By Vince Robitaille

GolfWRX Staff Writer

What seemed like a lock, a formality, a proverbial walk in the park, turned into a thriller on Sunday afternoon as Stacey Lewis took her foot off the pedal and let a few players that were only trying to catch up melt away her lead. While the action in Magnolia Grove was, quite surprisingly, present on the last day of the Mobile Bay Classic, the heart of the tournament lies in the two previous rounds. Ergo, reverting back to Friday seems fit in order to better understand how the Razorback’s efforts on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail landed her a second official LPGA Tour victory.

Speaking of Fridays, over the last 2 months, it has basically comes down to speaking of one particular golfer — a particular golfer who seems to (I feel terrible for quoting the recent Pop Culture’s 2^nd worst phenomenon here ) likes to get down, score-wise that is, on that very specific day of the week, Karin Sjodin. In fact, the Swede who tallied no less than nine birdies in the 2^nd round of the Mobile Bay LPGA Classis en route to a course-record 64 hass made it a point to make up for her usual slow starts with an energetic uproar on the subsequent day. While the obvious performance that springs to mind when it comes to this precise tendency is her 5-under 67 in the first major of the season, it should be noted that, over her five past tournaments, she has cumulated an aggregate score of 17-under and never handed in a scorecard in green figures. Much to her dismay, however, the Oklahoma State alumni couldn’t keep up the pace and register a decent round on moving day; things opened up dreadfully and didn’t get much better as she surrendered three shots to the field, by way of a bogey on 7^th and a double on the 8^th, right before the turn on her way to a disappointing 74, 36 strokes of which were putts.

Finding herself in a tie for 2nd with the aforementioned player, at the end of the 2^nd day, before stumbling herself, was LPGA Tour rookie Sydnee Michaels. The relative unknown, at least when it comes to the professional ranks – Michaels enjoyed relative amateur success in the second half of the last decade; a period undeniably highlighted by her participation in the 16-8 American victory at the 2005 Junior Solheim Cup as well as a top-8 finish in the 2010 US Women’s Amateur.

Amongst those of would make a move up the leaderboard on Friday, but keep the momentum going during the weekend, this time, were five-time Ladies European Tour winner and Hexagon-export, Karine Icher, and our champion, Stacey Lewis who would go into the weekend at 7 and 9-under respectively; the latter finding herself in the driver seat despite a bogey on the 18^th hole which brought her back down to ground level after having registered three straight birdies.

The 3^rd round started with a young star reminding everyone, Yours Truly first and foremost, that her upsides shall override her inconsistency in spots and land her several trophies when it’s said and done; much like a certain Bubba Watson on the men’s Tour. Effectively, after a slight hiccup on her 2^nd hole of the day, the par-4 11^th, Lexi Thompson rallied quickly with back-to-back birdies before making the turn in an outward 34. Now sitting at 5-under for the tournament, the Navistar LPGA Classic champion charged quickly on the front [inward] nine with a blemish-free 32. The American teenager still found herself five shots off the lead, come Sunday morning; but that was just that, Sunday morning.

Another American high-profile golfer not named Stacey Lewis planned on taking advantage of the Razorback’s lackluster front nine; the four-time All-American’s two birdies and two bogeys keeping her at 9-under while others were passing ahead. Brittany Lincicome came out of the gates steadily, yet slowly, recording three straight pars, but pulverized the portion of the course best-suited for her unmatched length: the par-5’s 4^th and 6^th as well as the bisecting par-4 5^th. In fact, the one most commonly known as Bam Bam attacked the green in two on the first par-5 of the previously stated series and, once she came up a mere 10 yards short of the putting surface, resourcefully pitched the ball up to the deep-seated pin en route to an easy birdie. The apparent Sudoku-enthusiast that is Lincicome promptly added to her success with back-to-back birdies on the subsequent holes, hence taking the lead at 10-under. Joining her at the top was Aussie Lindsey Wright, by way of a chip-in on the 7^th hole, who quickly gave the stroke back through an awkwardly sliced 4-footer that ended her opening nine on a rather sour note… never to be a realistic challenger again.

