Thanks for the memories

LPGA

Champions at Play

In the spring of this year, LPGA Hall-of-- Famer Nancy Lopez announced she was winding down her playing career. Here, we pay tribute to one of the greatest stars the game has ever known.

True golf fans remember 1978 like it was last week. That was the year that Nancy Lopez swept through the world of sports like a hard, hot desert wind. The 21-year-old New Mexican electrified the LPGA Tour with a combination of game, competitive drive, and irresistible personality never before seen in women's golf.

Hers was, by any measure, a season of dreams realized. During that year, her first full one on tour, she won nine times-- a record-setting five in a row-including a major, the LPGA Championship. That summer her image graced the covers of The New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated. She also appeared as a guest on Good Morning America.

By season's end, Nancy had locked up honors for Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and the Vare Trophy for low-scoring average. (No one else, before or since, has ever captured that particular triple crown.) Equally important, though, she had catapulted the LPGA from the agate type of the sports pages to front-page news, and along the way she had recruited a legion of fans proud to wear the tag of "Nancy's Navy."

Her storybook performance continued strong through the next several years. In 1979 she attracted even more fans as she posted eight additional victories and again took home the tour's Player of the Year award, along with a second Vare Trophy. By the end of her third year, she had carded her 20th title.

After taking time off to have her first child, Ashley Marie, with husband Ray Knight, Nancy earned a third award for Player of the Year and the Vare Trophy in 1985. Two years and another daughter (Erinn Shea) later, 1987 brought two more wins and her induction as only the 11 th member of the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame. Even then she didn't slow down. Her three wins and two second-place finishes in 1988 assured her Player of the Year for a fourth time. By 1991, when she gave birth to Torrie Heather, her third daughter, she had amassed five more victories, including another LPGA Championship.

Take away all the awards and the 48 career wins, and LPGA players and fans alike would still insist that Nancy Lopez is special. She has always displayed a soul-deep joy for golf, and she possesses an affection and respect for her galleries equal to that which they accord her. It still is one of the great love affairs in all of sports.

Knowing that the hour is coming when she will leave full-time golf, Nancy has spent the last several months saying a slow goodbye-and long thank-you-to those who have steadfastly supported her for the last quarter-century. She has continued to sign every autograph and patiently field media questions. As she walked many tournament fairways for the last time, she waved to those gathered and flashed that famous smile, sometimes between tears.

Like Nancy, when we reflect on her career we surely will recall more than drives, chips, and putts. We should sense the passion she so clearly felt for the game and recognize the fierce resolve upon which she drew time and time again. We should admire the quiet grace she exhibited, win or lose, and we'll remember the smile, always the smile, that beamed straight from a caring heart. DIANNE YOUNG

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Oct 2002
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