THE MODERATOR: Hi, everybody. We've got Stacy here. I'll go ahead and kick off our conversation. Stacy, it's an exciting day. I know this is one we've been working on for a little bit, but really happy to have you as our 2024 Solheim Cup captain. How are you excited about this second opportunity?
STACY LEWIS: I'm really excited. When I signed up to do the '23, this was not really part of the plan, but we got talking as a team, and we really had to come up with a plan for '24 with them being so close together, less than a year apart.
Very excited about the opportunity. Here in D.C., right outside our nation's capital, I think it's going to be one of the coolest Solheim Cups we've ever had. Just to be a part of that, too, I'm so excited about all the possibilities of what we can do with the team in and around D.C., and just all the people we want to try to get involved, too.
THE MODERATOR: I know even though you weren't officially the captain yet, you did an appearance out at Robert Trent Jones last year. We walked around the capital. What's it like to feel like the electricity of having the hubbub of D.C. around you, this great northern Virginia area and the excitement as to why the fans should come out?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, just walking around D.C. last summer, just the pride of being an American and seeing all the history in and around the city, I haven't spent enough time here myself, so I'm selfishly excited about making a few more trips here. But what a cool experience for the fans, too, to tie in trips, do tours around the city or visit all the memorials into Solheim Cup week. What a cool thing.
I think this is going to be one of the best Solheim Cups we've ever had.
THE MODERATOR: I know it's still early, but you've been the captain for a couple weeks now. What's your strategy that you're working on for focusing on '23 but still keeping your mind open to '24?
STACY LEWIS: The mind is racing right now, and it has been. Really we had to make some decisions even last year before I knew about this, about '24, so I've kind of been operating in the mindset that I need to help prepare the team, and the team needs to be prepared. Whether I'm the captain or not, the team is going to be prepared. We've made decisions already for '24. We've got things we're working on. Before we play Spain, all your clothes and bags and soft good things are going to need to be done, so this spring is going to be really busy but in a great way.
I've got a lot of ideas already for '24, and we kind of have piles for both things. We've been very organized with '23, and I like we're progressing very quickly on everything there. I think we're going to be okay.
Q. You are, as you've mentioned, a very organized person. It's not unique to have a repeat captain. It is unique to have a repeat captain in back-to-back years. How do you plan to compress the schedule in a way that allows you to maintain that organization?
STACY LEWIS: You know, I think the best thing, I was thinking about it for the players, we were talking about trying on uniforms and things like that, a lot of things are going to end up overlapping, so the players, we're not going to need to require as much of their time, so that to me, I think -- if you had asked the Solheim Cup committee that made this decision, if you ask them, they're going to say we did this for the players. We did this so we didn't require so much of their time, and now going forward, too, with the change to even years, anytime there is an Olympics, there's going to be a Solheim Cup in the U.S.
It definitely adds to the busyness of the players' schedules and really how much we ask of them. It's going to be so much easier on them. There's not going to be that whole learning with a new captain and doing things that that captain wants to do and just all the extra things that would be required.
Q. I'm just curious, since you are preparing essentially for two Solheim Cups at the same time, how are you balancing your own golf game through all of this, and do you still see yourself as a potential member of the team in a playing role?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I've done a good job so far, the balancing. Part of the reason I'm going to play in Asia is so I can kind of free up my schedule later in the fall, especially around Spain, just to make things a little bit easier for playing for me so I don't feel like I have to play so many weeks.
Whether I play or not, I mean, it's still where I was before. I need to play a lot better than where I'm at right now, but if I'm in the top nine, then I feel like I need to play.
That's still kind of the plan for me. I kind of have it in my head how that would work the week of if that does happen, what assistants would take over in what roles and how that would all work out.
I do know if I'm playing, I'm not playing 36 holes any day, so it does free up some time there, as well.
I've already thought about it. I've got a plan for it, and that's what we're trying to do with everything is just planning out as much as we can and really relying on the staff. The LPGA team I have around me has been really great in helping me stay organized and trying to take as much off of my plate as they can.
Q. What's the biggest added stressor that you've noticed for planning for a Solheim Cup on home soil versus away?
STACY LEWIS: Gosh, I don't know if we've gotten far enough into it, but probably just the extra time commitments of events. What I think it will be will be events that they want to do onsite, just to promote the event themselves and getting sponsors there and selling tickets and things like that.
But I think there's so much more upside to being in the U.S., just I think the people that we're going to be able to get involved. I don't see it as too much of an added stress other than the extra time commitment.
