Two-time LPGA major winner Stacy Lewis recently found out she's pregnant. That's amazing, of course, but for golfers on the LPGA, it can come at a high cost. As was recently pointed out, both male and female golfers have tournament quotas to hit to ensure payment from sponsors.
However Lewis revealed that one of her sponsors, KPMG, will pay her the full amount she signed for even though she will likely miss most of the second half of 2018 (Lewis is due in November).
"(KPMG) called me a couple days later and said they wanted to pay me for the whole contract, regardless of the number of tournaments I played in," Lewis told Golfweek. "They see me as a member of their team and their family and they wanted to treat me like any other female in their organization that has a baby. Which I was pretty blown away by, shocked to get that phone call really."
It's not the first time KPMG has stood beside her financially, either. When Lewis, who is from Houston and still lives there, donated her paycheck from winning the Cambria Portland Classic last year, KPMG matched the $195,000 donation with one of its own for a total of $390,000 donated to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
That was a great gesture, and this one supporting Lewis' pregnancy and the impending birth of her first child with University of Houston golf coach Gerrod Chadwell, might be even better.
"In our sport, you don't get paid unless you play," Lewis told Golfweek. "Take away tournaments, you take away income from both sides. That money is not guaranteed unless you play. For a lot of people who are thinking about starting a family, that's a deal-breaker."
