SOUTHAMPTON — Stacy Lewis has had quite a couple of years.
Since April 3, 2011, Lewis has won seven LPGA events, including her first career major championship, and spent some time as the top-ranked player in women's golf.
So she has done a lot. Just about everything except win a U.S. Women's Open, that is.
"My nemesis,'' is what Lewis described the U.S. Women's Open as Tuesday, two days before the tournament begins at Sebonack golf club.
"If you're a U.S. player, this is your national championship, this is the tournament you want to win. This is the trophy you want to have,'' said Lewis, who is playing in her seventh Open this week. "It's definitely been my nemesis the last few years — more of the emotional side of it. I haven't handled it very well. So this week, my No. 1 goal is to see how level I can remain all week.''
Lewis, now ranked No. 2 in the world behind Inbee Park, who won the first two majors of the season, said she gleaned some inspiration on the mental side of the game by watching Justin Rose win the U.S. Open two weeks ago at Merion.
"You look at Justin Rose, when he won a couple weeks ago ... he got excited when he made a birdie, but he didn't get too excited,'' she said. "When he made a bogey, he didn't get too upset. So I think it's how level you can stay all week and how patient you can be.''
Lewis' best finish at the U.S. Open was a tie for third in 2008. Since then, she has a tie for 48th, 14th, 34th and 46th.
She recalled a specific U.S. Open incident in 2011 at the Broadmoor in Colorado, where her tournament got away in an errant third round when she did not handle adversity well.
"I kind of had a bad stretch of four or five holes and I let that decide the whole golf tournament for me,'' Lewis said of the third-round 79 she shot after carding 68 and 73 in the first two to get into contention for the weekend.
"Looking back, everybody's going to have a bad stretch of holes, and if I would have just been OK with it and just kind of kept trucking through it,'' she said. "But instead, I let it affect the rest of the tournament and I went from tied for the lead and I think I finished 40th [34th]. So I really kind of let things go the other way.''
After watching Rose keep his composure when the late final-round head was on at Merion, Lewis said she learned a few things.
"I've always been a player that I like to learn from other people, and I especially like watching people under pressure and watching how they handle the big situations,'' Lewis said. "So watching [Rose] on Sunday, I learned a lot from it.''
Lewis, an Arkansas native, used last week's LPGA event in her home state as a primer for the pressures this week will bring.
"Being in Arkansas, it felt like a major championship to me, so I kind of used that as an experience to help me learn on trying to keep those emotions in check, and not getting too upset,'' she said. "I really thought I handled it pretty well. I didn't play as well as I would have liked on Sunday [she finished tied for fourth], but I was still able to come out of there with a lot of positives.''
As much of a learning tool Rose's poise under pressure was two weeks ago, Lewis also enters this week inspired by last week's PGA Tour winner, Ken Duke, who captured the Travelers Championship in Hartford in a playoff Sunday.
Just as the 28-year-old Lewis has since she was a child, Duke has battled, lived with and prospered in golf with scoliosis. Also, Duke is a fellow Arkansas native.
Lewis, who had a steel rod and five screws fused to her backbone 10 years ago, can appreciate the hard work that went into Duke's victory.
"It definitely put a smile on my face,'' Lewis said of Duke's first career PGA Tour win at age 44. "I've actually met Ken and we talked about our backs. He's in his mid"'-40s and he's still playing golf at a high level and he's competitive. The doctors don't really know what our time-frame is, how long we can do what we're doing. So the fact that he's doing it is definitely exciting for me.''
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com
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