Q. Does it add more pressure to know you get two chances, or does it take some away knowing that you get two chances?
STACY LEWIS: It really doesn't change it for me, to be honest. I want to win both of them now.
I don't know, I guess I've never seen this whole captain -- I've never seen it as stress or pressure. Pressure is making the five-footer to win the whole thing for your team. To me that's the pressure. I guess I'm still a player in my head; like that is the ultimate pressure of Solheim Cup is having to pull the shot off at the right time.
I necessarily haven't felt the pressure of it yet. I think I've had too much fun with it, and I'm still trying to learn. I'm trying to read as many books as I can about coaching, about leading organizations and leading teams and how to create a great environment for the players. That's my job, trying to take that pressure off of them so they don't feel it so much.
Q. Having these two matches so close together, it's almost an ideal scenario, isn't it, to know they're condensed. Do you see it that way, that this probably works in your favor in some respects?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, at the end of the day, the teams are going to be very similar. Not a whole lot is going to change from one year to the next. I definitely think it's in our advantage to do it. I think it's in the players' advantage more than anything, that we just try to make things as easy as possible on them.
Q. Obviously the LET have their own decision to make, but can you see a scenario where you would be up against Suzann, as well, next year?
STACY LEWIS: Most likely, yeah. When you really think about the logistics of it and trying to -- you would basically have your teams trying to work with two captains at the same time, trying to plan different things, and then both captains asking things from the players, trying to overlap events, the '24 captain stepping on the shoes of the '23 captain, it would create a very awkward scenario. I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Q. You were saying that you've been doing a lot of research about leadership and you'd read a bunch of books. I was wondering if there are any theories or books that had really stuck out to you that you've grabbed on to during this learning process.
STACY LEWIS: Not really. I've been reading a lot actually about like women's soccer and kind of looking back at that '99 World Cup team and trying to find sports that have a similar thing of where everybody kind of goes and plays by themselves on their own individual teams, doing their own thing, then all of a sudden for a few weeks -- soccer they're thrown together a little bit longer. Us it's really short. But they're thrown together and expected to make things work, and how do you bring all those people together, because that's really the challenge of it. Everybody is used to doing their own thing, so how do we bring them together in that short amount of time.
Yeah, so kind of leaning on other sports, listening to podcasts, listening to coaches talk about this generation of players and how they're different from previous generations and what's important to them in these types of experiences. Just really trying to get on page with them.
They're quite a bit younger -- even though I'm the youngest captain, they're still quite a bit younger than me and they grew up in a different time than me, so I need to know what makes them tick and what they're looking for out of the whole experience.
Q. You don't have the luxury of waiting to see how it plays out to see if you want to do it again, but you talked about the benefit of you staying on for everybody else, but what about for you, you personally? Why did you agree to do this again?
STACY LEWIS: Because I love the Solheim Cup, and honestly I've enjoyed this process more than I ever thought I would, just the challenge of it, because I think behind the scenes we haven't been as organized as we could have been, and just the challenge of trying to make things better, and it's kind of been a goal of mine personally. I want to leave this Tour in a better place. I'm not going to stop playing until I think it's in a position where it needs to be.
The Solheim Cup is kind of my first goal of that list, is I want to make sure this event is great going forward and we're in a position going forward that we can continue to be successful and make this event bigger and bigger every year.
Q. You said you've enjoyed it more than you expected. What part have you really liked so much about this process?
STACY LEWIS: Gosh, I learned that you really have a lot of say in what goes on. You get to make a lot of decisions. You really get to decide everything. You get to make it your own.
Just the creativity that goes into it and coming up with various ideas. Becky Newell has been helping me, with the LPGA, and I'll text her at 10:00 at night an idea that just pops in my head.
I think about it all the time, and I want to make this event great. I want to make it great for our players. I want to make sure they love this event as much as I do because they're going to be the ones taking it forward from here.
Q. You've talked about why this is good for the Solheim Cup, why it's good for you, why it's good for the team, but if you had to wrap it up, why are you excited and why is this good?
STACY LEWIS: For '24, being on U.S. soil, being right outside the nation's capital. I'm a history nerd. I love anything I can learn about it and see, so this to me is the ultimate Solheim Cup.
THE MODERATOR: We're excited. Keep an eye on our social channels. We'll have a tour of the capital coming up tomorrow with some meets-and-greets. You might see someone at the Washington Capitals game if you tune in tomorrow night, so keep an eye on everything. Thanks, everyone, for joining us.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports