Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the May 17 issue
of Golfweek.
By BETH ANN BALDRY
Senior Writer
Dale Lewis recently drove from Texas to Fayetteville, Ark., to help his middle child, Stacy, a senior at the University of Arkansas, move out of the century-old farmhouse she had been living in the past four years.
While packing up, Dale happened across a touching letter from a man in Pennsylvania.
From the letter, Dale learned his daughter had traded e-mails with a young golfer named Grace, who like Stacy has been diagnosed with scoliosis. The Arkansas All-American also had shipped a box of Razorback mementos to her young fan. The letter Dale discovered was from Grace’s father, who wanted Stacy to know the tremendous impact she had made on his daughter’s life.
That Lewis, 23, didn’t tell her own parents about Grace isn’t to suggest they aren’t close – quite the contrary. Lewis, a woman of remarkable talent and heart, is just plain shy.
“She’ll say what she needs to say but nothing more,” said Georgia coach Kelley Hester, who recruited Lewis to the Razorbacks as a freshman. “She’s one of those kids who is totally OK with silence. I think that’s a sign of wisdom.”
For the past two years, Lewis has reigned supreme over women’s amateur golf. The family’s dentist, a golfer himself, didn’t realize the extent of Lewis’ talents until he saw her on TV during the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she tied for fifth. Lewis isn’t one to brag.
Lewis, Golfweek’s Amateur Player of the Year in 2006 and ’07, has blossomed from a skinny Texas kid who hoped to make the traveling squad at Arkansas into one of the best amateurs in the world.
This week, the defending NCAA champion will end a decorated college career where it started – at the University of New Mexico’s Championship Course in Albuquerque. Lewis doesn’t remember much about the site of her first college event, other than she played well and suffered from bad allergies. The 12-time college champion also is looking to dethrone Duke’s Amanda Blumenherst, who is seeking a record-breaking third consecutive college Player of the Year title.
“I kind of feel like the underdog a little bit,” Lewis said. “If I keep winning golf tournaments, I think it should take care of itself.”
Once Lewis and Blumenherst end their college joust, they’ll head to St. Andrews, Scotland, as U.S. Curtis Cup teammates, fittingly ending Lewis’ exceptional amateur career at the Home of Golf. Eight days later, she’ll compete in U.S. Women’s Open sectional qualifying as a newly minted professional.
• • •
Growing up in The Woodlands, Texas, Lewis was in the shadows of players such as Ashley Knoll and Mallory Underwood. Lewis didn’t play many AJGA events and went on recruiting trips to Kansas State, Louisville and Arkansas. Hester didn’t offer Lewis a full golf scholarship. In fact, Lewis’ name stuck in Hester’s memory only because she wore a Notre Dame hat in the recruiting photo she sent to Arkansas.
“I knew she was a good student,” Hester said. “I certainly didn’t think she was going to become the face of Arkansas golf. I was trying to build a program, and she seemed like a decent signee.”
Hester didn’t know about Lewis’ medical condition until the summer before her freshman year, when her recruit called to say she was having back surgery. Diagnosed with the condition at age 11, Lewis wore a back brace under her clothes until she graduated from high school. The only time she took it off was to play golf.
“She did everything she could do to hide it from people,” her father said. “She wouldn’t talk about it.”
At age 18, Lewis stopped growing, which meant surgery was possible even though she wasn’t in any pain. If left untreated, her spine would have continued to bend, eventually pushing her organs in the wrong direction.
Hester promised Lewis her scholarship was secure, so she proceeded with the six-hour surgery in summer 2003. Doctors deflated a lung and moved organs around to place a steel rod in her back. Lewis stayed in bed for eight weeks battling intense pain.
“There’s still enough memories of where she came from that it helps her and us to keep things in perspective,” Dale Lewis said.
“I’ll never forget the sweat running off her face from the pain of getting up to go to the bathroom.”
Several months after the surgery, Lewis sat on the steps of her dorm and watched her parents carry everything into her room. Thanks to a straighter spine, she was 1 1/2 inches taller but couldn’t lift more than 5 pounds.
Lewis spent countless hours chipping and putting that year. She emerged from surgery with a grateful heart and a more powerful work ethic. Hester calls it “exponential improvement.”
At 5 feet, 5 inches, Lewis now weighs 130 pounds, up 25 from her freshman year. Hester calls her one of the best iron players she has ever seen and a good, often streaky putter. But she says Lewis couldn’t have gotten to the next level if she hadn’t learned to control her temper. At NCAA regionals during her sophomore year, Lewis broke her putter in a fit of rage. For such a petite, quiet player, there was a fire that occasionally exploded.
“Of the three girls, (Stacy) was our ‘game daughter,’ ” Dale said. “Stacy wanted to play, and Stacy wanted to win.”
Shauna Estes-Taylor worked as an assistant for Hester when Lewis joined the Razorbacks and now serves as Arkansas’ head coach. She has watched Lewis turn into a vocal leader over the past several seasons. Shy or not, if Lewis sees a player struggling with a shot during practice, she no longer hesitates to lend a hand.
“It’s almost like having three coaches,” Estes-Taylor said. “Now she’ll do anything to help her teammates get better. I wish she could stay for like 10 more years.”
Estes-Taylor enjoyed a standout career at the University of Georgia and played a short time on the Duramed Futures Tour. She won seven college titles with a superior short game, but concedes she never was a stunning ballstriker. Lewis, however, has the complete package. And she knows better than to mess with a good thing.
“I want to keep as many things the same as possible,” said Lewis, whose dad will be on the bag this summer as she tries to become the first player to earn her LPGA card through sponsor exemptions.
Two tournaments in July have offered Lewis spots – the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship and Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. She’s competing against Michelle Wie for other opportunities and hopes to reach the maximum of six exemptions.
Lewis already has something Wie doesn’t: an LPGA trophy. She led after 18 holes at the rain-shortened NW Arkansas Championship in September, but the win wasn’t official because the event ended after fewer than 36 holes.
Lewis has set meetings with several management companies and plans to choose one shortly after the NCAA Championship. She already has told one agency she is interested in raising money and awareness for scoliosis.
Giving back is a trait Lewis learned working alongside her mother in the National Charity League. She won’t talk about her random acts of kindness unless asked, but every other week she plays bingo at an elderly home and tutors a young girl at a local elementary school.
Lewis has outgrown some of her shyness. She’s a fixture at podiums around Fayetteville and has her share of media requests. Her time-management skills are so efficient that coaches marvel she has downtime despite double-majoring in accounting and finance and leaving Arkansas with a 3.74 GPA. What’s more, much of that time has been used to benefit others.
“It’s a side of her that kind of blossomed,” Dale Lewis said. “She’s been given this second chance at something that could’ve been taken away.”
Before every college round, Lewis goes to the gym with Estes-Taylor at 5 a.m. The warm-up keeps her back from getting tight and builds strength.
Lewis might not be able to play four or five tournaments in a row as a professional. Transcontinental flights are particularly hard. Mondays on tour might be limited to short-game practice and a long walk.
“I just need to listen to my body,” Lewis said. “Sometimes it might be better just to walk the golf course rather than hit all the shots.”
Lewis will find a way to make it work, even if she doesn’t share all the details. Her results will tell the story.
