Hamilton Farm Golf Club

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: STACY LEWIS Wednesday, May 16, 2012

MODERATOR: All right. I would like to welcome Stacy Lewis into the interview room. Stacy, thanks for coming in. Just to start things off, the Golf Channel is doing something a little bit different today where they're mic'ing up some players, including you, during the pro-am. Can you tell me how excited you are or how you feel about it?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I think it will be interesting. I don't know how it's going to turn out, but I think it will be fun for the fans to see what our pro-ams are like. Today's the most important day for us, is the pro-am experience for our sponsors, so I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully I have a fun group that will kind of joke around out there and have a good time.

MODERATOR: Keeping up with the theme See Why It's Different Out Here, Wegmans will be the first time that Twitter handles will be included on the back of your caddy bibs. Can you just tell me a little bit about that, and are you a pretty active Tweeter?

STACY LEWIS: I'm somewhat active on Twitter. My agents kind of have to get on me all the time. I'll go for a week and then I'll kind of quit for a week, so I need to get better about it. But it's a really cool thing. On the back of the bibs is going to have our name and then our Twitter handle under it, and it will just be another way for us to get exposure and for people to follow us on Twitter and see what we're doing every day, and you can kind of get into what our lives are like from day to day.

MODERATOR: All right. A little bit of a different question. If you weren't an LPGA player, what LPGA player would you follow on Twitter?

STACY LEWIS: Well, hmm, that's interesting. 's always a good follow, but she kind of gets going sometimes and has too many tweets. I don't know. Michelle Wie is a good one, she seems to put pictures of food up all the time, what she's doing every day, so I think she would be a good follow.

MODERATOR: Okay. Getting back to this week, you were the first player in history to go 5 and 0 in the , so you have a pretty impressive resume when it comes to

www.tee-scripts.com Hamilton Farm Golf Club match play. Can you tell me how it suits your game and how you feel going into this week?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I love match play, I haven't had that much success at this event, I think more because of how they did the seedings in years past, got some tough matches early on. So I'm looking forward to having the seedings being straight off the world rankings. I think it will be a little more fair and you won't have quite so many interesting matches to start.

But I'm looking forward to it. I love match play, I love -- you can kind of get on a run and make a bunch of birdies and kind of hold your lead, and, you know, you can go out there and make a (inaudible) and be okay. So it's fun. You have to be aggressive and you have to be willing to kind of take some chances.

MODERATOR: I know you talked in Mobile about how you're trying to work on your swing and work on your game. Well, you won Mobile, so is your swing finally where you want it?

STACY LEWIS: It's not 100 percent. Actually, my coach came in town last week and I still continue -- I worked on a few things with my swing. I didn't like some shots I hit down the stretch last week, so I think there's always things to work on, but my swing is definitely moving in the right direction and I still feel really good about my game.

MODERATOR: Any questions?

Q. Can you just talk about what you did after you won? I know you had a lot of media obligations. Did you take some time off? Was it a lot more hoopla than the first time you won?

STACY LEWIS: Definitely not as much hoopla. I missed my flight on the way home, so I got stuck in Mobile on Sunday night. I went on -- on Tuesday I went to the Golf Channel and did a bunch of shows and was there for most of the day, and really the rest of the week I didn't really -- I think I played two or three times that week. I took some time off and just really kind of caught my breath and got to enjoy it a little bit, really got two weeks to enjoy it, so it was nice.

Q. Is it more difficult to win the first one or the second one?

STACY LEWIS: I think the first one's harder just because you put so much pressure on yourself to win. I don't know, it took me quite a long time. But the second one was easier just because I had been in that situation before, just down the stretch hitting certain shots and knowing how my body would react or how I handled nerves or things like that, definitely had that experience from the Kraft, so I think the first one was definitely harder.

www.tee-scripts.com Hamilton Farm Golf Club Q. Stacy, do you get anxious kind of waiting for that second win to come? Having already won and experienced that, I'm sure you want that second one to come?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, you do. Last year I think I finished second twice and you wonder if you're ever going to win go again, if it's ever going to happen. I mean, I didn't want it to be that way, I want to be a multiple-time winner out here, I didn't want to be a one-hit wonder. I also kind of wanted to prove to people that the Kraft meant something, it wasn't just Yani played bad the last day. I wanted to prove that I can play out here and I can compete.

Q. Stacy, how important are match play events like this one, since it's the only one on Tour, like for the ? Having played in it, you know, what kind of things did you learn from that and what do you want to improve on?

