British stone. ANDREWS, Scotland — Stacy Lewis took her seat back at the top table in the media room and answered a belated question from someone who was too shy to stand in the strong wind during a press conference. Yelling people.
Her five-year-old daughter, Chesnee, wants to know if her mother can get a pool – “a big pool” – if she wins here like she did in 2013.
“I think I might be able to solve your problem, little girl,” Louis said.
Eleven years have passed since the Texan birdied the final two holes to seal the Women’s Open title by two strokes. The second shot of 17 remains the best shot of her career, so much so that the 5-iron became the only club she kept in the office.
But during that time, as motherhood replaced golf as her priority and made her less insular, the demands of the LPGA Tour became more intense.
This year’s tour begins with two games in Florida and ends with three more games in the Sunshine State. The 10 months in between? An intricate, zigzagging map spanning the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia wouldn’t look out of place in Chesney’s school notebook.
This week’s Open is the fifth major in as many months, excluding the Olympics at France’s National Golf Club earlier this month. The St. Andrews Grand Slam season is coming to an end, but with the Solheim Cup in September and another Pacific fixture this fall visiting China, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and Hawaii in just 35 days, the schedule has been It’s packed and it’s not going to end anytime soon.
We only ask the most important questions at this press conference!
Chesney asked his mother @stacey_lewis If only she could get a swimming pool 🥰😂 pic.twitter.com/bhqgapR1Yz
— LPGA (@LPGA) August 21, 2024
This year’s LPGA Tour has a total of 33 stops and major championships, with more than 215 hours of pure flight time. The total mileage adds up to more than three trips around the world.
This isn’t a new problem – last year’s schedule featured a record-breaking 18 times, with more than 2,000 miles between tour stops. The season includes trips to China and intercontinental trips to Thailand and Malaysia; May criss-crosses the West Coast from Los Angeles to the East Coast of New Jersey; and June seesaws from Michigan to the PGA Championship in Washington State and back to Michigan, twice Flight times are all 6 hours, with only four days of rest between flights.
Eight and a half months into the season, with winds expected to reach 40-45mph on Thursday and many players unable to attend the Scottish Open to reacquaint themselves with links golf, can any player be expected to be at the top of their game? “Probably not, no,” said Lewis, captain of the U.S. team at next month’s Solheim Cup in Virginia. “Those who have been to the Olympics, you talk to most of them, it was a very heavy emotional week. So no, our schedule, especially in an Olympic year, is really, really tough.
“There’s been a lot of talk lately about scheduling, but at the same time, I’ve been doing this for 15 or 16 years. You learn how to deal with it, you learn how to be prepared in those moments and really do your best.
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Prize money for the Women’s Open has increased 409% since 2009, from $2.2 million to $9 million, and has tripled since 2020, when AIG began sponsoring the event.
Lewis described improvements to the Women’s Open’s infrastructure and facilities as “night and day” compared to 2013, but believes their hands are tied as they look for ways to ease the tight schedule.
“I think it’s ideal, but a lot of times it’s when sponsors want to play and when can we get the golf course?” she said.
“We don’t have the luxury of the PGA Tour of, ‘We’ll give you X amount of dollars and we’re going to play this week.’ We don’t have money just being thrown around.
“We’re kind of at the mercy of our sponsors. We’re at the mercy of the golf course, and that’s the nature of where we are. Do we want to get better? Yeah, absolutely. I think our backroom team is working like crazy, But we are a global tour and I want to compete against the best every week.
“So to do that, we have to go to Thailand and play because we have players from Thailand. We’re going to play in South Korea because we have players from South Korea. I think that’s what it is. To me, it’s more What strikes you is that this is a global tour. You said you were going to play on the LPGA Tour, which is what you signed up for.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda won six of seven tournaments between January and May, including the Chevron Championship, and has more than $3 million in prize money this year.
That gave her the luxury of skipping the entire Asia Tour, which saw her take seven weeks off at the start of the year during her winning streak. But even the two-time major champion had to withdraw from the JM Eagle Los Angeles Championship in April, citing exhaustion.
Nelly Korda has often taken several weeks off this season, a luxury not all LPGA pros can afford. (Michael Reeves/Getty Images)
When Lexi Thompson announced in May that she would retire at the end of the season at just 29 years old, she opened up discussions about the mental and physical demands of the LPGA Tour.
She spoke of how “lonely” and hectic life on tour has been since she first qualified for the U.S. Open at the age of 12, but she believes there are ways to ease the burden.
“The schedule is for sure,” Thompson said. “I think there’s a lot to be learned from all the travel. I think the flow of the schedule could be better. Certain events could be back-to-back and close to each other. We travel abroad a lot, but this is a global tour, so that’s something that goes with We are very lucky to have foreign sponsors.
“After the announcement, it took a little weight off my shoulders because it’s been something that’s been on my mind for a couple of years, so it’s something that’s always been on my mind and no one really knows or is going to happen. What.
Catriona Matthew won her only major title at the 2009 Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes just 11 weeks postpartum Win the championship. Matthew, now 54, was playing her last home tournament and had no idea how she was going to be able to compete on Tour with her two children in the years to come.
Lewis believes that continuing the chase for another Grand Slam in such a deep field, where he believes there is a 60% winning potential, requires extreme resilience.
Lydia Ko was expected to end a crippling eight-and-a-half-year drought this week, but the Australian performed well as she won gold in Paris and became the 35th woman to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
After her victory at 15, she remains the youngest female winner on the LPGA Tour, but 12 years later it was immediately clear how long she was willing to go to overcome the back pain she experienced in the morning, and whether she might have been ahead of schedule Retired at 30 years old.
“In a way, it’s probably scary because I’ve been playing golf since I was five years old,” Ko said.
“Whether I like it or not, this is my life and golf has given me so much that I’m grateful for on and off the course.
“As much as we’re grateful to be able to do what we love and compete at a high level, I think you have to think about the other side of things. As a guy who’s probably been closer to this point in my career than I was as a rookie, you realize to all those things and you respect the decisions the players make.
There are players who remain determined to join a major league club, most notably England’s Charlie Hull, whose attitude towards a recent shoulder injury exemplifies the mentality required to deal with such a relentless schedule.
“My shoulders are a little tight, so I get acupuncture every other day because when the weather is cold, it gets a little tight,” she said.
“I also have degenerative arthritis. So when the weather gets cold, it gets a little stiffer. I just try to stay warm.
“Other than that, I’m healthy and ready to go.”
(Top photo: Luke Walker/Getty Images)
