HOUSTON — Stacy Lewis was expecting the tears Friday when she finished her 18-year career on the LPGA Tour, which included two majors among her 13 titles and a rise to No. 1 in the world.
They mainly were for her father, Dale, who caddied for her on the 18th hole at Memorial Park, one last father-daughter walk up the fairway and into retirement.
“I probably shouldn’t have looked at my dad,” Lewis said after rounds of 79-77. “I guess my emotions are probably a lot different than theirs. They’re probably a little bit more sad, where I’m just ready. I’m ready for the next chapter and ready to stop grinding over 8-footers.”
Lewis, who has a 7-year-old daughter, played her final LPGA event while pregnant with her second child. She was exempt to The Chevron as a past champion. She won her first title 15 years ago at this major when it was the Kraft Nabisco at Mission Hills in California.
Her other major came on the Old Course at St. Andrews, when Lewis put on a clinic on long irons on links golf and superb putting across the double greens.
That was the signature moment during a stretch when she became the first American in nearly 20 years to be LPGA player of the year in 2012, and early in 2013 rose to No. 1 in the the women’s world ranking for the first time.
Her husband, Gerrod Chadwell, is the women’s golf coach at Texas A&M and caddied for her this week until handing over to the bag to Dale Lewis.
She thought it was only fitting that she close out her career in her hometown.
“I just think back to the kid in high school wearing a back brace and being told I have to have surgery, to 25-plus years later to still be playing golf, to be doing it at this level, to have accomplished what I did,” she said. “I mean, it’s really kind of a fairytale. I don’t think anyone would have predicted any of this.”
Just reaching the LPGA was somewhat of a miracle.
Lewis was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 11, so severe that she wore a back brace for 18 hours every day from age 11 until she got out of high school, and then had to have surgery when that didn’t correct the curvature in her spine.
Her orthopedic surgeon in Houston, Gary Brock, had planned to insert two rods in her back. But in the months leading to the surgery, Brock went to a charity event, bought a raffle ticket and won a series of lessons with a golf pro who had worked with Lewis.
That’s when the doctor realized Lewis was more that a recreational player. So he suggested a single rod for the surgery to allow her more flexibility and rotation. Because of that raffle ticket, Lewis went on to play at Arkansas, win an NCAA title and enjoy a distinguished LPGA career.
Her last win was in 2020 at the Ladies Scottish Open, and Lewis went on to be Solheim Cup captain twice and playing on four U.S. teams.
And then the final act for Lewis, 41, was a day with family and friends, and a walk with her father.
“We were just talking about the golf course today and how it played, all the fairway woods I’ve hit into greens this week. Tried to keep it pretty casual,” Lewis said. “I knew he was going to be a little bit more emotional, so I had to finish out the round.”