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Freshly minted rookie Stacy Lewis is getting to know the rules and regs of the LPGA pretty intimately for somebody who turned pro less than a month ago ago and isn't yet a tour member.
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While some of the fine print makes her squint, much of it makes her grimace.
Lewis, who was the 54-hole leader last weekend at the U.S. Women's Open, this week is entered in the LPGA corporate monstrosity entitled the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship presented by John Q. Hammons.
That ignoble name is no less complicated than the arcane LPGA bylaws that the spunky Lewis, a former NCAA champion from Arkansas, has been forced to navigate in her nascent career.
Last year at the same full-field event, Lewis shot a stellar 65 in the first round to take the lead, which as it turned out, held up. Rain slammed the tournament thereafter, and rather than play Monday, when the tournament would have become official because it had lasted the LPGA-requisite 36 holes, the tour pulled the plug and ruled it unofficial.
As Lewis, 23, explained, "it was like it never happened."
All that Lewis, still an amateur at the time, got was a trophy for her troubles. One thing she never received was a satisfactory explanation as to why extending it to Monday -- when the weather turned out to be fine -- was ruled out.
"I suspect it had something to do with the Solheim Cup," Lewis said at the Open.
Savvy girl. Coincidentally or not, and I'd vote for the latter, the star-laden Solheim Cup was set to begin the next week. Fortunately, Lewis again received a sponsor invitation to the Arkansas event this week and cracked, "So I get to not defend my title, or whatever."
Which brings us to the second part of the regulations equation. Lewis will be burning the first of her LPGA-allowed six sponsor exemptions for non-members this week. In those events, she must make as much money as the player finishing 80th in earnings in order to bypass qualifying school and secure an exempt tour position for 2009. Based on her 2007 NCAA title and 11 other college tournament wins, she seems a good bet to do exactly that.
However, her earnings for finishing in a tie for third at the Women's Open don't count toward her money-list total because the event is run by the U.S. Golf Association, not the LPGA. So not a dime of the $162,487 she brought home, which would have been enough to finish in the top 80 in earnings, isn't applicable to her LPGA season total.
She also will play the Jamie Farr Classic next week, the Kapalua LPGA Classic in October and as many as three other events. Having turned pro three weeks before the Women's Open, Lewis was asked last weekend if she could explain the complexities and nuances of her LPGA situation, assuming that she had fully absorbed it.
"Yeah, we have found out some interesting rules this year," Lewis said, exhaling, before attempting to do exactly that.
Late Sunday, moments after she'd played in the final group and earned her first career paycheck, the question again surfaced about the confusing rules regarding tour membership.
"The money I make here doesn't count," Lewis said patiently. "The only thing that could have helped me was to win."
The follow-up question was even more blunt. How, exactly, does that make sense? (It's worth noting that she has separate degrees in finance and accounting.)
"You'll have to ask the LPGA," she said.
