Lewis has big goals when she returns with daughter

Stacy Lewis is closing out her season this week at the Marathon Classic determined to meet new challenges when she returns as an LPGA mom next year.

Lewis is due to give birth to a daughter on Nov. 3. It will be her and husband Gerrod Chadwell’s first child.

She says she will come back with something to prove.

“I just want to show people and kind of prove to myself that you can have a family, have a career, be successful out here, and you can travel, sometimes travel all over the world,” said Lewis, 33, the former world No. 1 and two-time LPGA Rolex Player of the Year.

Lewis will return with special motivation raising a child on tour.

“Show my little girl, to see that she can do whatever she wants,” Lewis said. “Hopefully, if she wants to play golf, she can play more now, and hopefully sees that she can go out there and do the same thing. She may not ever remember it, but just for her to know that she’s part of it with me.”

Full-field scores from the Marathon Classic

Lewis expects to make her return at the LPGA’s new season opener next year, the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions (Jan. 17-20). She is qualified off her victory at the Cambia Portland Classic last year.

With the new challenges ahead, Lewis said she is grateful for the tour’s traveling day care center.

“I know it’s not going to be easy,” Lewis said. “I know we’re going to have some sleepless nights on the road, and we’re going to have some good days and some bad days, but just to have that comfort in knowing that she’s going to be taken care of when I’m inside the ropes, and have security with them all the times. There is a lot of comfort there in the day care that the tour provides.”