EDINA, Minn. -- Today's final round of the 63rd U.S. Women's Open has shaped up as a battle between the face of American women's golf and the Who's She!? of golf in general.
No. 4-ranked Paula Creamer, the Pink Panther media darling often referred to as the best women's player without a major, shot 69 on a wild Saturday but was upstaged by Stacy Lewis.
And if you don't know Stacy Lewis, hang on.
She was found to have scoliosis -- a curvature of the spine -- at age 11, wore a back brace 18 hours a day for 7 1/2 years, had two six-inch rods and five screws inserted into her spine when she was 18, doubted whether she would ever play golf again and -- oh yeah, is making her professional debut this week at Interlachen Country Club in Edina.
And her dad, Dale, is caddying for her.
We aren't making this up. No one could make up the story of 23-year-old Lewis, the 255th-ranked women's golfer, what she's gone through and where she is after shooting Saturday's only bogey-free round (67), which left her at 9-under par and one stroke ahead of Creamer.
"When I found out that I needed to have the surgery, I was crying," said Lewis, who was told she would have to have the surgery after she had signed a letter of intent with the University of Arkansas. "I thought I'd never play college golf. I just wanted to play college golf, and that was all I wanted to do. I thought from there I was done."
The Razorbacks honoured the scholarship and red-shirted Lewis.
"I couldn't bend or twist for six months, or lift more than five pounds," said Lewis, a double major in finance and accounting. "So I kind of lost some of my muscle, couldn't swing a golf club, couldn't do any of that."
Lewis, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, and lives in the Woodlands, Texas, went on to win the NCAA Division I championship in 2007. She went 5-0 to lead the American Curtis Cup team to victory at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, this year. She also finished fifth at the Kraft Nabisco Championship -- a women's golf major -- last year and was leading the LPGA Tour event in Arkansas with an opening-round 65 but had it stricken from the record books because the final three rounds were rained out.
-- Minneapolis Star Tribune
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