Stacy Lewis moved into the Top 45 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings this week following her 13th career LPGA Tour victory at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open. Lewis moved up 53 spots and went from being ranked No. 96 to No. 43 in the world, making it her biggest jump in the rankings after a win.
While she struggled early in the wind at Royal Troon in the AIG Women’s Open, Lewis is now the eighth highest-ranked player from the United States behind a group of talented young Americans whose average age is 27.
Lewis knows the position well as she started her initial climb to World No. 1 a decade ago.
She won her first LPGA Tour event at the age of 26 when she was ranked No. 28 in the world. Her breakthrough moment at the 2011 ANA Inspiration was followed by four wins in 2012 that moved her from No. 9 to No. 2 in the rankings when she was 27 years old.
Her seventh career LPGA Tour win at the 2013 Volvik Founders Cup sent her to the top spot for four weeks. At age 28, she became just the second American player after Cristie Kerr to achieve the No. 1 position in the Rolex Rankings.
Lewis later returned to No. 1 in 2014 and has spent a total of 25 career weeks on top.
Her victory on Sunday was reminiscent of her previous win in Scotland at the 2013 AIG Women’s Open and marks her return to performance at the highest level.
“Last week was obviously great. I played great golf. I hit the ball extremely well,” said Lewis.
Indeed, at The Renaissance Club, she hit 40 of 52 fairways and found the green 76.39% of the time, which ranked as fifth- and second-best in the field respectively for these statistics.
Below are the key statistics that led Lewis to victory last week in Scotland:
Stacy Lewis Field Ranks
In Ladies Scottish Open Victory
Rank
Par 5 scoring 4.56 2nd
Greens in regulation 76.39% 2nd
Driving accuracy 76.92% 5th
Birdies or better 13 6th
Putts per GIR 1.80 9th
Lewis’ vault up the rankings returns her closer to the rank (No. 33) when she stopped competing to give birth to her daughter Chesnee in October 2018. Since then, Lewis has made 24 starts and recorded five top-10 finishes including her recent win and ninth-place finish at the Marathon LPGA Classic presented by Dana. Her average finish position when making the cut has been 28th during this time.
Lewis said that, “Since I’ve had her, it feels like the second part of my career.”
Her past success is history but continues to drive her today towards the future.
Lewis won 10 times when she was ranked in the top 10 of the Rolex Rankings including once at No. 1 at the 2014 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G.
Most Wins when Ranked in the Top 10
Rolex Rankings Since 2006
Lorena Ochoa 24
Inbee Park 15
Yani Tseng 14
Suzann Pettersen 13
Lydia Ko 12
Jiyai Shin 10
Stacy Lewis 10