Stacy Lewis ties Olympic course record 63 to grab the lead in Rio

Stacy Lewis, whose painfully red shoulders may require a few applications of aloe, blistered the sun-splashed Rio Olympic Golf Course in Thursday’s second round to the tune of a women’s Olympic scoring record 8-under 63.

Lewis began and ended her day with birdies, the 11th and final one from three feet on the par-5 18th hole, and was on fire from the outset. In addition to finishing with four straight birdies, Lewis had a string of three consecutive birds on the front nine as well.

Lewis, who prepared for the Olympics by getting married a week ahead of the Summer Games, did not let a double-bogey on the par-3 14th derail her sensational day, which put her at 9-under for the week.

“I was just a little mad and starting to be a little more aggressive,” Lewis told Golf Channel about how she overcame that double. “The one on the last was pretty special.”

With no wins on the LPGA Tour in more than two years, a gold medal in the women’s return to the Olympics for the first time since 1900 would mean a lot to the two-time major winner, both as an individual and as an ardent tour evangelist.

“To be here and be a part of this is a big deal,” the American said on Tuesday. “I think for our tour and for women’s golf, any time we can get people to experience what we’re about and the way we play, you know, it’s different than the guys.

“Our tour is different in the way we do things. The way we play golf is different. Once people experience it and they see it, that’s when they come back,” she said. “So the more eyeballs we can get on us, the better. We’re constantly fighting for network TV, and that’s one huge part of this week is the coverage that we get. We can kind of piggyback the Olympics and hopefully grow our tour and grow women’s golf.”

The key to the round for Lewis, who finished her day one shot clear of Nicole Broch Larsen, who was still on the course? Her putter.

“I hit some shots closer than I did yesterday,” said Lewis, who matched Marcus Fraser’s first-round and Matt Kuchar’s final-round scores of 63 in last week’s men’s Olympic event, “but I felt so good over the putter and just making everything.”