Lopez, Sheehan, King: A Class Of Their Own

By Rhonda Glenn, USGA

Hutchinson, Kan. – Now and then, a single small moment comes along that dusts off our finest memories, shines them up, and parades them in front of our grateful eyes.

On July 5, at 1:46 p.m., Nancy Lopez, 45, Patty Sheehan, 45, and Betsy King, 46,

Nancy Lopez (Pam Murphy/USGA)

finished their last round together in the United States Women’s Open Championship.

For a triumvirate bonded by winning and by love of the game, it was a victory lap. For more than a quarter century, they have faced each other on the fairways.

In the 1977 Women’s Open, King and Sheehan, both amateurs, missed the cut. Each would eventually capture a pair of Women’s Open championships. Lopez, at the time, had just turned professional. Her father accompanied her and her mother, a serene, beautiful woman who used a small parasol to shade her head as she sedately strolled the cart paths, watching her daughter play. Lopez nearly won, landing the second of four runner-up finishes.

Lopez, a 20 year old from Roswell, N.M., wasn’t so well known then. The following year, her life changed for good.

In the fourth tournament of 1978, Lopez won her first professional tournament, the Bent Tree Classic in Sarasota, Fla. In the fifth tournament, the Sunstar Classic, in Los Angeles, she won again. On that day, March 12, 1978, the lifelong love affair between Lopez and legions of golf fans began.

That year, I worked for the Colgate-Palmolive Company as coordinator of 28 LPGA players under contract to Ram Golf Company, a subsidiary. I had booked and advertised an appearance by two star players, one a very key LPGA star, for March 13. It was in a sporting goods store just two blocks from the tournament site. Some six people came in the two hours we were there, and none of them knew who the two players were.

Two days later, before the first round of the Kathryn Crosby/ Honda Civic Classic in San Diego, Calif., I booked a store appearance for Lopez at a nearby mall. People crowded into the store for Lopez’s autograph. Order was kept only with the help of store employees. More lines of people flowed out of the store, down the long hallway of the mall, and out the door into the parking lot. Many hundreds of people. The intangible connection between Lopez and her people had been made.

Lopez has a smile, and a word, for each person. She has never forgotten her childhood disappointment when a famous player refused to give her an autograph. She will not refuse. That has never changed.

There are a thousand Nancy Lopez stories; her kindness to a mentally disabled man during the crucial fourth round of the 1997 Women’s Open at Pumpkin Ridge, lingering for a long conversation with a small group of devoted fans (despite her bad knees) at the 2000 Women’s Open, her counseling of a 9-year-old boy in South Dakota many years ago.

And what of Sheehan and King? They, too, have become part of our

Betsy King (Pam Murphy/USGA)

consciousness of women’s golf and, over the years, both have done their share of good works.

In the mid-1980s, Patty Sheehan supported a home for troubled girls, "Tigh Sheehan," for eight years. Her charity landed her on a 1987 Sports Illustrated cover based on eight athletes who cared. She also adopted two children. Sheehan’s was a sincere commitment to something she believed in.

She supported Tigh Sheehan, in fact, until an earthquake leveled her home in 1989. Sheehan, who had thought she had her nest egg, was in a financial disaster from which few people could recover.

Since turning professional in the 1980 season, Sheehan leapt from 63^rd on the money list that year to fourth in 1982. From 1982 through 1989, she never once dropped out of the top 10 in earnings and was second three times. She wanted to cut back from the tedium of day-to-day life on the professional circuit, but with the loss of the house and much of her retirement, Sheehan was forced to rally. She worked so hard that she discovered tenacity that perhaps she had not known she had. In the next six years, she won 15 tournaments and $2.6 million to recover.

After another disaster, in 1990, she would rally again.

Sheehan led the 1990 Women’s Open at Atlanta Athletic Club by as many as 12 strokes in the third round. A sudden collapse allowed King to beat her by a stroke. Sheehan’s sobs after her loss were captured for an interminable amount of time by national television. It was a painful thing to watch.

Yet, just two years later, at Oakmont, Sheehan holed a curling 18-foot birdie putt in the dusk on the 72^nd hole to tie Juli Inkster. It was a birdie she had to have, a putt desperately needed. When it dropped, she thrust her fist into the air and with fiery eyes stared at the spectators around the green. "I cannot be beaten down," her expression said.

Sheehan won that Women’s Open in a playoff and in 1994, soaking her aching wrists in ice between rounds, she won again.

King struggled for nearly seven years. She turned professional in 1977. She didn’t win until 1984, and then she never seemed to stop.

King’s early career showed potential. She was strong, she could hit the ball high, and she had a passable short game, but nothing was happening. At impact, her weight fell back on her right foot, "reverse weight shift," it’s called, and she had no consistency.

She sought new teachers. She changed her swing. In 1984, she clenched her first victory and won twice more. From 1984 through 1989, King won 20 tournaments, the winningest professional golfer during that period. Over the years, she won 14 more.

It seemed that nothing could sway King from her drive to win. But that’s deceiving. With quiet determination King also sought to do some good. She is committed to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She organized Habitat for Humanity projects, projects that build homes for people who really need them, in Phoenix, Ariz., and Charlotte, N.C. After the 1993 and 1994 seasons, she accompanied a group of players to Romania to work with an orphan relief organization.

And so, these three, the Hall of Famers who have 117 victories among them, finished this championship Friday.

For Lopez, who is not coming back, it was an emotional finish. At every tee, every green, she was greeted by spectators who cheered for "Our Nancy." Cheered their hearts out.

For Sheehan, who competes rarely but whose humor, flash and great spirit have always aroused emotion among fans, there were also cheers. And for King, the fierce determination still apparent, there was also respect.

They embraced, at the end, and Lopez shed tears. She’ll soon be home in Albany, Ga., where Nancy Lopez returns to being Nancy Knight. At the end of this season, she will go home to tend to husband, children, pets, neighbors and charities. In that way, she is much like other American women. But we can’t forget that this woman once enthralled the sports world like no other female athlete of our time, or perhaps of any time.

It was a unique pairing of three great athletes yesterday and today. Lopez, Sheehan, King, women who reached the height of their athletic power in an era that fades away.

Someone once called Sheehan’s birdie putt at Oakmont, "heroic." Perhaps I called her heroic myself. "Hero" is a word we now reserve for people who save lives. But these are good people. They’ve inspired us with their excellence and their will to win. In what they give back, they are a part of something very good. They aren’t exactly heroes, or heroines, if you will, but they have achieved a state of grace and we wish them well.

Rhonda Glenn is the USGA Manager of Communications. E-mail her at rglenn@usga.org with questions or comments.