Nancy Lopez - Part 4 (The 1985 LPGA Championship and Rest of Career)


Nancy Lopez was referred to by Kathy Whitworth as the Arnold Palmer of the LPGA Tour and for good reason. Winning 17 times in her first two years on tour, Nancy quickly became the face and the darling of the LPGA. Hear how she balanced life on tour with being a 3-time mother to lovely daughters, traveling with them from stop to stop before daycare was even available on tour. Nancy looks back on her 185 win at the LPGA Championship and talks about finding motivation and recognizing when her competitive flame was extinguished. Nancy Lopez concludes her remarkable life story, “FORE the Good of the Game.”
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About
"FORE the Good of the Game” is a golf podcast featuring interviews with World Golf Hall of Fame members, winners of major championships and other people of influence in and around the game of golf. Highlighting the positive aspects of the game, we aim to create and provide an engaging and timeless repository of content that listeners can enjoy now and forever. Co-hosted by PGA Tour star Bruce Devlin, our podcast focuses on telling their life stories, in their voices. Join Bruce and Mike Gonzalez “FORE the Good of the Game.”
Thanks so much for listening!
Straight down the middle. It went straight down the middle. Then it started to do it.
Nancy LopezYeah, I remember stories that when you think about somebody, I thought about a yoko, and that was a story I had to tell about her. She she was a great champion and a great, a great player. And like I said, during that LPGA championship, I was really kind of sad that she didn't beat me just because it would have gotten the press off her back. And they were really tough on her.
Mike GonzalezYep, that was your 1989 win, which was your third win of the LPGA. Um Bruce, we talked about 1978 quite a bit. Nine wins, but look what she did the following year.
Bruce DevlinYeah, how about that? Eight more wins in the 79. So seven that's a pretty good start, Nancy. 17 victories in the first two years on the LPGA tour. I don't think too many people have that record, my girl.
Nancy LopezWell, I um, you know, that second year I had to kind of motivate myself again because the press kept talking talking about a sophomore slump. And that question came up, like, you know, are you just a flash in the pan? You know, this you're gonna have a sophomore slump. And I was like, well, no, I I don't think I'm a flash in the pan. I would like to win more. So I kind of had to do that to prove to the press that I wasn't a flash in the pan. And I, you know, I kind of used that to motivate me when that question started coming out, and I was like, wow. So, you know, you I was hit hard early. And I had to try and try and prove myself, I guess. But um, yeah, it was it was fun being able to do that when eight, my second year, like I said, especially after all the well, not all, but the little bit of criticism of, you know, can I do it again?
Mike GonzalezYeah, and beating some some great folks. I mean, you run down the list. Uh you beat Holostasy, you beat Donna Capone, you beat Holostasy again, Mickey Wright. You mentioned that playoff at Coke, uh, Pat Bradley, Sally Little, Kathy Whitworth, Sandra Post. I mean, come on, most all of Hall of Famers.
Nancy LopezYeah, they were all really great players and tough. And I knew, you know, on Sunday I had to play well to beat them. Um, you know, you just it wasn't a walk in the park for sure. Um, and yeah, and then and I think sometimes they didn't give all the players as much credit as they deserved because they were all really great players. That there was pretty pretty good depth on the LPG tour at that time, and you really had to play well on that last day to be able to beat beat the field. Um, so you know that that motivated me too. I wanted to play the best I could. Um I think any anybody that wins on the LPJ tour or PJ tour, they want to have their best competition. They they don't want to win a tournament with everybody falling flat on their face, they want to win it because they played their best golf and they played against some of the best. And and for me, that's the way I always felt when I was out there playing.
Mike GonzalezYeah. So after 17 wins in the first two years, you you kind of slowed down a little bit, but it was time to welcome Ashley into the world.
Nancy LopezYeah. Yeah. Yeah. Little Ashley was born. And and um, I tell you, it was tough at the beginning because she had colic. And if anybody doesn't know what that is, it's where that baby just can't take any formula, it doesn't feel good, her stomach was just a mess. So she's traveling with me on the LPG tour and crying all night long. Um, I was up with her, even though I had a nanny, I just couldn't leave Ashley with the nanny while she was crying. I was up with her every night. I I played some good golf during that time because I was half asleep. I mean, I'd be out there on the golf course, and I was tired. And I did. I mean, I was just so relaxed. I guess that's why I played pretty good. But it was hard because she was so sick during that time of early in her life and traveling with me on the tour.
