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JTBC FOUNDERS CUPMarch 18, 2014Stacy LewisPHOENIX, ARIZONA THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. We'd like to welcome Rolex Rankings No. 3 and our defending champion Stacy Lewis into the interview room. First off, welcome back to the JTBC Founders Cup. This was such a special moment for you in your career last year when you captured a win and also took over as No. 1 in the world, first American to do so since Cristie Kerr in 2010. When you get back here, do the memories start flooding back of everything that happened last year? STACY LEWIS: Yeah, they do. When I came back for media day I think it's when it really kind of hit me. You know, it seems like such a long time ago that we were here. A lot has happened obviously since then. But it's just nice to be back, and I just played and just remembering shots and certain things that happened that last couple of days, really. It's just fun to be back, and just to have those good memories. THE MODERATOR:  You've been playing so well really over the last year. I know you were in the No. 1 spot, held onto for a month. That didn't stay as long, but the consistency that you were playing with that we saw here and with your win in Singapore a year ago when you had back‑to‑back wins seemed to keep going. In fact, that Top 10 streak that you had going I think it was 13 straight was pretty impressive before that came to an end in Singapore. What's been the biggest key do you think in that consistent play to be able to put together so many Top 10s in a row? STACY LEWIS: I mean I don't know. I mean I don't‑‑ if anything, I was probably more frustrated with myself during those 13 than anything that I didn't win more, that I had so many chances and only won once out of all of those. So it was actually kind of frustrating to me. But I guess that just shows where my game's at and that I'm hitting the ball well enough that even if I have a bad round, I'm still right there. So I don't know, I mean while it's nice to have the 13 in a row, I would have liked‑‑ I would have traded a couple of wins for a few less Top 10s. THE MODERATOR: One of the big things last year in addition to becoming No. 1 when you won here was your donation to girls golf, and that's such a big part of this week for the LPGA is to really promote girls golf and talk about getting young women involved in the game and helping with the future of women's golf. What was kind of your decision making behind that donation, and what has that meant to you in the past year to see kind of the growth of that program and what it's been able to do? STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I think‑‑ I mean I think just thinking about why we‑‑ the first year we did this tournament, you know, we didn't play for a purse, and you know, that's kind of what I thought about when I did that. It was something I put in the back of my mind, I said if I win this tournament, I want to do this, and you know, usually when you do that it doesn't actually happen. And so just coming down 18 and all those kids out there, I just felt like, you know, I told myself I was going to do it, so I have to do it. It's what this tournament is about. It's about honoring our founders and growing the game going forward. And so while we're out there trying to win, that's really what we're doing here this week. So it's just trying to stay with the spirit of the tournament and having some fun with it. THE MODERATOR: I know at media day you got a chance to interact with some of the girls golf members here in Phoenix and get to see some of them. What impressed you the most about some of those girls? They had some pretty tough questions, tougher than I usually ask of Stacy. STACY LEWIS: They did. They came up with some really good questions. They were really cute, and just we went out on the range and the golf swings were just so impressive for a young age. And we did the "Big Break" glass‑breaking shot, and I think three or four of the girls hit it. I mean it's a pretty hard shot though hit to keep it that low and hit it hard enough. So I was impressed with the golf swings and just where their games at. THE MODERATOR: And you did break that glass on your first try. STACY LEWIS: First try. THE MODERATOR: Just as soon as Chris Garrett was saying Yani broke it on her first. STACY LEWIS: He couldn't even get the statement out before it went through the glass. THE MODERATOR: Consistency in everything that she does. Questions for Stacy? Q. Might be a downer, but Singapore was so unusual for you given your streak. I'm sure you've had some time to analyze it, think about it. What did you take away from that? STACY LEWIS: I mean I knew, obviously knew it was going to happen at some point. And just going into the week I wasn't hitting the ball well, and my golf swing just wasn't where it needed to be, and on that golf course you had to hit so many long irons in that if you weren't spot on, you were going to be in trouble. So you know if anything, it made me go home and kind of focus on a few things and get my golf swing back under control a little bit, because it was so good at the Bahamas, and it just kind of slid a little bit from there. I don't know if I got a little complacent with it or what, but it just kind of made me kind of go back home and really kind of work again and focus on a few things. And I did switch back to my old putter. For three weeks, four weeks I was trying a new putter and I just didn't putt the way I wanted to, so I went back to my old putter and I think that should help for this week. Q. Is there a swing thought that you have for the week that you and Joe talked about? STACY LEWIS: No. It was something that we've worked on impact throughout the off season, and it was Bahamas was probably the best‑‑ I mean best ball‑striking couple of days I've ever had. And so I mean I knew we were working on the right things, and I don't know if going on the other side of the world we just kind of went backwards a little bit, but