Stacy Lewis is just like the Energizer Bunny, she keeps going and going. She garnered her third win of 2014 at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship over the weekend. It was her 12th top-10 finish in 14 starts this season.
Oh, by the way two of those top 10’s have come in major championships. She finished runner-up at Pinehurst in the U.S. Women’s Open two weeks ago and was third in the Kraft Nabisco Championship in March.
In an interview with Back 9 Report on Wednesday prior to the start of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, Lewis commented how the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship felt like a hometown tournament for her.
(The full interview will be aired on Back 9 Report radio show at 8 PM ET, Tuesday, July 1, and can be heard at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/edraft/2014/07/02/the-back-nine-report-presented-by-edraftcom.)
Although it was deemed an unofficial event, she won the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in 2007, while still an amateur playing for the University of Arkansas women’s golf team.
This win increased her lead in the Rolex Rankings and brought her winnings to $1.6 million for the year.
Lewis is No. 1 on the LPGA Tour money list and has a firm grip on the season-long Race to the CME Globe that will award a $1 million bonus to the top points earner.
Amid raucous hog-calls of Woo-Pig-Sooey from the rabid University of Arkansas fans, Lewis came from four shots behind the leader Michelle Wie and fired a six-under-par 65 to finish at 12-under-par for the tournament, one stroke better than Lydia Ko, Christie Kerr and Angela Stanford.
All four ladies had been tied throughout the round, but Lewis made birdies on three of her last four holes to capture the title.
Teenage sensation Ko carded her own six-under-par 65 and had set the early clubhouse lead at 11-under-par. Lewis playing just behind Ko, soon erased it with birdies at Nos. 17 and 18 to finish her round at 12-under-par.
Lewis turned the tables on her good friend Michelle Wie this week. Wie bested Lewis last week at the U.S. Women’s Open, but couldn’t hold her lead at the Walmart NW Arkansas Open this week.
She began the final round leading the tournament at 10-under-par, but three bogeys at Nos. 9-11 moved her down the leaderboard. She finished at two-over-par for her round and T-8.
Wie also trails Lewis in the Race to the CME Globe and the LPGA Tour money list.
Stanford began the final round in third place and four birdies got her to 11-under-par through 11 holes. Consecutive bogeys at Nos. 13 and 14 dropped her back.
She recovered with birdies at Nos. 16 and 18, but the damage had been done and she had to settle for joint runner-up.
Kerr also started Sunday in the third spot and made three birdies in her outward nine to get to 10-under-par and tied for the lead. She only added one more birdie on her back nine and couldn’t keep pace with Lewis’ birdie barrage over the closing holes.
In her last eight starts Lewis has one third-place finish, two runners-up and three wins. These are “Tigeresque” results and she is playing with a ton of calm confidence as she heads to Royal Birkdale to defend her title at the Ricoh Women’s British Open July 10-13.