Former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis announced Wednesday that she will retire from the LPGA at the end of the season.
Lewis, now 40, said in a statement on social media, ahead of this week’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, that her body “has told me it’s time.”
“Never in a million years would I have thought this journey playing golf would still be going in 2025,” she wrote, “but the time has come to put the clubs away.”
Lewis underwent surgery the summer before her freshman season at Arkansas in 2003 to address childhood scoliosis. She had been diagnosed at the age of 11 and wore a plastic back brace 18 hours a day until she graduated from high school.
Lewis still blossomed into one of the best players of her generation, coming of age at a time when the LPGA needed new stars following the retirements of Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa. She became a 13-time winner on tour, captured two majors and twice earned Player of the Year honors.
Though she has won just once in the last eight years, Lewis has been a thought leader on tour and twice captained the United States at the Solheim Cup (to a win and tie) with a new-age approach geared toward analytics.
“I’ve cared for the LPGA tour like it was my own child,” she wrote, “and I’m so proud of the progress we have made, but to my fellow players: we aren’t done! I hope you all continue to push the tour forward and do all that you can to help on and off the course.”
