(Photo by Getty Images)Lewis shot 65-65 in the first two rounds, and got to 16 under par and a nine-shot lead midway through Sunday's round. Then she "lost concentration" on the back nine and made some unforced errors on and around the greens. Still, she finished at 12 under, beat Katherine Hull by four strokes, and is clearly playing the best golf of her life right now. "I've been playing well all year," she said after taking a share of the first-round lead on Friday. "It's fun to be out there just to play, not working on your golf swing or working on your stroke or anything."
"Not working" seems to really be working for the three-year
tour veteran, whose first win came at last year's Kraft Nabisco
Championship. She's had five top-five finishes this season (including
another win at last month's Mobile Bay LPGA Classic) and her GIR,
putting and scoring-average stats are all in the top five on tour. Add
to that an extra 10 yards off the tee combined with finding more
fairways than ever (she hit 35 out of 42 this week), and Lewis seems
unstoppable. "Confidence is everything for me right now," she admits.
"Just even looking back to the Kraft last year, I've gained so much confidence.
I'll see my name on a leaderboard at four or five under and be okay
with that, and wanting to make more birdies instead of just trying to
protect the lead. Good shots breed more
confidence and so I just try to keep it rolling."
Now that Lewis has met her goals for the year before she's even reached peak season, she has to start considering the possibility of catching the No. 1 player in the world, Yani Tseng. "It's always in the back of my head," she says, "it's just hard when Yani is so far ahead right now." (Tseng has almost double the ranking points of world No. 2, Na Yeon Choi.) "It took her a long time to build that lead, so it's going to take a long time to get closer. I just have to try to chip away at it. But I'll go back after this and set some more mini-goals. Because I've just blown my goals for the year out of the water."
Tseng had her worst showing of the year at the ShopRite, which is to say that she finished slightly out of the top 10 for the first time all season (her final-round score of one-over 72 put her at a total of -3 for the tournament and tied for 12th). Still, she feels good about her game and it's hard not to dub her the favorite going into the LPGA's second major, Wegmans LPGA Championship, next week (she won the event by 10 strokes last year). Most of all, Tseng is looking forward to the U.S. Women's Open, the only major she needs to complete her career Grand Slam, in four weeks. "I feel very excited [about Blackwolf Run]," she says. "I want to go there as soon as I can. I heard the golf course is very tough, so I'm very excited to play the tough golf course and enjoy that place. Last year I had more pressure going in there, but now I know my game's ready. I'm ready."
Also fit for a major fight is Spain's Azahara Munoz. A first-time LPGA winner two weeks ago at the Sybase Matchplay Championship, Munoz shot -7 at the ShopRite to finish tied for third with Mika Miyazato. She agrees that confidence is a big factor in scoring. "I've been hitting the ball really well but I think the key is my putting. I'm putting really well and that's made a big difference in my confidence. It's nice to be peaking now with the majors coming up. I really like the course next week, and I normally like the U.S. Open setups too, so it feels good."
Munoz says she and Morgan Pressel have put the rules disputes in their Sybase semifinal match two weeks ago behind them. "We're totally fine, it was never as big of a problem as the media made it out to be. I just want to move on. I'm really happy I got my win, and now I just want to focus on the next one."
--Stina Sternberg
Now that Lewis has met her goals for the year before she's even reached peak season, she has to start considering the possibility of catching the No. 1 player in the world, Yani Tseng. "It's always in the back of my head," she says, "it's just hard when Yani is so far ahead right now." (Tseng has almost double the ranking points of world No. 2, Na Yeon Choi.) "It took her a long time to build that lead, so it's going to take a long time to get closer. I just have to try to chip away at it. But I'll go back after this and set some more mini-goals. Because I've just blown my goals for the year out of the water."
Tseng had her worst showing of the year at the ShopRite, which is to say that she finished slightly out of the top 10 for the first time all season (her final-round score of one-over 72 put her at a total of -3 for the tournament and tied for 12th). Still, she feels good about her game and it's hard not to dub her the favorite going into the LPGA's second major, Wegmans LPGA Championship, next week (she won the event by 10 strokes last year). Most of all, Tseng is looking forward to the U.S. Women's Open, the only major she needs to complete her career Grand Slam, in four weeks. "I feel very excited [about Blackwolf Run]," she says. "I want to go there as soon as I can. I heard the golf course is very tough, so I'm very excited to play the tough golf course and enjoy that place. Last year I had more pressure going in there, but now I know my game's ready. I'm ready."
Also fit for a major fight is Spain's Azahara Munoz. A first-time LPGA winner two weeks ago at the Sybase Matchplay Championship, Munoz shot -7 at the ShopRite to finish tied for third with Mika Miyazato. She agrees that confidence is a big factor in scoring. "I've been hitting the ball really well but I think the key is my putting. I'm putting really well and that's made a big difference in my confidence. It's nice to be peaking now with the majors coming up. I really like the course next week, and I normally like the U.S. Open setups too, so it feels good."
Munoz says she and Morgan Pressel have put the rules disputes in their Sybase semifinal match two weeks ago behind them. "We're totally fine, it was never as big of a problem as the media made it out to be. I just want to move on. I'm really happy I got my win, and now I just want to focus on the next one."
--Stina Sternberg
