Last Updated: May 8, 2026
Stacy Lewis — former world No. 1, two-time major champion, three-time U.S. Solheim Cup captain — officially closed the book on her LPGA Tour career last weekend, retiring from full-time professional golf at the 2026 Chevron Championship in Houston. She finished her final round on Friday, April 24, at four months pregnant with her second child, with her husband and Texas A&M women’s golf head coach Gerrod Chadwell on the bag.
It was a deliberately chosen finale. Lewis announced last September that the 2026 Chevron — back in her hometown of Houston for the first time at Memorial Park — would be her final tournament. She missed the cut at the halfway stage, but the venue itself was the point. The 2011 Chevron (then the Kraft Nabisco) was her first major title and her second career LPGA win. The same trophy. The same career-defining major. Fifteen years apart.
What Happened
Lewis, 41, walked off the 18th green at Memorial Park to a standing ovation, raised her cap to the gallery, and confirmed afterward that she was done with full-time tour life. “I’m so ready to be done,” she told reporters. “It feels right. It’s time.”
The retirement closes a 17-year LPGA career that included 13 LPGA Tour wins, two major championships (2011 Chevron, 2013 Women’s British Open), the 2014 Rolex Player of the Year award, and two stints as the world’s top-ranked golfer. She also led the United States to back-to-back Solheim Cup victories as captain in 2023 and 2024 — a feat that re-energized U.S. women’s golf at the team level.
The Chevron Championship itself was won by Nelly Korda — her third major and 17th career LPGA win — capping a marquee weekend for the LPGA. Korda’s victory grabbed the headlines. Lewis’s farewell grabbed the storyline.
Why It Matters
Lewis’s career arc is one of the more improbable in modern professional golf. She was diagnosed with scoliosis as a child and wore a back brace for 18 hours a day for seven and a half years. She had spinal fusion surgery as a freshman at the University of Arkansas. Most athletes with that medical history don’t reach the LPGA Tour. Lewis won 13 times.
She also took on a generation-defining advocacy role. Lewis was one of the most vocal players pushing for equal prize money on the LPGA Tour, for stronger maternity protections, and for the broader broadcast and equity reforms that have transformed women’s golf over the past five years. That arc continues this month with the news that Claire Dowling has been named the first woman Captain of the R&A Golf Club of St Andrews. The LPGA Tour’s first-ever season with every round live on TV and the record-breaking $132 million prize money pool in 2026 are direct outcomes of fights she helped lead.
That she walks away in the year all of those structural shifts came to fruition is, in some ways, the perfect timing. The tour she helped reshape is the most-watched, best-paid, and most professionally produced version of itself in history.
The Career, By The Numbers
- 13 LPGA Tour wins
- 2 major championships — 2011 Chevron Championship, 2013 Women’s British Open
- 2 stints as world No. 1
- 2014 Rolex Player of the Year and Vare Trophy winner
- 3 Solheim Cup captaincies (2023, 2024, plus an upcoming role)
- 2 NCAA individual championships at the University of Arkansas
By any traditional measure, that’s a Hall of Fame career. By the more demanding LPGA Hall of Fame criteria — which requires both performance points and 10 years of membership — Lewis is on the cusp; her induction is widely expected.
What This Means For You
If you’re a casual golf fan who has paid more attention to the men’s tour than the women’s, Lewis’s retirement is a reasonable cue to take a closer look at where women’s golf is right now. A few things worth knowing:
- The LPGA broadcast is now fully live on TV. Every round of every event in 2026 is on linear TV for the first time in history. Our deep dive on how the LPGA reached this milestone explains why it matters.
- Prize money is at record levels. The 2026 LPGA season has crossed $132 million in total prize money — and our reporting on the prize-money milestone shows where the new money is going.
- The Chevron’s move to Memorial Park matters. The first major of the year is now at a true championship muni venue in the heart of Houston. Read more in our piece on what the move to Memorial Park means for women’s golf.
- If you’ve never put Lewis on a list of the modern greats, it’s worth revisiting. Our running list of the best golfers of all time is a useful frame for placing her career.
What’s Next
Lewis is unlikely to disappear from the sport. She has indicated she’ll continue in Solheim Cup leadership roles, will remain involved with player advocacy, and will lean into family life as her second child arrives later this year. She also remains close with the program at her alma mater, Arkansas, and with her husband’s program at Texas A&M — both flagship women’s college golf programs.
That gives her three obvious second-act lanes: media/commentary, executive leadership inside the LPGA or USGA, and college coaching. Several of her peers — Suzann Pettersen, Karrie Webb, Annika Sörenstam — have followed similar paths. Don’t be surprised if Lewis ends up combining all three.
Key Takeaways
- Stacy Lewis officially retired from the LPGA Tour at the 2026 Chevron Championship on April 24, 2026.
- Career haul: 13 LPGA wins, 2 majors, 2 stints as world No. 1, 2-time Solheim Cup-winning U.S. captain.
- She finished her career four months pregnant, in her hometown of Houston, with her husband on the bag.
- Lewis was central to the LPGA’s recent prize-money, broadcast, and maternity-protection reforms.
- LPGA Hall of Fame induction is widely expected. Future roles likely span media, executive leadership, and coaching.
The 2026 Chevron Championship will be remembered for Nelly Korda’s third major. But for a generation of LPGA players and fans, the more lasting image will be Stacy Lewis walking off the 18th green at Memorial Park, four months pregnant, having helped build the version of the tour she’s now stepping away from.
Source: Reporting based on the Washington Post, Golf.com, Golfmagic, and LPGA Tour communications (April 24–28, 2026).
