TIM PEELER: Tea Time for Lewton
11/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Nov. 4, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - Stephen Lewton is in a little better frame of mind these days. He's fully stocked with tea.
His father recently came from the family's home in Milton Keynes, about 60 miles north of London, for a visit, bringing with him a fresh supply of the national drink of England.
It was a godsend for Lewton, a senior on the NC State men's golf team.
He had reached the near-crisis stage of being tea-less, which might not be as bad as being without tees, but it is pretty darn close for someone used to drinking two or three cups a day back at home.
Lewton limits himself to one cup a day while at school, and even that isn't the same, mainly because the Raleigh water supply doesn't taste anything at all like the water in England.
So Lewton has to make do.
But, heading into his final year of competition, Lewton remains one of the most consistent performers for Richard Sykes' program, which travels to Rocky Face, Ga., this weekend for the Carpet Capital Collegiate, the Wolfpack's final event of the fall.
He's ranked 48th in the country by Golfweek Magazine/Sagarin individual rankings, after finishing tied for eighth at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate in Birmingham, Ala., and tied for 20th in the Coca-Cola Duke Classic in Durham. He's under-par for his six competitive rounds this fall, which bodes well for the Wolfpack when the spring season begins in February.
It's a follow up to his successful summer at home, when he finished ninth on the English Golf Union's Order of Merit, despite playing in only about half of the events on the national amateur golfing circuit. Still, he performed well at some of the world's greatest golf courses, finishing sixth in a tournament at St. Andrews in Scotland and Royal St. David's in North Wales.
Sykes believes that Lewton will have a terrific final season in college, mainly because the senior has finally finished tinkering with his game.
"He has played well the last two years, but not the level he is capable of. He has a game in transition, right now. He has gotten better at every phase of playing golf, but when you are trying to change things and compete at the same time, it is hard to do.
"I think that is the only thing that has held him back from being one of the best there is in college."
Lewton is an all-around athlete who enjoyed playing several British-flavored sports growing up: soccer, rugby, field hockey. At the age of 13, he was an England school boy champion in the 800-meters in track and field.
He was discovered by Sykes in Miami, where Lewton was playing in to junior events one summer.
Though he had never really considered playing at an American university, Lewton jumped at the opportunity when he got recruiting interest from Purdue, Northwestern, NC State and Augusta (Ga.) State.
"I was going to go to an English university, but there are a lot more opportunities to play here every day than in England, where you can only play maybe twice a week," Lewton said. "Here I am playing six or seven times a week. I thought this would be the best place for me to improve on the whole."
Lewton eliminated the first two schools, sight-unseen. He knew both were located in places with weather more like London. He visited Augusta State, but preferred playing at a bigger school, where he could watch and learn about American sports.
"We didn't really have any American sports in England, and I wanted to learn more about them," Lewton said. "I played a lot of sports in school, and I love learning about basketball and football. I knew a little about basketball before I got here, but really nothing about football.
"I think I have all the rules down now. It kind of makes me wish I had gone to an American high school, so I would have had a chance to play it."
But, even after nearly three years in the U.S., there are still some past-times that Lewton doesn't understand.
"I never really got my head around baseball," he said, laughing.
Still, he's gotten an all-around education, which he expects to culminate next December with a degree in Business Management.
As for his future, Lewton has plans to try to make it on the European PGA Tour. He advanced through two stages of European Tour School during his year off after high school.
Next year, after four seasons of playing nearly every day at an American college and in the summer as part of the English Golf Union, Lewton believes he can make it as a professional. It's a similar path that Carl Pettersson took after his two seasons with the Wolfpack, and Pettersson is now among the top 50 golfers on the PGA Tour.
"He is quite a nice player," Sykes said. "I think when he is finished playing here, he will proceed right on into Tour qualifying for the PGA Tour and the European tour. He will start on that track and I don't think it will take him too long to get there, to be honest with you."
And then he'll never have to worry about running out of good English tea ever again.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.