Stacy’s
Story
Diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11, Stacy wore a hard plastic back brace 18 hours a day, for more than six years, removing it each day only to play golf. When the bracing method failed, she had a metal rod and five screws surgically fused into her spine (picture: top right). Fearing she may never play golf again, she endured nine months of rehab before making the Arkansas golf team, and just two years later, won the NCAA individual championship. As a pro on the LPGA Tour, she won her first major in 2011, and after winning four tournaments in 2012, she became the first American in 18 years to win the LPGA’s most prestigious, Player of the Year award.
In April of 2013 Stacy reached number one in the world rankings, and after a total of three wins that season, won the Vare Trophy for the tour’s lowest scoring average. She was the first American to win that award in 19 years.
The Best Story In Golf
With 13 career LPGA wins, over 100 career top-10s, 4 Solheim Cup appearances, the title of Team USA Solheim Cup Assistant Captain in 2021 and Captain in 2023 and 2024, and a T4 finish at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Stacy already has one of the most prolific careers in LPGA history. Yet, she refuses to take her foot off the gas, and continues to work each day to improve her game and contend for championships each and every week.
Her success is undeniable, but that’s not what makes her the best story in golf. It’s what she has had to overcome in order to get there that separates her from everyone else. Stacy Lewis’s story is much more than just a golf story. She’s a medical-miracle story, a stay-in-school story, an overcoming hardship story, a giving back to children story, an athlete’s story, a mother’s story, and an inspirational story. In short, Stacy Lewis is as much a compelling human-interest story as she is a golf story.
