ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – To this day, it’s the only golf club that Stacy Lewis has saved.
Her 5-iron that she hit into the green on the Old Course’s famed 17th hole – a shot that helped her lock up her Women’s Open victory here at St. Andrews in 2013 – sits in her Solheim Cup captain’s golf bag in her office back in Bryan, Texas.
“It’s by far the best golf shot of my career,” Lewis said Wednesday ahead of what will likely be her last Women’s Open at St. Andrews. “The moment, the pressure, where you are, everything has to come off perfectly.”
Lewis didn’t hit a shot on the Saturday of her Open triumph as high winds scrapped play for the unlucky ones who did have to hit golf shots. She fired a 3-under 69 to turn a five-shot deficit after 36 holes into a one-shot difference between her and third-round leader Morgan Pressel. And playing about an hour ahead of the final group, Lewis finished birdie-birdie to polish off a closing 72 and post 8 under, which would end up being good enough by two.
Before Lewis birdied the Road Hole, she trailed. But after flighting a low shot into the wind and bouncing her ball up to a couple feet, she rolled in the birdie putt and walked toward the 18th tee tied Na Yeon Choi for the lead.
“On that hole you’re trying to get it down to the bottom of the hill, and if it bounces up, great, and if it doesn’t, you two-putt, and you get out of there,” Lewis said. “It just came off perfectly and bounced up there the way it was supposed to, and you need that. You need that in this championship. You need some bounces to go the right way.
“It was one of those in the air that you didn’t have to say anything to. You just kind of knew it was going to be good.”
Lewis wouldn’t mind a few more good bounces this week on a layout where she’s had a ton of success. While she didn’t play in the 2007 edition, a year after that she represented the U.S. in the Curtis Cup, overcoming a chunked tee shot and fortunate par on the first hole – she had to lay up on the short par-4 and her third then bounced over the burn to a few feet – to go 5-0 and secure the clinching point for the Americans.
Both victories at St. Andrews have ended in similar fashion – at the Dunvegan, the legendary hotel and pub where Lewis and her family are again staying this week.
It’s those celebrations that, years later, stick most vividly with Lewis.
“This is probably one of my favorite places in the world to be,” Lewis said, “obviously because of the success but just love the history of the game and this golf course and this place.”