LPGA.com counts down to the end of 2014 with the LPGA Tour's top 14 stories of the year. Join us as we look back at the year's most memorable milestones. Read about Stacy Lewis’ big sweep in Story No. 3.
Stacy Lewis lost $850,000 on Sunday at the CME Group Tour Championship when Lydia Ko bypassed her for the inaugural $1 million prize to the winner of the Race to CME Globe. But she left content with the prizes she arrived to the CME Group Tour Championship to conquer in her grasps.
Lewis surely wanted to be the inaugural Race to CME Globe champion, but more than that, she wanted to be the Rolex Player of the Year and Vare Trophy winner and tops of the money list title all in the same season. She wanted to pencil her name in history forever as one of the greatest Americans to ever play this game.
“That’s what I came here for,” Lewis said. “I went into the week wanting to win these three awards. The $1 million and all would’ve been nice, but I would take these three over $1 million any day.”
Lewis surely got what she wanted to conclude 2014, becoming the first American since Beth Daniel to sweep the three season-ending awards.
The sweep was particularly special to Lewis because she had won the Rolex Player of the Year in 2012 and Vare Trophy in 2013 but had never won the money list or more than one season-ending award in a season.
It’s a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since Yani Tseng in 2011.
It was all very much in doubt heading into the CME Group Tour Championship. Lewis only led Inbee Park by .09 strokes for the Vare Trophy and be three points for Rolex Player of the Year honors. Park was on fire, too, with top-10 finishes in her last eight starts heading in, including seven top-five finishes in that stretch, and Lewis wasn’t playing her best golf to end the season.
When it mattered most, though, Lewis did enough to hold on with a tie for ninth, while Park faltered to a tie for 24th.
Park did retain No. 1 in the world, though and Lewis, always the goal setter, will surely have her eye on retaking that back in 2015.
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