Mike GonzalezYeah. But you know, starting in 1980, you had three wins and then three wins the following year, including winning the Colgate Diner Shore two years before it became a major. Um, you won twice in '82, twice in '83 with Ashley coming along and and only playing halftime. Playing halftime in '84 as well as a new mother with two wins. And then uh 85, boom, five wins, five seconds, five thirds, multiple awards won. Uh, and that included your second major championship. So let's take us through that one. 1985. Uh this was uh uh, well, another squeaker by eight over Alice Miller. Yeah.
Nancy LopezWhich one was that?
Mike GonzalezThat was the second one, 1985. Uh Wire to Wire.
Nancy LopezOh, the LPJ Championship you're talking about? Yes, ma'am. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Um, you know, when I led, I I think I won a few tournaments leading wire to wire, which that was kind of a fun goal to set. Sure. You know, be leading. Be leading every day. Um, that was that was kind of cool, I thought, you know, if you could do that. And of course, the press always brought it up. They were gonna talk about that. Um, I think they tried to get in your head a little bit to try and, you know, see if they can mess you up a little. Um, but yeah, I winning wire to wire was fun. And of course, you know, I still always wanted to win that U.S. Open, and and and I wanted to to I wanted to, okay, when I go back to the U.S. Open in Portland, if Allison Nicholas wouldn't have been there, uh, Kari Webb, I believe, finished second to us, and I think she was like three shots behind. That's the way I always wanted to win a U.S. Open, being three shots ahead going into 18.
Mike GonzalezYeah. Enjoy the walk.
unknownYeah.
Mike GonzalezYeah.
Nancy LopezSo thinking about LPGA championship and being that far ahead. Um, yeah, because I always thought, and I always planned if I ever won a U.S. Open, um, that I was going to finish my round, sign the scorecard, and I was gonna have somebody or friends or whoever's there that that that usually friends would come to watch me play in U.S. opens, that they were gonna have to go buy a tent and we were gonna pitch that tent at the 18th green, and we were gonna order pizza and stay up all night long. That's how I was gonna celebrate a U.S. Open win. And I was always hoping I'd get to do that. Unfortunately, I didn't. But um, but winning the LPJ championship by that much was was exciting. I I I remember that now that you spurred my memory. Um, so leading wire to wire was something that was very satisfying for me during the city.
Mike GonzalezLet me ask you if I don't know where I picked this up uh again, but uh let me ask you if you remember this. Do you remember petting a brown bird on your car the day before the event started?
Nancy LopezI do. I do. Um I walked out to the car to head over to the golf course, and you know, the the car is really when you're standing up, it's just the the top of it was just about eye level, and there was a little brown bird right there, right when I was getting ready to open the door. I I opened the door, didn't move, didn't budge, and I'm like, God, I think I can pet that bird. And I, you know, kind of gradually went to pet it, and I petted it. I pet this bird, this brown bird, just a little bird that was sitting on top of my car, and I said to myself, I'm gonna win this tournament. If that bird didn't fly away, I'm gonna win this tournament.
Mike GonzalezOh my goodness.
Nancy LopezI was kind of superstitious too. I had I was superstitious in my golf career. So that was a good one.
Mike GonzalezSo speaking of superstitions, then certain markers, certain number of T's, certain number of balls, was there some of those things you just had those rituals?
Nancy LopezOh, yeah. I um I had favorite outfits that I played really good in, and when I didn't play good in it, I never wore it again. Um I if I had breakfast and I played really good that day, I had the same thing the next day. Um, I never picked up a tee that wasn't mine, that I knew wasn't mine. Oh I never played with balls, numbers over four. I played one, two, three, and four. If somebody was playing poorly, um, I didn't walk in their footsteps. I would never follow them. I would never walk in the same path that they were in. And it happened uh I was playing in Rochester and there was one hole, number two. There was this little bitty bridge that's about this wide. And I knew this player was not playing good. And so I'm like, I've got to get over that bridge before she does because I won't be able to go over that bridge if she goes over it before I do. Well, she beat me over the bridge, so she was walking down the middle of the bridge, and I'm like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna get there? Because I she was playing awful. There's no way I was gonna walk in her footsteps. So I get to the bridge and I put my feet apart like this, and I don't walk in her footsteps, I walk on the sides, and I walked across a bridge like this, and I didn't care if anybody noticed it. I was not gonna walk in her footsteps. She was playing bad. So I was very superstitious about things like that.
Mike GonzalezYeah, I guess, I guess. So, Bruce, uh, we get to the following year, and uh Erin comes along. So you didn't play much, did you, Nancy?
Nancy LopezUm uh yeah, because she was born in uh March. Well, March, was it March or April? No, March, because my husband's birthday is in April, and um so that pretty much ate up. Now, let me tell you about getting pregnant. Let me see. Was she born? I'm I'm totally blanking out. She was born in March. I believe.
Mike GonzalezWe'll have to edit this out because otherwise she's gonna get upset that you don't remember. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's right.
Nancy LopezShe won't like mom if I don't know that. Um, and no, and I know her birthday. May I knew it was May. I was gonna say May, but I I was losing it. So anyway, let me tell you I had Ashley in on November 7th, which is in the off season. I am in Seattle, Washington, and I'm I have a I've always had a bad thyroid since I had Ashley. And so I'm in Seattle and I'm feeling nauseous and you know, uh lightheaded, which you feel when your thyroid is really off. You feel all these things. And they took me to the hospital because I was feeling really, really bad. They took me to the hospital, and that's in like, let me see, like August. So anyway, her being born in June, that's nine months earlier. So um we go to the hospital and they take my blood and they're checking me out, and the nurse comes in because I told her, I said, I think it's my thyroid, my medication's probably off. And she walks in and she says, Miss Flophez, it's not your thyroid. And I said, Well, what is it? She goes, You're gonna have a baby. And I was like, I can't. I can't have a baby. Are you kidding? No, no, no, no. Oh, June, I can't have a baby. That's in the middle of golf season. Are you kidding? And this nurse probably thought I was nuts because I can't have a baby during golf, I had to have them during the off season. Um, because then I had Tori um October 30th off season. Yeah, but Aaron messed me up a little bit.
Intro MusicYeah.
Nancy LopezUm and so that's what I remember about Aaron having her, and of course, now she's traveling with me on the tour. Ashley's traveling with me, Erin's traveling with me. So I've got two babies, 15 pieces of luggage, um, a nanny, and two rooms, um, two cars, uh, a lot of organization because um when I would get to the golf tournament, I made sure we had a refrigerator in the room so we could have milk and cereal and stuff like that for in the morning when they got up. I'd head off to the golf course, and then my nanny would take them, you know, on little little excursions everywhere and um just kept them busy so they like I said they didn't have to sit in the hotel room. So that was pretty much now juggling two babies on tour and still no daycare at that time. Yeah. Um, so you know, trying to play, focus, and and compete. Um, I think you can only do that when you're young. Um, so I was able to accomplish that still with two babies on tour.
Mike GonzalezWell, you did pretty well. I mean, you won twice that first year back in '87. You won three times each in uh 88 and 89, including uh victory number three in the LPG Championship, the one you mentioned over a Yako Akamoto. Uh that was uh shooting 14 under. You beat her by three shots, same venue, and uh you were tied with nine to play, I think.
Nancy LopezYeah, it was close. We were we were we were competing head to head. And um, it's weird how I remember one shot, can't remember the hole, but she was she was chipping and she chipped it in, which you know put a little bit more pressure on me at that time, and I think that was probably about the 13th hole, 12th or 13th hole. And it's weird how I just remember that one shot um of her playing, um, or of us playing on that day.
Bruce DevlinGo ahead, Bruce. No, I was gonna say to our listeners, you know, we talked about three uh LPGA championships, and they were all at the Grizzly course that Nicholas built. Nancy won those three tournaments by 17 shots. Six, eight, and three. That's uh that's loving a golf course, isn't it?
Nancy LopezYeah, I I I really did love it. It like I said, it suited my eye and it and and the shape of my golf shot, and so it was just a good um good event for me.
Mike GonzalezAnd that margin was with a two-stroke penalty, slow play penalty in one of those events as well. But that's true. I mentioned you being tied with nine to play. I don't know if you remember this. You three putt 10 to go two down and then birdied five of the last eight.
Nancy LopezBoy, that was fun. Yeah, come on home, Nancy.
Mike GonzalezYeah, so you won the first LPGA held at this venue, and you won the last LPGA event held at that venue.
Nancy LopezThat's that's pretty that's fun to think about that for sure. You know, and there's another thing. I when I won my first tournament um in Sarasota, Florida, uh, that was in February of 78, won my first tournament there on the LPG tour.
Mike GonzalezBent Tree Classic.
Nancy LopezYeah, the Bent Tree Classic. And then we we played there for a few years and then we left and we went somewhere else, and then we came back to that same course. And I don't think it was a Bent Tree Classic then, but I won my 35th that got me into the LPJ Hall of Fame at the same course. So I won my first and my 35th that got me into the LPJ Hall of Fame there in Sarasota, Florida.
Bruce DevlinThat's pretty cool. It was called the Sarasota Classic. Okay when you got back there to win it. Yeah.
Nancy LopezOkay.
Mike GonzalezYeah. Yeah. So um 1990, uh, one win, but um Tory comes along.
Nancy LopezWell, when Tory came along, I was used to having babies on tour. But really then Ashley was, I think Ashley was starting school, and I had to leave her home, and I left Aaron home too, with our nanny and um their dad. And Tori traveled with me on tour, and we had Smuckers Daycare then. So I could bring Tori with me as a baby, um, and uh leave her at the Smucker's Daycare, which Smuckers has been um the daycare sponsor for a long, long time now. And thank goodness for them because we had daycare where we had the same people uh every week, the same setup. Um, you know, and of course, all the kids had moms that played golf. So there was really there's a stability there that was good. And to be able to to to let Tori go and experience that was good for me because I could still plan tour and yet let Ashley have kind of a normal life and go to school with her friends and be in school because I didn't want to teach them on the road. I wanted them to have a life that was kind of normal because they had a mom and a dad that were professional athletes. And so they weren't really normal. They didn't have a normal life, a lot of traveling, um, you know, a lot of people coming at their mom and dad for autographs and things like that. So I tried to to do that for them when they were growing up because I didn't, I didn't not not want to have children. I wanted to have children and try and juggle all these careers and their lives, um, which was very important to me.
Mike GonzalezYeah. Um, well, you you uh you still get a win in 90, you get a win in 91, you get a couple of wins in 92, one in 93. So what was going on? Now you've got three children. You're well into your career, obviously, quite accomplished. I mean, you've won just about everything there is to win except the U.S. Open. Uh so what was the mindset then?
Nancy LopezYou know, it was it came down to eventually my career was I was gonna have to shut down because I was I needed to be home with my kids before they went off to college. Um, you know, juggling their lives and and my life and being away from them was really hard because there I I'd I probably would have played more tournaments, but I two were the most I would play if I had to leave the kids at home. I I would I would play two and then go home. And um, so I I I I tell this story because I I remember it to be um when I realized that maybe it was time for me to go home. Um when you when you play golf, you focus, and you don't I don't think you can teach focus. I think it just it's in you. And um I was always real focused. I didn't hear people, I didn't hear cameras, I didn't hear anything. But I was in Portland, Oregon, and I was on the ninth green, um, and I had about a 30-footer, I'd hit my second shot to the back of the green. It wasn't a real tough putt, but I'm standing over this putt and you know, focused, I'm looking at the line, I'm coming back, I'm focused, and all of a sudden I hear a pot of a port-a potty door slam, bang, just like that. And I'm standing over this putt, and I'm like, darn, I just heard a port-a potty door slam. I've never heard a port-a potty door slam, and I and I'm standing over this putt this whole time thinking these things. I'm like, wow, I said, I'm not focused. I mean, I'm saying this to myself as I'm standing over this putt. Maybe it's time for me to go home. So here's a port-a-potty door slamming, making me think about all, you know, I'm not focused. You know, maybe I need to go home. And I I ended up two putting, but that's the moment I realized that I wasn't nervous anymore. I wasn't focused anymore. And that's pretty much when I decided that I needed to go home. And um, and and of course it was hard. When I I had my farewell tour, everybody wanted to say goodbye to every place that I went to. And it was an emotional time. I mean, I I just I as I think any professional athlete when they step away from something they've done for so many years and love, how hard it was to say goodbye to all those fans and that and the adoration that you felt when you walked up to 18. Um, it was really, really tough. And it was so much fun too, because there were so many people that were so, I mean, every place I went, it just I just felt so awesome but sad. Um, and I remember one place, it was in Alabama, um, one of the Rob Robert Trent Jones courses that we played. Um, I'm walking up to 18. Of course, I've got tears in my eyes because I knew it was my last time, last time walking up that 18th fair uh to that 18th green. And the the crowds were huge. And I walked up, everybody in the stands. I'm walking up there, and all of a sudden, you know those those sticks with a face on them?
Intro MusicYeah.
Nancy LopezThat people put up to the face. Well, everybody put their stick up and it was my face.
Intro MusicOh, that's funny.
Nancy LopezIt was kind of scary. Yeah. But it was really so cool uh for them to say goodbye to me like that. And um, so it was really, really sad to say goodbye to my crew on the LPG tour because it was my life. Yeah, I loved it. Yeah, it was special.
Mike GonzalezYep, yep. You you got one more year uh win in your final LPGA win was the 1997 Chick-fil-A charity championship, hosted by Nancy Lopez.
Nancy LopezI um I won that tournament. Because it were the last day it was rained out. But the way I won it, um I hit a shot in on a par five, third shot at Eagle D. But that on that day I told my caddy, I said, I'm just telling you, we need to be leading after this day because the weather looks terrible tomorrow. And I was one shot in the lead when we finished that round, and I won that tournament with with a with a three da in a three-day four-day event, but it became a three-day event. And that's how I won that that my last tournament.
Mike GonzalezYeah, yeah. Um, I'm gonna take a minute and brag a little bit on both of you, if you don't mind. I'm gonna talk now about major championship performance, okay? And so, Nancy, I'm gonna start with you. Nancy Lopez played in 86 majors, made the cut in 66. That's a pretty good percentage at 77 percent. Top tens 25, which represents almost 30 percent of the majors she played in. But listen to this one. Let's just look at the majors that Nancy Lopez played in up through age 40, her first 20 years on tour. She played in 64 majors, missed four cuts. That's 94%. Her top tens, 39% of the majors played in the first 20 years on tour, 39% top 10 in those in those 64 majors. Pretty incredible. So now I'll I'll brag on I'll brag on my podcast partner a little bit, Nancy. I went back and looked at the records of all non-major all non-Hall of Famers that have ever played the game, right? Living who are age eligible for the Hall of Fame, that being 45 years of age. And I said, I want to see everybody that won at least eight times on tour or won at least ten times on the European tour, or won at least one major championship. And I wanted to look at their record. If I look at the major performance for those 84 players, and I look at percent cuts made in majors and percent top tens of of majors played, three Aussies lead the pack of those 84 players. Graham Marsh, Bruce Crampton. Yours truly, Bruce Doublett.
Bruce DevlinThat's amazing, isn't it? Really?
Mike GonzalezYeah, yeah. So you guys, you guys knew how to turn it on when it came to the majors. Now, Nancy, you had uh your best finish in the in what was the Kraft Nabisco, I guess, Dinah Shore, was a T three to Nancy Bowen in 1995. You had three wins in the LPGA. Obviously, we talked about the U.S. Open with four seconds uh over a span of 18 years. And then the de Maurier, you had a chance to play a few of those, and uh, and uh I know you had three three top fives. I think your closest was a T uh well there was three seconds actually in the DeMaurier. So could have been a bunch of majors, couldn't it? Yeah, could have been.
Bruce DevlinClose, close. So Nancy, you have you you you've sort of break the rule a little bit today, too, when we look at your record uh of of all the great players that we've interviewed on for the good of the game, most of them, believe it or not, have a minus record when it comes to playoffs. Nancy Lopez is positive, eight playoff wins and seven playoff losses. So you're on the positive side, which doesn't happen very much.
Nancy LopezGod, it's funny how you don't remember that.
Mike GonzalezNo, no, no. Yeah, but it has been amazing to see that you know here we are interviewing all these great players, and uh I think collectively it's a sub-500 record in playoffs, which just shows you what a crapshoot playoffs can be, right?
Bruce DevlinYeah, sure does.
unknownYeah.
Bruce DevlinSome some career, Nancy, it's uh quite remarkable what you've been able to achieve. And I know Mike was gonna say something.
Mike GonzalezWell, there's just so many achievements, Nancy, and and uh I guess when I'm done listening, a couple a few of these uh we'll let you tell us which sort of which accolade you're most proud of and which playing accomplishment you're most proud of. But uh I I we don't have time to read them all. We'd be here all day. But uh World Golf Hall of Fame inductee in 1987, won the USGA Bob Jones Award in 1998, you won the Tom, old Tom Morris Award in 2000, the Francis Wamette Award, which was given for lifelong contributions to golf in 2004. Uh the list goes on and on and on and on. Uh Philanthropy, of course, with your uh with your hospice golf classic that you did at DoubleGate and and uh uh you know benefiting AIME, benefiting Boys and Girls Club, benefiting First T. Just so much there. I guess in terms of accolades, what are you most proud of?
