HOUSTON — Stacy Lewis was expecting the tears Friday (Saturday in Manila) 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.
