Best Player of the Year: Stacy Lewis sets the ball rolling
Asian Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) stars might have been going places on the Tour these days, but American Stacy Lewis has her reasons to boast about her unmatched golfing skills
and stature.
With Lewis having won the Rolex Player of the Year 2012, the LPGA Tour has no doubt seen the best of her in the 2012 season.
When Lewis was starting the 2012 season, her mind had been besieged by mixed emotions, as this was when Asian LPGA stars were winning events after events. The American star stayed focused
and did not let her nerve overcome her in most of the tournaments.
Having notched up four LPGA titles in the 2012 season, Lewis has done better than all the other contenders on the Tour. Overall, the American prodigy recorded sixteen top-10 finishes, which
helped her subdue South Korean Inbee Park who was ambitiously trailing her.
Lewis’s star started rising after she won the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic in April this year. While before this, she had been teetering on the edge of failure along with most of other American
contenders. But the victory did much more to her than she had imagined, as she learned what had been missing in her game and playing style.
During her interview, she pointed out that her fans and critics had put her and other national stars under intense scrutiny and the only way out was start winning once again.
With current world number one Yani Tseng having inflicted misery on most of the non-Asian rivals in the 2011 season, it had become crucial for stars like Lewis and Cristie Kerr to toughen
up and take back the LPGA baton.
Although it will take a couple of more wins for Lewis to take the top position in the world rankings, things now appear to be going her way.
“All last year, there were all these questions of where the Americans were and why weren’t they playing well. I got tired of answering the questions. The only thing I could do is play better
and put a face to American golf,” said Lewis who currently ranks second in the Women’s World Golf Rankings and has repeatedly vowed to knock Tseng off the top spot.
Lewis recorded the second title of the season at ShopRite LPGA Classic in June. She then won the Navistar LPGA Classic, beating fellow American Lexi Thompson by two strokes.
Lewis, who had been desperately trying to get back to winning ways, faced a huge letdown at the 2012 US Women’s Open, as she finished tied for the 46th position, despite having
full crowd support on her side.
“I haven't figured out the U.S. Open the last couple of years, but I had the expectations of a chance to play really well there this year,” she said. "I think I let the pressure of that get
to me a bit, and I got too frustrated with a game that wasn't even that far off”.
The LPGA’s tour to Asia, which staged four tournaments last month, brought plenty of surprises to Lewis and her fans. She once again grabbed the headlines and racked up her fourth title at
Mizuno Classic 2012 in Japan.
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