Nancy LopezTell you that a lot of those awards are special to me. The um Bob Jones Award was very special to me. Um I think because of what they stand for, um you know, your contribution to golf, um, what you meant to the to golf. Um the Tom Old Tom Morris Award was a special award for me. Um you know, I I think whenever I got an award, I really took it to heart because um as a professional golfer, I think, you know, I always said to anyone, I said, you know, I being a great golfer is great, but the way people remember you is better. Um, you know, what your accomplishments were, what you gave back, how you comported yourself, all those things were really more important to me than winning trophies. And um, and so when I got awards like that, and you know, that they they meant something to me because um it wasn't just about my golf game, it was about the way I was as a person. And so, you know, every, like I said, every award that I won, and I I'm I can't remember some of them, uh, which I hate to say that, but um I just I appreciated that that I was acknowledged that way, um, because that that would probably be what my goal would my goal would be to be remembered as um not just a golfer, but as that person that gave back. Um so I think those things are important to me.
Mike GonzalezBruce, we normally wind it down with a few special questions for our guest.
Bruce DevlinYeah, Nancy sort of touched on a couple of them there. And and you know, we always go, we always use the number 20. We say, if you started back in your career when you were 20 years old and know what you know now, what would you have done differently?
Nancy LopezWith my career?
Mike GonzalezIf you knew at age twenty what you know now, what would you have done what would you have done differently?
Nancy LopezOh wow. Um I probably well, I I will say, and I don't know if this is the the right answer or wrong. I'm not sure.
Bruce DevlinThere's no right or wrong.
Nancy LopezI I wouldn't have gotten married on my 21st birthday.
Intro MusicOkay.
Nancy LopezI got married the first time on my 21st birthday, and that was even though he was a wonderful man, that's just not supposed to happen. You know, you're 21, you have no clue about life yet. And um, I think that you need to wait. Um, so that that's probably one thing I would have changed. I would have waited uh a little bit longer before I got married the first time.
Mike GonzalezAll right. Question number two: you get one career mulligan, where do you take it?
Nancy LopezI want that putt back on number 17 at the U.S. Open in Portland that I I needed to make to at least have a chance to win that one. I I that leaving that putt short just killed me. It was awful.
Bruce DevlinYeah. Well then, and the last one, Nancy, is all and you've sort of touched on it just prior to asking these three questions. How would you like Nancy Lopez to be remembered?
Nancy LopezI really want people to remember me not just as a as a uh champ in golfer on the LPG tour, but um I want them to to remember me as um uh for being a good person, um, for being um uh a giving person, um to um remember me as um a kind person and um and to always just remember me to that I was um I gave back to golf um more than anything. I that's that that means more to me than than winning.
Mike GonzalezBruce, we always uh hope that we're doing the stories of these great players justice, but it's sure been a delight for me. I know it has been for you as well.
Bruce DevlinYeah, thank you, Nancy. So so you you you are giving and you have made a wonderful contribution to the game of golf. And Mike and I thank you for joining us today. And uh Godspeed.
Nancy LopezThank you, Bruce. Thanks, Mike. You all take care of yourselves too, okay?
Mike GonzalezThank you for listening to another episode of For the Good of the Game. And please, wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple and Spotify, if you like what you hear, please subscribe, spread the word, and tell your friends until we tee it up again for the good of the game. So long, everybody.
Intro MusicIt went small.

Golf Professional
The year was 1978, and the Ladies Professional Golf Association was suffering an identity crisis. Growing up in Roswell, New Mexico, came an unidentified flying star, a Mexican-American girl whose father owned an auto-body shop. She won the state amateur when she was 12, two U.S. Girls’ Junior titles, an NCAA title, and, in 1975, she finished second in the U.S. Women’s Open. If this wasn’t the savior, then only God knows who was.
Her name was Nancy Lopez, and it wasn’t long before everybody just called her Nancy. She won five consecutive tournaments in 1978, and everybody sort of hitched a ride on her skirt tails: the press, the fans, the sponsors, even the rest of the women playing the sport. These were magical times for women’s golf, and nobody seemed to want to get in her way.
She won nine times that year, including the LPGA Championship, eight times in 1979 and she was the nicest person in the world. “After my first year I thought, ‘I could be a flash in the pan,’ and I was also determined to prove I was not,” Lopez has said. “I was determined not to fall on my face, though it is easy enough to choke yourself to death trying to win.”
Looking back on these years Jaime Diaz wrote in Sports Illustrated that Lopez had burst on the scene with as much charisma as anyone since Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
“I was determined not to fall on my face, though it is easy enough to choke yourself to death trying to win.”
Not even Zaharias had become a legend so fast. She was all of 21 years old, and the veterans marveled not only at her golfing abili…Read More