Despite Lincicome shaving off two additional shots in the second half of the afternoon and furthering her lead to three after 13 holes, the back nine was owned by Icher and Lewis. As for the French golfer, she kicked things off in a way that would have made Laurent Blanc proud, with a birdie on the 376-yard-long par-4 12^th, before recording a rare eagle on the subsequent par-5. Icher then proceeded to shave yet another stroke, two holes later, to close out an inward 32 that had her comfortably positioned in 3^rd with an aggregate score of 11-under. The Texan, on her hand, literally tore up whatever was left of the course – after Icher, Lincicome and Thompson had their ways with it in the calm and warm conditions – with no less than five birdies on a 6-hole stretch starting on the 12^th hole. The shot that ignited it all, despite the apparently disgusted looks from the interested party, came on the said 12^th hole. After seeing her drive drift off into the bunker protecting the left side of the fairway, Lewis dealt with the slightly intricate lie facing her and drained the subsequent right-to-left sliding 6-footer to get back within 2 strokes of the lead. From then on out, it would be a streak of fairways, greens and solid putts that would give the Houston-native a thin 2-shot cushion going into the final round.

Now, with Lewis firing three straight sub-70 rounds heading into the last 18 holes of a tournament where rain is an absolute non-factor and her closest pursuer, at the beginning of the day, only managing an even-par 72, one has to think that the said 18 holes are, as it was previously stated, somewhat of a mere formal procedure. Certainly, a 17-year-old wouldn’t chip in for birdie on the 2^nd hole of the day, sink her birdie attempt on the ensuing green, reach the green in two on the 488-yard-long par-5 6^th to make the turn at 12-under – five strokes behind the 2011 Kraft Nabisco champion once she’ll get to the same portion of the course – and prove herself to be a contender? Wrong, oh so very wrong.

A quick burst to 13-under on the 10^th, by way of a side-door 8-footer, was followed by a crafty up-and-down on the 11^th as Thompson left what seemed like a rather straight-forward short iron into the slightly elevated green, in the front side fringe. An uneventful 12^th made way to the 529 yards of grass that make up the par-5 13^th hole at The Crossings; 529 yards that were covered by Lexi Thompson through a 307-yard-long drive and a 232-yard-long fairway wood from a downhill lie. Positioned securely on the upper-right tier of the green, the Puma from Florida sharply executed what seemed like a double-breaking 40-footer for eagle; so much so that three measly inches were left for Thompson to make it to 14-under.  The painfully hard to watch disaster from last year’s final round – which launched Thompson into a string of blatantly horrible decisions over the subsequent holes, en route to a 6-over 78 that would turn what seemed like the breakthrough we had been waiting for, into a tragedy of pandemic proportions – at the par-3 14^th wasn’t to be this time around. In fact, the 17-year-old sent a tightrope tracer that looked in all the way, to 3 feet. Thompson hastily converting, the lead was now down to two. Afterwards, as Thompson birdied the 16^th and the seemingly interminable par-streak of Lewis – the Texan recorded eight straight blanks, starting on the 7^th ­hole – came to an end with a wet ball on 15^th that led to a bogey, both Americans were now, despite all probabilities favoring the opposite outcome, tied in 1^st place.

Unfortunately for the LPGA Tour “rookie”, getting around the last two holes of the Championship at even-par wasn’t enough to register her third professional triumph; Stacey Lewis coming through in the clutch by way of a birdie on the par-5 16^th. After safely splitting the fairway with her tee shot, the Texan attempted a somewhat aggressive 230-yard-long draw to the efficiently protected – a large bunker guarding the western part of the green – leftward pin. Thankfully for Lewis, the lesser of the two plausible misses ensued as she found herself short and right. She breezed through the pressure-packed situation and got up-and-down for what would turn out to be the decisive birdie. With a winning mark of 17-under and rounds of 68, 67, 67 and 69, Lewis proved two things: that she is undeniably worthy of being a multiple winner on the LPGA Tour, and that she really is Steady Stacey.

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