Stacy Lewis looks to win again in Scotland and rid the LPGA of slow play: ‘We’re going to lose people watching us’

Stacy Lewis first fell in love with Scotland when she went 5-0 over the Old Course at St. Andrews at the 2008 Curtis Cup. She’d go back to the Home of Golf as a professional in 2013 and win the AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews, then win for the first time as a mom at the 2020 Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club.

Lewis loves the creativity that links golf demands as well as the toughness. She has long been tough.

What Lewis doesn’t love, however, is slow play. And at last year’s Scottish Open, the former No. 1 called out her fellow contenders on the eve of the final round for being particularly snail-like.

On Wednesday, Lewis raved about the event’s new venue – Dumbarnie Links – but noted that the course is a rather long walk, and she expects the pace to once again be slow this year.

“When I came out on tour, there were, I would say there were a handful of slow players,” she said, “and now there’s a handful of fast players. I think that’s the best way to put it.”

After Lewis ripped slow play last year, she was pleased with the number of players who told her they were glad that she spoke up. Veteran Azahara Munoz even asked for advice on how to get faster.

Earlier this year at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play event, Carlota Ciganda won the 18th hole but lost the match to Sarah Schmelzel due to a slow-play penalty that resulted in loss of hole. At the Kia Classic in March, rookie Yealimi Noh was hit with a $10,000 fine for slow play.

Lewis would like to see more spot-timing that results in penalty strokes. Too many people know how to work the current system, she said.

“Gosh, I remember first time on tour,” said Lewis, “I played slow. You just could never keep up with them. It’s little things. If you are first to hit, you need to walk faster and go get to your ball and if you’re last to hit, you’d better be pulling a club out when the person is hitting.”

Slow play has always been tough for Sophia Popov. Most of her mental work, in fact, is working on how to keep calm when the pace is maddening.

“Honestly half the time can’t believe how slow it is,” said Popov, “and I wish – I don’t know, you know, I’m not in it. I’m not a rules official. I don’t know what would help and what would be the easiest way to combat it.

“But I definitely feel like there has to be something done about it to make it more enjoyable.”

During her pro-am round at Dumbarnie Links, Lewis played with an amateur who is a member at Crail, where he said their time limit for a round of golf is three hours. It’s a short walk tee-to-green, Lewis noted, but that’s how the game should be played. Enjoy the round and get on with the rest of the day.

“I just think it needs to be a courtesy thing,” said Lewis, “because we need to realize as a tour, we’re going to lose people watching us and we’re going to lose fans because we are taking so long to play and I think that’s what really needs to be hammered home to people is we need to do it more from that side than anything.”