Lydia Ko and Inbee Park have each won five times on the LPGA Tour this season.
Stacy Lewis has six…second-place finishes.
It’s been a disappointing and frustrating follow-up season to a three-win 2014 for Lewis, who, just a year ago, became the first American in 21 years to lock up the LPGA’s biggest season-long awards — the scoring average title, tops on the money list and Player of the Year. A stroke here and there different, and Lewis’ year is very different.
Now, Lewis has one final chance to win in 2015 at the CME Group Tour Championship. Paired with Ko and Park in the opening round, Lewis will get another good look at where she wants to be again.
“I want to be in the conversation with those (two),” Lewis said Tuesday. “I want to be up there fighting back and forth with them at this time of the year. So, it’s definitely frustrating.”
Lewis cannot catch Ko or Park for any of the season-long awards she won last year. However, coming into the season finale ranked third in the tour’s Race to the CME Globe points system, Lewis, with a lone win on the year, could earn a $ 1.5 million payday. The 30-year-old would earn $ 500,000 for winning the tournament at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., and, with that win, would take the Race to the CME Globe’s $ 1 million first-place prize — regardless of where Ko or Park finish.
Regardless of how the week turns out, Lewis doesn’t find this season a total wash. While she wants to break through again, she has become more comfortable with not winning — a lesson learned that might make her more dangerous when she hoists her next trophy.
“I haven’t been the best loser in the past,” Lewis said. “I hate losing. It would tend to stay with me for a long time, and over this last year, I don’t know what it is. I’ve just been able to move on quicker, and I think that’s what I’ve learned. “
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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