Nearing The End, Emotional Lopez Reflective

By Ken Klavon, USGA

Nancy Lopez during a USGA interveiw.

Hutchinson, Kan. – Between the tears and sobs, Nancy Lopez made her way out of the interview room saying her goodbyes. The professional playing career that started at a breakneck pace is running out of steam. And she knows it.

The Nancy Lopez Farewell tour, announced earlier this season, continued Tuesday at Prairie Dunes.

Engaging as always, the 45-year-old Lopez sat patiently for a half hour politely answering everything thrown her way. She laughed. She cried. She was wistful. She cried even more. There were no contrivances with her. What you see with Lopez, unlike the myriad of egomaniac athletes out there today, is what you get.

Can it be paradoxical to describe something as a wake and an uproarious ceremony at once? The media session was both, an edge going to the melancholy side. There was definitely sadness sprinkled with the smiles.

When asked if there was sorrow as her career whittles down, she said, bursting into tears: "Of course there is. Golf has been my life since 8 years old. It’s hard to get old and play. Forty-five isn’t that old. But when you’ve tried to be the best, and worked and practiced … it’s really hard when you’re used to playing the type of golf that you can play to win.

"And, of course, it makes me very sad because I’d like to keep playing. But if you can’t be in the top 10 and you can’t be in the top five and you can’t win, it’s disappointing."

To better understand Lopez’s place in women’s golf, consider this: in the history of sport, there has always been several players who have defined an era.

In baseball, Ty Cobb gave way to Babe Ruth who gave way to Ted Williams who gave way to Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. In basketball, George Mikan handed the proverbial baton to the trio of Oscar Roberston, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, who passed it to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, who left it to Michael Jordan.

All of them were responsible for transcending their sport.

Women’s golf has followed the same route. Early pioneer Babe Didrikson Zaharias is credited with perhaps saving women’s golf. She had unquestionable star power. So did Mickey Wright when she came along. And so did Lopez.

According to Rhonda Glenn, USGA Manager of Communications, Wright awakened men to women’s golf and Lopez was the one, on the heels of Title IX being passed in 1972, who attracted girls to take up the sport.

This year has been bittersweet because of family issues. Her father Domingo, who taught her the game, passed away April 16 at 87. Her oldest daughter, Ashley, graduated high school. Time on the tour passes by, but so does the family life. Her decision to cut back significantly on her playing schedule next year – mind you, not fully retire – entered her mind over one recent incident that involved 10-year-old daughter Torri.

While playing in an event in Chicago last year, Torri’s puppy died after falling from a cart.

"That goes back to why I’m leaving the tour," said Lopez. "Because I really should have flown home to be with Torri, and fortunately for me, I asked if I needed to come home. She said no. If she would have said yes, I would have gone home."

Lopez always knew the day would come when she wouldn’t be able to compete to the best of her abilities. Knee injuries and, to be truthful, age have sabotaged one of the most successful careers in women’s golf. Funny how age sucks the body of skill the way a leech latches onto a host.

It isn’t fair. But nothing really is.

"I just always used to sit back and watch Arnold [Palmer] and Jack [Nicklaus] and anybody else that was getting older and say, ‘Why don’t they quit? Because they’re not playing the type of golf I know they want to play.’ So I asked myself that question, ‘When do you know when to stop?’ And in my heart I just felt it was time," said Lopez.

Lopez is here, ready to play in her 25^th Women’s Open, because the USGA extended a special exemption to her in April. It took her two minutes to accept.

Soon the criticism came, most notably from Jan Stephenson in one published report. Stephenson penned that Lopez wasn’t so deserving of the exemption. After all, with 48 career victories, Lopez had hit a marathon dry spell. Her last win came in 1997 at the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship. In eight tournaments this year she has not made a cut.

Word got back to Lopez but she had not read the story. She actually heard from Stephenson in a funny way. As it turned out, a mix-up ensued when Lopez was in a locker room last week and had a message passed on to another Jan, who actually cuts hair. The locker room attendant mistakenly put the message in Stephenson’s locker, which said, "Call me."

Stephenson did, thinking Lopez was upset, and confessed to the article.

"I didn’t read it," said Lopez. "I didn’t know what [Stephenson] was talking about.

"She said she wasn’t attacking me; she was just making a point."

On missing every cut this year, she added: "I’ve missed every cut, but it doesn’t really bother me. I’d like to play good, but I don’t walk away saying I didn’t get anything out of that tournament. I walk away saying I did what I wanted to; I saw people I wasn’t going to see anymore."

