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Nancy
Lopez retires from LGPA Nancy Lopez ended her valedictory season,
the 25th of a storied career, with a round of 76 in the Mobile LPGA Tournament
of Champions in Alabama on Sunday and that, really, is why the woman whose smile
lit up the golfing world, has called it a day.
At the age of 45, with
an accumulation of aches, pains and family commitments, Lopez can no longer compete
with the Annika Sorenstams and Se Ri Paks, and that hurts. “I hate
missing cuts and I hate not playing well and I hate not playing that shot that
I used to be able to hit right where I wanted to,” she said. “I always
used to watch Arnold (Palmer) and Jack (Nicklaus and anybody else that was getting
older and say, ’Why don’t they quit?’ So I asked myself that question,
when do you know to stop? And in my heart I just felt it was time.” Golf
had been Lopez’s life since she was 8 years old and she won the New Mexico
Women’s Amateur Championship when she was 12. The swing, with its idiosyncratic
hitch, was all Nancy’s own and Domingo Lopez, a little anxious, took his
daughter to Lee Trevino for an assessment. “Everything I can see is going
to work,” he said. It did and Domingo, who died in April this year,
contributed further to the legend when he advised, “You can’t see the
ball when you’re crying. Be happy and play happy.” It became his daughter’s
trademark. Lopez won the US Girls’ Junior Championship in 1972 and
1974, was joint runner-up in the US Women’s Open in 1975 as an amateur and
played in the Curtis Cup in 1976 at Royal Lytham & St Annes. She turned professional
in 1977 and in 1978, her official rookie season, she was a sensation. She won
nine times and five of the victories were in consecutive outings, an achievement
that created a media frenzy that catapulted her and the LPGA Tour into the national
limelight. Lopez showed that she could cope with the expectations, the
demands and the jealousies — not all the players were happy to be caught
up in the Lopez loop — by winning eight times in 1978 and retaining her position
as No 1. Lopez kept on winning, though at a less whirlwind rate, got married,
divorced, married again, to Ray Knight, of baseball fame, in October 1982 and
gave birth to the first of her three daughters in November 1983. In 1985, she
won five times, and was player of the year, Vare Trophy winner and leading money-winner
again. Daughter No 2 arrived in May 1986 but Lopez was Player of the Year
again in 1988, won the LPGA Championship for the third time in 1989 and produced
a third daughter in November 1991. The last of her 48 victories came in 1997 and
although all America loves a winner, that is not the reason that Lopez is even
now regarded with something approaching reverence. It is because she gave
of herself all the time, honestly and without affectation, sharing her hopes,
her fears, her battles with her weight, the juggling of career and family and
connecting with the fans in a way given to few. Charlie Mechem, former
commissioner of the LPGA, has a story that summed it all up. “Nancy was having
a bad day,” he said, “and someone thrust a programme or something right
in her face and said, ’Sign this for Tammy’. Just like that. Nancy stopped
for a minute, digested the situation and said, ’Is that spelled with a y
or an ie?’ ” The essence of a legend. Course highs Amateur
highlights: New Mexico Women’s Amateur Championship 1969; US Girls’
Junior Championship 1972, 1974; US Women’s Open joint runner-up 1975; Curtis
Cup 1976; World Amateur Team Championship 1976. Major highlights: LPGA
Championship winner 1978, 1985, 1989; runner-up US Women’s Open 1975 (as
amateur), 1977, 1989, 1997 (when she became first player to break 70 in all four
rounds; lost to Alison Nicholas by one stroke); runner-up duMaurier Classic 1979,
1981, 1996. Career victories: 48.
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