LITTLE ROCK — Stacy Lewis says she's happiest as a player on the LPGA tour when she's either giving to others or thinking her way around a blur of fairways and greens.
We sat together for a few minutes on a patio beside the much improved Pinnacle Country Club golf course, scene of the upcoming P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship. With lush new grasses that withstand heat and some key reshaping on many holes, Pinnacle has transformed from a first-rate country club course into an authentic tour layout.
Lewis, her blonde pony tail cascading from behind a white Mazuno cap, looked tan and healthy. At 24, she hasn't lost the fiery spark in her bluish eyes that made her the greatest female champion ever to play at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a money-winner in her inaugural year on the LPGA tour.
Back home at this, her most comfortable course, she was preparing for the annual P&G Beauty tournament, set for Sept. 7-13. Lewis has vivid memories of her 2007 debut when, as an amateur, she was declared the "winner-with-an-asterisk" after torrential rains shorted the inaugural tournament to 18 holes.
Bolstered by expected throngs of fans and Razorback supporters, I suspect Lewis will give vaunted competitor Michelle Wie and others among what tournament director Jay Allen calls "a world-class field" a hog-wild welcome to the world-class course.
Lewis said her life today is filled with an endless string of hotel rooms and guest homes and one immaculately manicured course after another.
"There's so much of travel involved," she told me. "You finish one tournament on Sunday and by Monday you're at the next event and already practicing."
Still, she said she never tires of the routine. But then, her life for nearly a decade has been defined by golf. She hits the practice range each August morning before the heat builds.
"I actually lose track of all the balls I hit each day," Lewis said.
She still covets the time she finds to leave the road and return to her Fayetteville apartment. She now has six regular sponsors who provide her with encouragement and support in her demanding professional sport.
"If you can make the cut in any tournament, you'll earn money," Lewis said, "but just doing that can be really difficult today. There are so many excellent players that you need to play well from the first day to make the cut."
She laughed in telling about one tour player who told younger ones that she remembered when shooting 75 was a competitive score.
"Those days are gone for sure," Lewis said.
The four-time UA All-American and SEC Golfer of the Year said that in her rookie year more than a dozen established players asked her to turn to them when she needed help,and "their kindness made me feel good and the transition easier for me."
Now her number of friends on the tour has grown.
"We all understand how hard it can be for those coming into the LPGA," she said.
She began playing as an 8-year-old, when her father took her and her two sisters to courses in The Woodlands, their Houston, Texas, area community. Lewis, the middle sister, was the only one of the three to be captured by the game. Painful scoliosis diagnosed when she was 11 and the resulting surgery to fuse her spine temporarily sidelined her body, but not her spirit. She played well enough on her high school team to earn a partial scholarship at Arkansas.
Lewis' blossoming into a champion came after former Razorbacks women's golf coach Kelley Hester saw enough promise to recruit her and become one of her two mentors. The other is Shauna Estes-Taylor, the Hall-of-Famer and current women's golf coach, who was an assistant when Lewis arrived.
Lewis said that Estes-Taylor came to understand her better than anyone during her glory-laden collegiate career, but "each of them have been great mentors." I asked her what's in her mind when she's standing over a 12-foot birdie putt. I'm always just hoping that it somehow finds the hole, but she said she's concentrating on finding a target spot near the hole that matches her read of how the putt should roll.
"Then I putt for that mark. And I'm always happy if it goes in."
Lewis' best finish in her rookie year was third at the U.S. Women's Open. She's had three top 10 finishes and even played a tournament in France where she finished 15th.
"I couldn't speak a word of French and didn't even know how to get to the course," she said. "But it all worked out. A lot of people helped me get by."
I'm impressed with the woman that Lewis has become. The once-demure student is now poised, strong, engaging and open, so I wasn't surprised at her response when I asked what makes her happy.
She stared into the surrounding trees and her little-girl face flashed a soft grin before replying: "I'd say doing things for others and playing golf well."
Over the years, Lewis has made a habit of helping others, from tutoring to befriending child fans and playing regular bingo games with the aged.
All in all, I'd say that Stacy Lewis' inner self remains every bit as impressive as her grooved golf swing.
Mike Masterson is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Northwest edition.
Editorial, Pages 13 on 08/25/2009