yourself you can do it, but then once you actually do it it's just a huge confidence boost.
My game feels really good. It's felt good all year. I'm excited.
THE MODERATOR: Long golf course: 7,047 yards, par 71. What kind of clubs are you hitting into medium-length par-4s on this course?
STACY LEWIS: I had a couple probably 4- and 5-irons were the longest. And then, I mean, a 450-yard hole I had 9-iron into. The altitude, it just really offsets things, and it doesn't play anywhere close to the number, I think.
THE MODERATOR: Yeah. That's a good distance. How about the greens? How are you handling the greens here?
STACY LEWIS: They're tough. The speed, they're not just fast. I mean, the speed is pretty good, but there is so much slope in the greens that it's just kind of crazy. You have to be on the right side of the hole.
One of the locals told me, he said, Keep the flag between and you the mountain so you're always putting uphill at the mountain. That's what I'm gonna try and do this week.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. You've obviously won a major now. You know what it takes. Is it about consistency? Is it about shot making? What is it about a major that makes it so difficult over four days?
STACY LEWIS: Well, I think a lot of it is a mental test. You have to eliminate the big numbers. When you get in trouble, you've just got to take your bogey and move on.
Especially out here, if you're going to short side yourself -- I mean, try to make a par, but if you can't, make bogey the worst number and move on.
I think majors are about driving it well and putting well, so, I mean, that's what I'm gonna try to do this week.

Q. With the opening in the LPGA schedule last weekend, a lot of players arrived early. You were one of them. How much does your schedule change based on the fact that you got early? When did you get here early what did you work on based on the early arrival?
STACY LEWIS: I actually just got here Sunday kind of late afternoon, so I didn't start practicing until yesterday, on Monday.
For me, even if we have a week off, I like to treat every week the same. I'm gonna show up at the same time as I would if we had a tournament last week.
I think this week is hard enough and it's long enough that I don't want to make it any longer and I don't want to prepare differently just because it's a major.

Q. How was it playing yesterday with the Wounded Warriors?
STACY LEWIS: That was great. That was a great opportunity just to hear their stories and what they've done for our country and just kind of say thank you.
I mean, it was the least I could do for what they've done. It's great that they've used golf to help speed up their recovery. The Wounded Warriors is just such a great program to help the guys and women get back into the community again.

Q. You went over to Africa, am I correct, with Betsy King?
STACY LEWIS: Yes.

Q. How did you get involved with that?
STACY LEWIS: I met Betsy I guess later in my rookie year. She kind of mentioned it to me and I was kinda like, I don't really know if I want to go. Last year she kinda talked to me about it early in the year, and I was like, Yeah, I'll go, and just kind of went with it.
We went in December of last year. It was unbelievable just seeing things you never thought you'd see before, and it just really puts golf and our life and everything we do into perspective.
THE MODERATOR: We're talking about the program Golf Fore Africa. Explain a little bit about that program.
STACY LEWIS: Betsy started it I believe in -- I want to say 2005. I'm not really sure. You can ask her. But she kind of just found she needed something else to play for.
She went to Africa on a visit and kinda fell in love with the place, and so her goal and what they do is just to raise money to help build houses, build houses for kids that are orphaned by AIDS or anything like that.
Then they also sponsor children there in Africa. They raised enough money to build a medical clinic in one of the communities. That was one of the things we saw there. We got to go to the grand opening of their medical clinic.
And then we also went to a few of the houses where the oldest child in the house I think was probably 15 and the youngest was a baby.
So that's -- I mean, that's the head of household, so we're building houses just to help them move on, I guess.
THE MODERATOR: Did you have to do any physical labor there helping to build the houses? Because I know Betsy was involved with Habitat For Humanity.
STACY LEWIS: Actually with the culture there they just wanted to celebrate us being there. They were just so grateful for us to come and shake our hands and give us a hug. They didn't really want us doing any work.
We had to kind of beg them to let us work. We ended up putting plaster on one of the insides of one of the houses. Have a pretty good picture of me and Betsy kind of mixing this plaster in a wheelbarrow with our hands.
It was a different way of building a house, but they really didn't want us doing anything. They were working on the house, and I played soccer with the kids. It was more about being there and just hanging out with them.
THE MODERATOR: What dates were you over there, approximately?
STACY LEWIS: It was the beginning of December. I'm not really sure of the dates, but it was the week after the Tour Championship. We were there for about 10, 12 days.

Q. Just to follow up. What kind of person is Betsy? Did you get to know her real well?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I mean, I'd heard stories about she's such a competitor and pretty fierce on the course. I think all this charity work has changed her quite a bit. She was fun to hang around with. I played a practice round with her today.
So it's cool to kind of pick up on little things helped her throughout her career and things like that.
THE MODERATOR: What were some of those things?
STACY LEWIS: Um, I don't know. It's just kind of her personality and how she's never really satisfied with anything. I think that goes into the charity work of raising money. I mean, yeah, she might raise $10,000, but she wants to raise more.
So even today she was kind of upset with how she hit some shots, so she's just never satisfied.

Q. Holes Nos. 10 through 15 are getting a lot of notoriety. What makes that stretch so difficult?
STACY LEWIS: They're just long par-4s. I mean, a lot of them are pretty similar. They kind of run together for me. But long par-4s. I think they're all over 400 yards and tricky greens.
I think the key to this course is getting off to a good start. You have 1 through 4 that are pretty good birdie holes. So if you can get off to a good start and then just kind of ride the momentum the rest of the day.
THE MODERATOR: With Women's Open having the largest purse in women's golf, does that add to the pressure, especially since the tournament schedule has been cut back somewhat?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I mean, any of the majors, because those are our biggest purses of the year. Especially this stretch that we have, we have three majors in six weeks I think it is.
So we're playing for a lot of money the next couple weeks. It's a lot of pressure to just go out there and play well.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks so much for joining us.
STACY LEWIS: Thank you.

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