Nancy Lopez

• Born: January 6, 1957
• Place of Birth: Torrance, California

American golfer

Lopez is credited with increasing the profile and popularity of women’s golf and the Ladies Professional Golf Association. Her likable personality and gracious accessibility have charmed the fans and the public alike. When she joined the professional tour, she created a media buzz and wide interest in a sport that had previously been ignored.

Early Life

Nancy Marie Lopez was born in 1957 in Torrance, California, the second daughter of Mexican immigrant Domingo Lopez and Marina Griego Lopez. The family moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where Lopez and her sister Delma grew up. At age eight, she was playing golf with her parents. Domingo Lopez saw that his daughter had a natural ability for the game and became her coach and most enthusiastic promoter.

At the age of nine, Lopez entered her first pee-wee tournament, a children’s competition, and finished the three-day, nine-holes-a-day event 110 strokes ahead of her nearest competitor. In fact, she was so far ahead that she had the time to help other children tee their balls. When she was twelve, she played better than her father, and she won her first New Mexico Women’s Amateur championship. Already a golfer to be reckoned with, Lopez became the first girl to play on a boys’ high school golf team, as there was no girls' team in her school. She led the team to two state championships.

The Lopez family was not poor, as Domingo owned an automobile repair shop, but they were not rich either. However, they willingly made the sacrifices that were necessary to finance Nancy’s lessons and her time on the links. One of these sacrifices was driving her two hundred miles to play in Albuquerque; because they were Mexican Americans, the Lopezes were not allowed to play at the Roswell Country Club. Domingo even built a backyard sand trap in order for Nancy to practice at home. Nancy herself had the discipline to practice and maximize her natural talent, but she still had a normal childhood. Along with the golf lessons, she tap danced, swam, and played volleyball and basketball.

After high school, Lopez went to the University of Tulsa on a golf scholarship. She dropped out of college after her second year and turned professional in 1977. That same year, she was named Rookie of the Year by Golf Digest. One of Lopez’s disappointments is that her mother died of a heart attack shortly before she turned professional and never saw her daughter win a professional championship.

Lopez married her first husband, Tim Melton, in 1978. The couple met when Melton, a Pennsylvania sportscaster, interviewed her. The marriage ended in divorce three years later, in part because he wanted her to retire from golf.

Life’s Work

Lopez became a media sensation during her rookie year on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour when she won eight tournaments, five of which were consecutive. She was named LPGA Rookie of the Year. The following year she was named player of the year, following that with the receipt of the prestigious Vare Trophy. In 1979, she played in nineteen tournaments and won eight, an achievement Sports Illustrated magazine heralded as “one of the most dominating sports performances in the last fifty years.” She can also boast of three career holes-in-one. Among her many firsts, she was the first woman golfer to earn $1 million; by 1997, she earned $5 million.

In 1982, Lopez married Major League Baseball player Ray Knight. During Knight’s career, he played third base for the Cincinnati Reds, the Houston Astros, the New York Mets, and the Baltimore Orioles. The couple had three daughters, Ashley Marie, Erinn Shea, and Torri Heather, and settled in Knight’s hometown, Albany, Georgia. Lopez never lost sight of the fact that golf is only a game. However, she was serious about the game, continuing to practice and having the discipline for an extensive exercise regime that included five hundred crunches a day.

Among Lopez’s forty-eight tournament wins are the Sarasota Classic, Mazda Championship, LPGA Championship, Coca-Cola Classic, Women’s Kemper Open, and Elizabeth Arden Classic; she received some of these wins multiple times.

Lopez was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1989 and, at that time, was the youngest person to achieve that honor. She easily met the requirements (the most stringent in professional sports halls of fame) of thirty tournament wins, with two of those being major titles. She has said that her only professional disappointment is that she never won the US Women’s Open, although she came in second four times.

On her farewell tour in 2002, Lopez played in only fourteen tournaments. She decided to retire because of health issues and to spend more time with her family. Her painful arthritis had required several knee surgeries over the years, and in 2000, she underwent gallbladder surgery.

Some critics have noted that Lopez’s golf swing is awkward. She agrees, but she has said that her swing worked for her, so she never tried to change it. The only real weakness of her game was her chip shot. She was not a good chipper because she seldom missed the green, so she had little chipping experience. Lopez founded the Nancy Lopez Company (later Nancy Lopez Golf) in order to market a line of golfing equipment and clothing for women. In addition, she has written two books on the sport. To keep busy in retirement, Lopez and Knight opened Ashbrook Quail Preserve in southern Georgia, a hunting and fishing lodge where the couple were hands-on owners. Around 2015, she launched a new business, Nancy Lopez Golf Adventures, in which teachers trained in her golfing methods and philosophy spearhead teaching a group of women to play according to lessons that she had learned in her career. Holding intimate and more individualized schooling sessions in different locations, Lopez attended to impart her wisdom one-on-one. She also continued to participate in events such as the Legends Tour as well as charity tournaments and traveled to different courses around the world to get rounds in. The year 2019 saw her serve as one of the three assistant captains for the US Solheim Cup team. In the early 2020s, Lopez continued to make appearances and greet fans at golf courses across the country, including those in her hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, where there is a golf course named in her honor and she remained a fan favorite. Lopez also began working with the group Folds of Honor, a charity that provided scholarships to the spouses and children of military service members and first responders who had been killed or disabled. In 2024, Lopez officially became a member of the organization’s board of directors.

Having divorced Knight in 2009, Lopez married Ed Russell in 2017.

Significance

In 1997, Lopez received the Hispanic Heritage Award. The Nancy Lopez Elementary School in Roswell, New Mexico, where she grew up, was named in her honor. This was done partly in recognition of her phenomenal athletic success but also because she was considered a role model for girls in general and for Latinas in particular. Whether winning or losing, Lopez maintained the grace and innate goodness that made her one of America’s sports favorites. The annual Nancy Lopez Award honors the world’s best female amateur golfer.

Bibliography

Berman, Marc. "Hall of Fame Golfer Nancy Lopez Focuses Her Attention on 'Folds of Honor' These Days." Palm Beach Post, 29 Mar. 2024, www.palmbeachpost.com/story/sports/pga/2024/03/29/hall-of-fame-golfer-nancy-lopez-on-board-of-directors-for-folds-of-honor/73123694007/. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Dye, Alice, with Mark Shaw. From Birdies to Bunkers: Discover How Golf Can Bring Love, Humor, and Success into Your Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

“Golf Great Nancy Lopez Headed Back to Locust Hill for Fundraising Event.” Democrat and Chronicle, 11 July 2022, www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/2022/07/11/nancy-lopez-headed-back-to-locust-hill-for-fundraising-event/65369003007/. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Lopez, Nancy. The Complete Golfer. Reprint. New York: Galahad Books, 2000.

Lopez, Nancy. The Education of a Woman Golfer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.

Reid, Cindy, with Steve Eubanks. Cindy Reid’s Ultimate Guide to Golf for Women. New York: Atria Books, 2003.

Shorr, Kerry, "Meet Nancy Lopez—Golf Legend, Philanthropist and Palm City Resident." Stuart Magazine, 16 Oct. 2019, www.stuartmagazine.com/stuart-life/people/meet-nancy-lopez-golf-legend-philanthropist-and-palm-city-resident/. Accessed 3 Sept. 2024.

Vaughan, Roger. Golf: The Woman’s Game. New York: Henry N. Abrams, 2001.