Posted: July 8, 2015 1:42 am

You just can’t play better golf than Stacy Lewis has played this season without winning.

The seven-year pro has played 14 tournaments this season and finished in the top 10 eight times.

Included in that total are two runner-ups, one tied for second and a pair of thirds.

Yet, to listen to her Tuesday, in advance of the 70th U.S. Open at the Lancaster Country Club, you couldn’t detect any frustration.

And all her hair appeared intact.

“Yeah, it wears on you a little bit,” she said of coming close so many times. “But I want to be in contention, I want to give myself chances to win and doing that you’re not going to win every time. That’s just the way the cards fall.

“You’re going to have somebody make eagle on you and do something like that. It’s just kind of the way I play. I would rather be in contention, have top 5s, than miss cuts. It’s just part of the game for me.”

Lewis was in contention down the stretch last week at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship but finished third.

She was asked if she would change anything about her final round.

“I would have made the putts on 16 and 17,” she said. “(But) you can’t go back and second-guess any decisions that you make. I just wish I would have made those two putts because if I’d have made those two putts, it probably changes the way I play 18.”

Lewis was the Player of the Year last year, claiming the money title and the Vare Trophy (lowest scoring average). She’s carried the consistency of last season — she made the cut in every one of the 28 tournaments she played — into this season.

With one difference.

No wins.

“(LCC) is really soft with all the rain and there’s a ton of grass on it, so the greens probably aren’t as quick as we would like them,” she said. “But it’s still going to be a challenge. The rough is long. It’s wet. It’s sticky. I think off the tee and especially into some of the greens, you’ve got to be able to hit shots, hit some fades, hit some draws.

“I think it’s going to favor more of a left-to-right shot overall, so I think that sets up for my game really well. And then putting, you know, at any U.S. Open you have to putt well. You have to make some 4- and 5-footers. And they’re going to have a ton of break to them, but you’ve got to make them.”

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