Stacy’s Solheim Success - Stacy Lewis on Captaincy and modernising Golf.
19 December 2024
Stacy Lewis first played in the Solheim Cup in 2011, a lucky 13 years on, and having led the USA to a draw in 2023, she captained the team to their first victory since 2017. Todd Harris caught up with her to look back on a great 2024 and share her wish-list for 2025.
The former number one ranked women’s golfer believes that the fracture between the PGA and LIV has had an impact on the women’s game. Stacy told Todd that her sport needs to attract more viewers and the way to do that, she said, is to modernise: “The game has to be played faster… I would love to see more aggressive policies, but also we’ve got to find a place where people can watch us consistently and watch us a lot and get to know our players better.”
That said, she was positive about the overall situation of the women’s game, which is well established compared to other women’s sports organizations. “We've been around now 75 years,” Stacy reminded us. “So we've been the leader in this for a long time. And we're trying to continue that [by] making sure we're one of the leading women's sports organizations.”
As an undefeated Solheim Cup captain, Stacy would love to skipper the USA again. “I would do it in a heartbeat,” she said. “I loved every bit of it, getting to spend the time with the players and getting to know them the way I did. And, was it stressful? Was it a lot of work? Yes. But those two weeks have been two of the most fun weeks of my golf career.”
Lewis’s deep knowledge of how challenging it is to captain a side in this event led her to wonder how Keegan Bradley will cope: he’s due to captain and play in the 2025 Ryder Cup. “There's way too much to it,” Stacy explained. “And the decisions that have to be made, the things you are worrying about and then trying to play good golf at the same time… I just don't think you can do that. And so I think at some point he's going to have to make a choice and either have a really good backup plan or take himself out of the mix.”
To hear the full interview, including Stacy Lewis’s advice to young golfers and her views on making a living in the sport,….
To download or listen to the podcast, use the links below.
