Stacy Lewis tweets apology for quitting Canadian Women’s Open

Stacy Lewis took to Twitter on Friday to apologize for withdrawing from the Canadian Women’s Open.

Lewis pulled out of the event prior to Friday’s second round, reportedly because of illness. It was clear from her tweets, however, that last week’s lopsided loss to the Europeans at the Solheim Cup had taken the punch out of the world’s second-ranked golfer and reigning Women’s British Open champion.

That Lewis’ head was not in the game at Royal Mayfair Golf Club was hardly surprising, given the wild swings of emotion over winning at St. Andrews at the start of the month to the following week’s drubbing at the Solheim Cup.

“It takes you a little time, I think, to get over Solheim and to get over it because you spend so much energy doing it and putting so much time into it, so it will take a little bit to get over it,” Lewis told reporters on Wednesday ahead of the tilt in Edmonton. “But once you’re out on the course, especially a course like this, you can’t be thinking about anything else.”

Easier said than done for Lewis, apparently. Here early exit was not all that surprising, either, after what she told the Associated Press following her first round.

“I played terrible all day,” Lewis said. “I didn’t make any putts. I didn’t hit the ball very good and the start just didn’t help. I was tired out there. Mentally, I wasn’t in it. Just coming off the last week is still tough.”

As for any practice she planned to do prior to Friday’s second round, Lewis suggested she was done for the week.

“No, honestly I need to get away from it right now,” Lewis said. “Probably the best thing I could do is walk away.”

At the time of her departure, Lewis was nine shots back of the co-leaders.

Lewis was slated for an afternoon tee time with Karrie Webb and Lorie Kane. Along with partner Lexi Thompson, she was about to win a hole in their contest last Friday when a lengthy rules rhubarb erupted. With U.S. vice captain Dottie Pepper by her side, Lewis engaged in a contentious discussion with officials over what ended up being a blown call in favor of the Euros.

The bottom line was that Carlota Ciganda took an improper drop, but was not penalized because she received incorrect information from the rules folks. The outcome proved unnerving for Lewis and Thompson, who had to wait eons to finish in what proved to be a losing effort to Ciganda and Suzann Pettersen.

“It took way too long,” Lewis told the AP at the time. “It killed the momentum of our match, it killed the momentum of the matches behind us, and it’s just not what you want the rules officials to ever do.”

Pepper, a six-time Solheim Cup player and current TV analyst, wrote on ESPNW.com earlier this week that the 27-minute rules snafu was to blame, in part, for deflating the energy her team was building at the time.

“It took the rules committee nearly three hours to issue a statement admitting that Carlota Ciganda of Spain had been allowed to hit from the wrong spot, an error that could not be corrected, according to the Solheim Cup captain’s agreement,” Pepper said.

“Stacy Lewis and I were absolutely barbecued for politely asking the referee to talk us through the process of how the ruling was decided and handled,” added Pepper. “It was only after that discussion that it became apparent that the ruling had been blown.”

Pepper, who began her column by congratulating the victors for their fearless and aggressive play, noted that another ruling took 30 minutes to resolve on Saturday.

The two issues, combined with a “borderline violation of the advice rule” by European counterpart Annika Sorenstam, left the event with what Pepper called “a pretty nasty black eye.”