Timing is everything. Stacy Lewis had not won an LPGA tournament in three years, but she captured the 2017 Cambia Portland Classic on just the right week when she beat Gee Chun by one stroke.
On Wednesday, the 31-year-old who calls Houston home announced she would donate 100 percent of her winnings to the Hurricane Harvey relief effort.
By winning this week’s LPGA tournament, she earned $195,000. Following Sunday’s round, her hat sponsor, KPMG, announced they would match her donation, which means $390,000 will go toward rebuilding Houston thanks to Lewis’ 12th win on Tour.
Then word got out that her other sponsor, Marathon Petroleum, already contributed $1 million to the cause.
“I mean, I was hoping some of my sponsors would step up and donate a little bit. Obviously wasn’t expecting the match from KPMG,” Lewis said. “Marathon, they have an office and refinery and all that down in Galveston, so they wanted to make that donation, but didn’t want to make it to the public. I think it’s something we should talk about because it’s a big deal.”
Lewis moved to Houston when she was 11, and her husband, Gerrod Chadwell, is the women’s golf coach at the University of Houston.
In fact, Chadwell surprised Lewis on the 18th green at Columbia Edgewater Country Club.
“I was fine until he showed up and then I started crying,” she said. “But just have to him here and have him support me the last two-and-a-half, three years has been really hard. It’s been really frustrating at times.
“You know, you go through all the emotions of finishing second when sometimes it’s your fault and sometimes it’s not, and things just don’t seem to ever go your way and you get really frustrated at times. He went through all of that with me, and it was probably as hard on him as it was on me. So just to have him here and get to share the win with him was pretty special.”
But, back to Lewis donating her entire check from this week. It’s a huge deal, especially considering the pay gap between PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour pros.
“It’s pretty frustrating to still see the huge gaps that we have in what the guys are paid and what we are paid, when really, we’re doing the same thing and the only difference is the TV numbers and the TV ratings,” Lewis told Golf.com in 2016.
When it comes to generosity, she’s certainly showing there’s no gap there.
A week well-played on and off the course, Stacy Lewis.