By David Shefter , USGA

Competitive golf at the highest level can be such a fine line, about the size of optic fiber. A missed fairway. A couple of birdie putts that burn the edges of the hole. The difference is often separated by a trophy celebration and a lot of pat-on-the-back congratulatory remarks.

Stacy Lewis got that up-close-and-personal view recently. The 21-year-old University of Arkansas junior was given a special exemption to compete in the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first ladies professional major of the season. One of five amateurs in the elite field, Lewis arrived in Rancho Mirage, Calif. , with the hopes of playing well and not embarrassing herself on this very-challenging Dinah Shore Course at Mission Hills Country Club. Set up with thick and gnarly rough and firm and fast greens, the layout had the look and feel of a USGA championship. All but eight competitors managed to better par over 72 holes.

Part of Stacy Lewis' maturation process has been learning how to control her emotions on the course. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Lewis was one of them. In fact, had a few breaks gone her way down the stretch, she, not 18-year-old Morgan Pressel, might have been the one taking the traditional celebratory plunge into the lake surrounding the 18th green. Only six golfers broke par on that final Sunday and Lewis' 2-under 70 was the third-best produced behind Pressel's bogey-free 69 ( Angela Stanford also shot 69).

Grouped with the 2005 U.S. Women's Amateur champion-Pressel in the final round, Lewis became a human sponge, absorbing everything it takes to deliver a championship performance under the most-extreme pressure.

The conclusion: I'm good and talented enough.

"If I would have hit that [tee] shot in the fairway on 16, who knows what would have happened," said Lewis, a semifinalist at the 2006 U.S. Women's Amateur and a recent selection (with Jennie Lee) to play for the USA at the biennial Copa de las Americas Championship in Canada this June. "I look back . and [if] I could have made those putts coming in."

Pressel walked away with the prize, becoming the youngest female to ever win a major, while Lewis gained enormous confidence. Sure, she bogeyed 16 after finding the rough off the tee and saw two great birdie opportunities at 17 and 18 roll over the lip, but Lewis also hung in with the game's best. Her tie for fifth at 1-under 287 was the second-best performance by an amateur at the KNC since 1985, trailing only Michelle Wie 's tie for fourth in 2004. The next closest amateur in the field - Southeastern Conference rival Taylor Leon of the University of Georgia - was 19 shots behind.

"She has got to have a ton of confidence right now," said Arkansas women's coach Kelley Hester . "And for us in the college game, this is the right time of year with her conference championship coming up, which she won as a freshman shooting a 67 in the last round. In the [Southeastern Conference] we have a lot of good players . and a bunch of the best teams in the country. Golf is so much timing. Hopefully she is peaking at the right time."

It was less than a year ago when things began to come together for Lewis. Yes, she had enjoyed a successful redshirt freshman campaign in 2004-05, winning the SEC title and conference freshman of the year honors. But last May at the NCAA Division I Championships at Ohio State University 's Scarlet Course Lewis shot a final-round 66 after three consecutive 76s to vault from a share of 50th to a tie for ninth. The score was a course record and featured a string of five consecutive birdies on holes 12-16. More important, the round was a springboard to a fruitful summer season on the amateur circuit.

She was the runner-up to Leon at the Southern Amateur, defeated defending champion Jennnifer Hong in the final of the Women's Western and reached the semifinals of both the North and South Amateur and the U.S. Women's Amateur. She fell in the latter to Katherina Schallenberg of Germany in a 20-hole thriller that saw Lewis rally from a 2-down deficit over the final six holes to force extra holes.

Such a match-play performance probably wouldn't have been likely a year earlier. But watching teammate and 2006 USA Curtis Cupper Amanda McCurdy, the runner-up in the 2004 Women's Amateur, master the format showed Lewis there was a mindset to being a strong performer in head-to-head competition.

"I didn't like match play at all," said Lewis. "I always thought somebody could get hot and beat you even though you might be the better player, and that kind of frustrated me. I learned [from McCurdy] that it doesn't matter who is the better player, you just have to play better that day.

"[Amanda and I] are completely opposite players. She's not a ball-striker at all. She just scrambles really well. I saw how she scrambled and still won her matches. I said, 'Hey, I can do that.' It gave me a new mental approach to match play."

Four years ago Lewis was a skinny teenager with a decent golf game. She played on a high school team in The Woodlands, Texas, which would send six players to Division I golf programs, but the star of the squad was Ashley Knoll, a 2006 U.S. Women's Open qualifier who originally signed with Oklahoma State and later transferred to Texas A&M.