On The Scene

The golfing world first heard of Lopez at 12 when she won the New Mexico Women’s Amateur. Four years earlier, her father put a club in her hand for the first time. The practice paid off.

As a junior, the smiley and innocent Lopez first fascinated fans by capturing the USGA Girls’ Junior Championship twice, in 1972 and 1974. As an amateur, she was on the path to stardom, taking the Western Amateur three times. She committed to the University of Tulsa, and then left after her sophomore season. But not before being tagged an All-American and the university’s Female Athlete of the Year in 1976.

In 1975, she played in her first Women’s Open, mesmerized by idol JoAnne Carner. Paired together in a round, she nervously watched as Carner hit a cut shot off the tee. That eased her mind – until she did the exact same thing. Lopez overcame anxiety to finish second, four strokes behind champion Sandra Palmer. That, though, gave her the confidence that she could compete professionally.

Soon, the wide-eyed and confident 21 year old would join the LPGA Tour in 1977. Her first career victory came, ironically, at the expense of LPGA Hall of Famer Carner, in the CocaCola Classic. At one point, Lopez reeled off a record-setting five wins in a row en route to nine for the season. Success reaped rewards. She still remains the only player to win Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year and Vare Trophy honors in the same season.

It was a godsend to the LPGA, which was dehydrating from a superstar personality. Lopez had charisma, aw shucks personality and skill. She also was glamorous.

By 1982, a season that she played under the name of Lopez-Melton before a short-lived marriage to Tim Melton would end, she had racked up 25 wins. Late in the year she made headlines by marrying baseball player Ray Knight.

Five years later, with her 35^th career victory, she became eligible for the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame. And, in 1998, among the many awards and honors, she was given the USGA’s Bob Jones Award, which recognizes distinguished sportsmanship in the game of golf.

"She is probably one of the most popular golfers ever," said 16-year-old Aree Wongluekiet, playing in her first Open. "She’s done more for the LPGA than almost anyone. It’ll be a loss."

A loss that will make Se Ri Pak empty. When Pak joined the LPGA in 1998, it was Lopez who took her under her wing. Pak recalled, after having won the Women’s Open that year, how lonely she felt being away from Korea with no friends. Lopez had seen her depressed in a locker room soon after and lifted her spirits.

"She looks like a mother. I’m comfortable when I talk to her," said Pak. "She always says, ‘This is my daughter,’ kind of joking, but she is a great person. … I’ll never forget her in my life."

If there is one disappointment in her career, it would be that she never won a Women’s Open. She finished second four times, losing a one-stroke heartbreaker to Alison Nicholas in 1997 at Pumpkin Ridge. She said that was her most memorable one because she was confident going into the final round, filled with positive thoughts. And she had every reason to be. To this day, she is still the only player to piece together four rounds in the 60s.

She also is the only player to do it with a busted zipper. "Everybody was handing me safety pins, and I could not keep my pants together," she laughed.

The second-place finishes have gnawed at her internally. She took some solace in them by simply making light of it.

"When he passed away, I was very sad because I got to meet Sam Snead," said Lopez. "And they were talking about his golf and what he had done. He’s finished second in the U.S. Open four times and never won it, and I said, ‘Darn, when I die they’re going to say I finished second in the U.S. Open four times and never won it.’

"If I would have won the U.S. Open any time, I would have brought my sleeping bag and camped out on 18 and stayed there all night long."

So as to what appears to be her final Women’s Open gets underway, the sentimental favorite will take it all in stride. The gallery has provided rousing support, in turn receiving Lopez’s acknowledgment of them with each handshake, autograph and warm word.

Still, forget the Women’s Open goose egg; there is something else missing that goes beyond the scope of sport. Namely family.

"Just the other day I was going to call him [her dad]," said Lopez as she broke into sobs. "I forgot he wasn’t around anymore. Before the U.S. Open, I always called him the day before I left."

She said her immediate family has been supportive, really not knowing of her decision to leave the game. She thanked them, players, the fans and the media. Yes, even the media.

"I just love the fans and the press," she said. "The press really let everybody know Nancy Lopez by writing their stories."

When all was said and done, Lopez’s interview transcript came to 27 pages. That’s right, 27. That’s more than a chapter in most books. To provide perspective, normally player transcripts are no longer than several pages.

Glenn added that in her 25 years of covering the event, only two standing ovations have been bestowed a player immediately after a media conference. The first occurred after the final round of the 1997 Women’s Open. The other took place Tuesday.

Lopez was on the receiving end of both.

Ken Klavon is the USGA Web Editor. E-mail him at kklavon@usga.org.