KATHIE SHEARER: Stacy, Player of the Year, third in the world, does this course suit you? STACY LEWIS: Well I d say I think any time you re playing well and you re playing good, I think any course will suit you. This course is tricky. You have to hit it straight and I think that s going to be the main key is how many opportunities you can give yourself off the tee to hit greens. So long as you hit on the greens I think you can make some putts. Q. Stacy, is it a case where you don t really have much clue how you re going to play at this stage of the year? Is it a little bit of a lottery? STACY LEWIS: For me I think it is. It’s been a good couple of months since I played a tournament and you can only practice so much. To get a true feel for what competition is like you just have to get into it. I mean, there are definitely some unknowns for me coming into this week but I feel the last couple of days have gone pretty well and so I feel pretty good about it. Q. After the year you had last year, there probably wasn t a great deal of work on through the Winter? STACY LEWIS: No, we didn t really work on anything crazy. It was just kind of continuing on what we were working on at the end of last year, kind of setting up what we wanted to work on the rest of the year. Our goal is just to put myself in contention every week and chip away at Yani s lead at number 1 in the world. That s kind of been the goal since the middle of last year. Q. You arrived here last year; I think you were number 10 in the world when you came to the Australian Women’s Open last year. You got to number 2 and I guess Na Yeon Choi gazumped you late in the piece with those two wins she had. Is getting to number 1 a real goal for you? STACY LEWIS: Yeah, it s kind of the goal that is in the back of your mind. It’s not the one that – you re not thinking about it walking down the first hole, it s one that you re thinking about at the end of the week. It’s a big goal and so for me I have to put little goals before the big one. I d like to get there. I think it s pretty cool to be able to say that you re number 1 in the world. Q. Are you a person who puts the golf clubs away altogether or have you been playing a bit of social golf over your break? STACY LEWIS: Right at the end of the season I put them away for two weeks. I played a little tournament in December and then kind of played sparingly here and there. But after the first of the year I got back at it practising pretty regularly. Q. Do you feel you re getting acceptance now as the leading American essentially on the LPGA Tour? I suppose that is a mantle that you now carry. Does it bring you any extra pressure or are you just enjoying it? STACY LEWIS: I don&apost know. I think there are some other Americans that kind of get the – they re the media stars. They always kind of get that attention and so I think some of that takes away from me a little bit, so I don t feel like I m the sole number one, I feel like there s a lot of other really good players that I kind of share it with. I am getting to the point where I feel like I am kind of carrying the flag and it s been cool that I ve been kind of able to help out some of the younger players; just they ve asked me a lot of questions, some of the rookies about what advice I had for them. So it s kind of just interesting how my role has changed over these last few years. Q. So you re feeling like a veteran now? STACY LEWIS: I am I guess, getting older; it s kind of crazy. Q. Do you think you re getting your proper recognition? Would you like that or would you rather stay a little bit under the radar? STACY LEWIS: I think for me I d rather be under the radar just because I ve always played that way. I ve never been the one that everybody s talked about right away. I just kind of sneak in there and seem to play well. So I m more comfortable in that role but I would also like it if people would talk about me too. Q. Stacy, did you make the front cover of either Golf Digest or Golf Magazine in the States last year? STACY LEWIS: Don&apost know if I did, nope. Q. There weren t many women on the cover. STACY LEWIS: That s part of it, I don&apost know, it s women’s golf versus men’s golf and I m not Michelle Wie. But that s the way it is and I get that and I m fine with that. it just motivates me more. Everybody just keeps giving me more motivation; so why not. Q. Obviously Royal Melbourne was such a great track last year. I came in just a couple of minutes late, but what were your thoughts about the scores there based on what you ve seen so far? STACY LEWIS: It’s obviously very different from Royal Melbourne. It’s true lie. There s a lot of tricky tee shots, especially on the back nine, there are some long par 4s that you can hit it in the trees pretty quickly. So I think driving the ball straight is the key and then from there if you hit in the fairway you ve got a pretty good chance of hitting the green. So it s going to be a putting contest from there. Q. Is it a course where the scores could go low or you expect it will be every day sort of around the par mark? STACY LEWIS: I think you ll see some really low scores and then everybody else will kind of be pretty bunched up. I think it s a course if you drive it well, you hit every fairway, you re going to score well. You can hit a couple of squirly drags and you can make some bogeys pretty quick. So I think you ll see some really good scores and then kind of everybody else bunched together. KATHIE SHEARER: I wish you all the best for this week. I hope we see you in here. Thank you very much indeed.
Author: Golf Australia