we're just trying to get impact a little bit stronger. I can do it. I know I can do it. It's just kind of getting those reps in and learning how to maintain it a little bit. Q. Suzann was in here before you talking about a list she had made as a kid, all of her dreams and goals that she wanted to accomplish, I think she said when she was 12. I know maybe you weren't thinking along those same lines quite at that age. Did you at any point make a list in terms of golf? STACY LEWIS: No. I still don't have a list. No. I mean I think I've said a thousand times, I never grew up wanting to be a professional golfer. I never really dreamed of it, never watched golf. It just kind of happened. But even now I don't want to make a list because I don't want to have‑‑ you know, because then once you're done with that list, then what do you do. I don't want there to be an ending point ever. I just want to keep getting better and winning tournaments. That's the ultimate for me. I don't know. I don't have that kind of thing. Q. Stacy, last year you talked about how much it meant to be No. 1, to get that ranking. Kind of a two‑part question. Once you got it, did trying to hold onto it affect you the rest of the year and how important is it for you to get back to that spot? STACY LEWIS: You know, the couple weeks after this tournament last year were crazy. It was just‑‑ I was pulled in so many directions, and the golf game kind of‑‑ it kind of showed that a little bit, just because I was so busy. But I would like to get back to No. 1 just because I know now what to expect and I think I'd know how to handle it a little bit better. So I definitely want to get back there. But I don't feel like I played poorly. I don't feel like I played poor enough to lose it. I feel like Inbee and Suzann have just, you know, they've risen their games to another level, and them doing that has kind of forced me to go back and reevaluate and work on a few things. So I mean I definitely want to get back there. But at the same time I'm doing a lot of good things, so it's hard to‑‑ you can't really beat yourself up over it. Q. (No microphone). STACY LEWIS: It's just kind of going back and where can I save one or two shots every round. You know, it's not major changes, but it's getting your short game a little bit sharper, working on bunker game. That was one of the stats that wasn't very good last year, so we kind of worked on that. You know, tweaking the putter just to see if it's better. You know, I mean I like trying stuff. I mean I'm not amused to not try things. So I like trying things and if it works, great, if it doesn't, you go back and try something else. Q. When Mike Whan first proposed this event, it seemed like it was a great idea, but maybe bad timing because the tour had lost a bunch of tournaments. You only had 23 events, and he was asking players with fewer opportunities to play for free. I was wondering if you could go back to how the players reacted to all of that and just how this event has evolved. STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I think when we all‑‑ we all first heard of it, it was kind of like a shot, kind of like, are you serious, like we didn't know if he was actually really serious about it. But I mean I think once people got the concept of what the whole tournament was, I think we understood. But I think there were so many question marks with it, you know, are you going to find a sponsor going forward, are we going to keep this thing going, but now with the success, with the winners we've had here, the success with the girls and the founders, I think we're going to keep this tournament going even if we have a sponsor or not. I mean I think it's that important to our tour to honor those past players. I mean that's what I loved about this whole tournament was honoring the former players because we don't get to see them enough, and I've become friends with some of them, but a lot of these girls don't even know who some of those founders are. Not even founders, they don't even know some of the older players, so I think it's great that it brings everybody together because I think there's a lot to learn from a lot of those ladies. Q. Stacy, you talked earlier about working on your impact drills and how you got it really fine tuned. Can you talk a little bit about, generally, especially at the professional level, how these swing thoughts just sort of drift away, where did they go, how do you get them back? STACY LEWIS: Well, the swing thoughts change every day, for me at least. I usually try to pick out one little thing before a round and kind of take that going forward. But we're always tweaking, we're always kind of just‑‑ you can always do a little bit better, whether‑‑ and a swing thought is different sometimes a driver versus an iron or a wedge. We're playing with different things so much; I mean we're always tweaking it. But it's about doing drills to maintain it‑‑ so whether it's on Monday, you just sit on the range and do drills all day. You know, you're just trying to maintain your swing so it's the same all week. Q. I'm just curious, everything turned out really well last year, but when you came back here, did any memories of Saturday on 16 and the two‑stroke penalty come back to you? STACY LEWIS: Actually we were out on 16 I asked my caddy if he wanted to have some fun in that bunker over there. I said you can make a snow angel or drag your foot through it or do something, but he walked away pretty quickly from that bunker. Yeah, we were laughing about it. I mean I was laughing about it the next day. I gave him a hard time on Sunday when we were walking down there. So yeah, I mean it's something we can laugh about, thankfully. THE MODERATOR: Helps when a win comes afterwards, doesn't it? STACY LEWIS: Yes. For sure. THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Stacy? Is all right. Well, thank you very much and best of luck defending this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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