A Few Minutes with Nancy Lopez
Decision on Turning Pro
Advice for Parents of Potential Golfers
Almost Losing the Dog at Her Host Family’s House in Michigan
By Tom Lang
It’s always a pleasure catching up with retired pro golfer Nancy Lopez – in part because she won’t spend that time telling you why she’s in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Her game on the golf course spoke for itself, with 48 LPGA Tour wins, including nine of them in her rookie season of 1978 at age 20.
Lopez won three career majors and was runner up four times at the U.S. Women’s Open – the first time as an 18-year-old amateur just after high school graduation. She’s well known for almost always playing with a pep in her step and a smile on her face – which is why she’s promoted golf all her life with the phrase – Play Happy.
In fact, when she finished national runner up in the 1975 U.S. Women’s Open, many people urged her to skip college and go straight to the pros.
“It looked great that everyone was getting free golf balls and clubs and they had these really nice golf bags and really nice outfits,” she told me about how she pondered her pro future while still a teenager. “But even at that age, I asked myself, ‘Are they even happy?’
“I had to answer that question on my own and I really didn’t know if they were happy. So, after high school I needed college because I just didn’t feel ready to try the Tour – and thank God, it was a good decision.”
After earning the trio of LPGA Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year and the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1978, the New Mexico native followed it up with eight more Tour wins in ‘79, which would have been her senior year in college at Tulsa (where she won the college national championship). She was taking classes to become an engineer but after two years it was time to make the jump.
Once on Tour, there were several stops in East Lansing for the Oldsmobile Classic, which was played 1992-2000, more on the back end of her career (she retired in 2002, with three children at home).
Lopez was an Oldsmobile ambassador. Like many players today still do, she stayed with a local host family – Chuck (an Olds executive) and Diane Strong. Her funniest memory was dog sitting for them. One day she let the dog outside as they asked, then forgot about him.
“I went outside and couldn’t find the dog anywhere, and I didn’t even know the dog’s name,” Lopez said with still a hint of exasperation all these years later. “So, I couldn’t really call him. It was Fuzzy or Duffy, something like that. So, I’m outside yelling out names like Duffy, Muffy, Buffy.
“Then I got in the Oldsmobile car they gave us to use for the week and drove around screaming for this dog. I got back to their house and the neighbors said; “Are you looking for the Strong’s dog? They said he’s on the front porch. That dog was like their family and oh my gosh, if he’d gotten killed or lost, I would never…I’d have just been crazy.” (Note: we talked more and determined the dog’s name was likely Duffy, for the former legendary MSU football coach Duffy Daugherty.)
Lopez’s Advice for Parents:
“I’ve talked to a lot of kids, and you know right away the parents who are tough to deal with. The ones who think their kids are perfect and want them to be that perfect golfer… And that’s not going to happen,” she said.
“Golf is a tough sport, and my message to all those parents is: let your child fail. But be there to give them a helping hand back up. Encourage them. So many kids, and even on the LPGA Tour, the parents are really hard on these players. Then they don’t play well and the parents will ask them ‘what happened with you? Why did you do this? Why did you do that?’
“My dad; he let me fail. He knew I was trying to give 100 percent to do my best and that’s what he always told me. Give 100 percent, and if you did, you should never feel disappointed that you didn’t win, or you didn’t shoot even par or whatever,” Lopez added.
“That’s what my dad taught me. Never give up. He also told me that golf is a very tough game, and that I was going to lose a lot more than I would win. And he was not saying it as a negative. He said to accept losing because it’s going to happen. And that you have to be a good loser as well as a good winner.”
Folds of Honor:
Lopez’s first introduction to the Folds of Honor, established by Lt. Col. Dan Roony at what is now American Dunes in Grand Haven, was being paired with Rooney at a fundraiser run by entertainer Vince Gill. Both her father and her husband are veterans. Rooney invited her to be on the Board of Directors a few years ago.
“It’s a great organization and what they do is amazing,” she said. “If you could hear the stories of some of the Gold Star families and these scholarships, their stories are amazing. And they really cut you.
“It’s easy to take for granted all that the military does for us. I’ve always supported the military before, but now it’s every day I think about them. I pray for them, and I have a great life and it’s because of them. I feel safe being here in the United States, I get to play golf and be with my friends, while they are out there protecting us and our families. Never forgotten. It’s touched my life a lot. I mean it when I say I bleed red, white and blue, and my husband is the same way.
“I love being at American Dunes,” she added about her annual visits to chair The Intrepid fundraiser aimed at honoring women. “It’s like going to church. Everybody’s there because they love their country and they want to support something that’s a part of their life. And we all go to church for the same reason – to all honor our Lord.
“I think American Dunes is like that. We honor our country, our veterans, our fallen soldiers, and their families. So, it’s just a special place to go and feel all these very sentimental ideas and it really touches my heart when I’m there.”
As a life-long Michigan golf lover myself, I urge everyone to try American Dunes at least once – where you play for a purpose.