STACY LEWIS: Well, Solheim, that's a completely different animal from this. Solheim, there's so much more emotion to it and you want to beat that other team so bad. This is a little different because you get paired against your teammates sometimes. I don't know, I think I learned from it just to be a little more patient and take the good shots when they come; if not, make your par and force the other person to beat you. Just to be a little more patient.

Q. Stacy, last year you lost in the third round to Suzann. I think it was 1-up, she made a birdie on the last hole. When you look back on that event, do you say I'm that close to winning this tournament in the sense that she went on to win it? How do you look at it?

STACY LEWIS: Well, it's always nice to lose to the eventual champion. That definitely makes it feel little better. But our match, we went back and forth all day. I think the year before I lost on 18 as well. So I know I'm close to playing well at this event, it's just one putt or one chip or one thing here or there and you're right where you need to be.

Q. Stacy, a lot of junior golfers look up to you because of what you've been able to overcome and persevere through. What does it mean to you to be an example for them and what you've been able to do?

STACY LEWIS: Well, it's kind of strange to me that so many kids look up to me. I mean, everything I went through, I just -- I dealt with and I had to go through it. I didn't really have an option, so it didn't really seem like -- yeah, it was a big deal at the time, but looking back on it, it was even more of a big deal. It's an honor really to have kids to look up to me. I get letters and e-mails and things from parents and kids all the time. You know, it makes me kind of think how lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing. And it doesn't -- it's not just golfers. I got a letter from a girl that's a horseback rider or swimmer or whatever it is. It's -- I don't know, it's really cool. It's something that I guess nobody else has.

www.tee-scripts.com Hamilton Farm Golf Club Q. Playing in the first round, she's a grinder, Solheim Cup veteran. Can you just kind of talk about what you think about being faced against her?

STACY LEWIS: Yeah, we were doing a pro-am on Monday and she comes up and she's like, I've got you on Thursday. I was like, What is she talking about?

And so, well, then we left the pro-am and we were getting in a shuttle to come out here and the two of us are in a car together and we're like, We just can't get away from each other.

It should be fun. Pat's a lot of fun to play with whether you're playing against her or not. She's going to be tough because she makes a lot of birdies and makes putts. It's going to be a good first match for me.

Q. A couple weeks ago was talking about how at this point in her life she wants a balance in her life between golf and sort of outside stuff. If that means she's not going to be number one in the world, that's okay with her right now. What's just your approach to, you know, practicing and that sort of attitude?

STACY LEWIS: Well, for me, I think -- I think everybody wants to find a balance out here, but my number one goal is to be number one in the world and to challenge Yani week in and week out. I might not get to do certain things that I really want to do, but I think you can still find a balance and still be one of the top players in the world. I mean, I don't really see that as hindering or I don't really see it as an issue.

Q. Is winning this event more a crapshoot in the sense that you could have a really good day and someone just has a better day?

STACY LEWIS: Um-hmm, it is. I think this is the hardest event to win because you've got to win six matches, and if you catch somebody when they get hot and you never know. It's definitely the hardest tournament to win. You're going to have a bad day, you're going to have a bad round, and if you can find a way to grind that match out in the second or third round, a lot of times that will win you the tournament.

Q. Stacy, when you joined, the LPGA Tour was in a bit of a lull and now it seems to be bouncing back. Could you comment on how resilient the Tour is, and are things getting better in your view?

STACY LEWIS: Well, I definitely think we're getting better. I think my rookie year, I think, was when we had the least number of events; maybe my second year, I'm not sure. We're definitely moving in the right direction. We're adding tournaments, adding tournaments in the U.S., which I think that's -- that's the biggest thing we need is tournaments here closer to home. I think we're moving in the right direction. And I think in the end we need American players to kind of step up and play good, and somebody

www.tee-scripts.com Hamilton Farm Golf Club needs to get up and contend Yani. I think that's what's going to drive the ratings and get more people to follow and watch our events.

Q. To follow up, more American players have to come to the top, you said. Does that put more pressure on you to carry that flag up for the Americans?

STACY LEWIS: I don't think it's more of a pressure on me. I would love to be that person, for sure. Whether -- I mean, I don't really care where I am on the American rankings or anything like that, but ultimately it's number one in the world, and if you've got an American player that's number one in the world, it's been a while since that happened. So if we can do that, I think the Tour is going to be moving even more in the right direction.

MODERATOR: Any other questions? Thank you, Stacy.

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