Lewis? She was low on most college teams' radar. Only Kansas State , Louisville and Arkansas recruited her. Hester, who was still trying to get her young program off the ground, was looking for "warm bodies" that had the drive and determination to get better and liked what she saw in Lewis. For starters, she was an outstanding student, good enough to earn the Border Award from Arkansas that enabled her to pay in-state tuition even though she resided outside of its borders. Lewis fell in love with Arkansas immediately and committed, but it would be more than a year before she could suit up for the Lady Razorbacks.

Back surgery forced her to redshirt all of the 2002-03 season.

"Her body changed dramatically after her back surgery," said Hester. "When she was 17, she looked like she was 14. After the back surgery, it's like her body matured. Nobody could have foreseen that her body could have changed that much. It was good for her golf game. You could say I got a little lucky with Stacy."

Lewis, who chipped and putted for six months until her back healed, slowly blossomed into one of the country's best-kept secrets. The following year, she became the first Arkansas player to win three times in a single season. She was the first Lady Razorback to earn All-America honors. The success continued into her sophomore season and now in her junior season, where she'll be one of the favorites to win the NCAA Division I title in May.

The maturity wasn't just physical, either. Lewis has also learned to tame her on-course emotions, going through what Hester said was a young Bobby Jones phase that included demonstrative reactions to poor shots. Hester even threatened to remove her from the course if such actions continued. Lewis, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, now controls her anger, using it instead to fuel her instead of pulling her down.

"That's the hardest part for me," said Lewis. "But I am slowly getting better at it."

Case in point: the heartbreaking defeat to Schallenberg at the Women's Amateur. For many players, the setback would have caused a series of outward emotions. Lewis accepted the defeat like a veteran and moved on. Sure, it hurt to be so close to one of the game's biggest prizes, but she realized her opponent played just a bit better when it counted.

"She's clearly grown in that area," said Hester of her feisty player. "It's good to hear stuff like that."

What Hester has seen from day one is a work ethic second to none. She says Lewis, who carries a 3.75 GPA in a double major of finance and accounting, is the hardest worker she's ever seen. An example came when she returned to school last fall following her highly successful summer. Instead of resting on her laurels, Lewis confronted her coach and wanted to improve her putting. With her outstanding ball-striking skills, Lewis understood that to shoot lower scores, her putting needed to go to another level. It needed to be more consistent instead of streaky.

Lewis worked on everything from grip to alignment and the results are showing up. She had one of her best putting weeks at the KNC, posting 26 putts in one round. A week after KNC, she went out and hit 35 of 36 greens during a 36-hole day at the Susie Maxwell Berning Tournament in Norman , Okla. , and posted a pair of 5-under 67s en route to winning the 54-hole competition by two shots with a record score of 208. It was her second win of the year.

"My confidence is so high right now," said Lewis. "I plan to play a lot this summer and do a couple of pro events. I'm going to do a lot of amateur tournaments for the Curtis Cup . That's mainly my goal. Before I turn pro, I want to play in the Curtis Cup ."

The 2008 Curtis Cup Match is set for next June at the historic Old Course in St. Andrews , Scotland and Lewis could be the second consecutive Lady Razorback to play for the USA , following McCurdy. Besides the rest of the college season that includes the SEC Championship (Old Waverly C.C. in West Point , Miss. ), NCAA regionals and the NCAA Championship at LPGA International in Daytona Beach , Fla. , Lewis plans to compete in the Women's Southern, Copa de las Americas, Women's North and South and U.S. Women's Amateur. She also hopes to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open - she'll play in a sectional qualifier near her home in Houston - and has a sponsor's exemption into the LPGA's Jamie Farr Classic in Toledo , Ohio , where she missed the cut last year. She also hopes to land a sponsor's invite to the new LPGA event in northwest Arkansas in September, which is played on a course used by the Arkansas women's team for its tournament. (Pinnacle C.C. in Rogers ).

"She loves to compete," said Hester. "When she won the World University Games in Italy [early last fall] she came back and competed three weeks in a row for us. Some kids would just be worn down. Not Stacy.

"I know in the back of her mind she would be thrilled to play on the Curtis Cup team. With a couple of solid finishes this summer, I would hope that would lock it up for her."

Added Lewis: "I've kind of gone under the radar on the national scene. I consider myself one of the best players in the country. I don't mind not having all the recognition and the stuff that goes with that. I would just rather go about my business and play the best I can and if nobody would ever know about it, that's fine with me."

After her Kraft performance that likely won't be the case.

Lewis already has crossed that fine line from obscurity to known quantity.

David Shefter is a staff writer for the USGA. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org.