An Interview with Nancy Lopez
THE MODERATOR: This call is with Hall
of Famer Nancy Lopez, who is going to make her 2007 debut at the
$2.6 million Ginn Open in Reunion, Florida, the week of April
12th through the 15th. I'd just like to start out the
questioning.
Nancy, why is this your first tournament for the year?
NANCY LOPEZ: Well, I just felt like
it was a good time to start. I've been working on my game, and
of course trying to get in physical condition to start playing.
I felt like it was time to just go out and try and put a little
pressure on my game and really kind of prepare myself for the
rest of the year.
I felt like Orlando, I feel comfortable
there, my daughter is an intern at Disney; I thought maybe she
could come out and watch me. I know a lot of friends and I have
a lot of friends at the Villages in Florida so I'm hoping they
come out and watch. I just felt like it was a good place to
start.
THE MODERATOR: How many events are
you planning to play this year?
NANCY LOPEZ: I would say at least
six, maybe more. It just depends on everybody's schedule now.
Ray is now going to be working for the Washington Nationals. He
accepted a job just recently, so I'll be doing a little
traveling up there, and then Torrie, our youngest, is still at
home.
We'll be doing a lot of traveling going back
and forth. I'll be working on my game, and hopefully it'll get
better and better as I compete. I haven't really competed for a
while, but my game has been pretty strong, hitting the ball very
well, my putting is still pretty solid, and I'm just looking
forward to seeing what I can do that first event.
THE MODERATOR: Are you working with
an instructor again or a teacher?
NANCY LOPEZ: Not really. I've just
been working with myself basically. I know my swing pretty well.
There's a few people that I talked to about my swing that are
professionals that have watched me swing, but I'm hitting the
ball real well right now and don't really have any problems.
If I do have a problem with something I
might see someone, but otherwise I feel pretty confident in the
way I'm swinging and the way I'm hitting the ball.
THE MODERATOR: Have you played the
Ginn Open course before?
NANCY LOPEZ: No, I have not.
Q. I just wondered, I read a magazine
where you lost a lot of weight. How did you do that?
NANCY LOPEZ: Well, I started working
out in the pool. But I think what happened, what made me start
doing that, was in February a year ago I was gaining weight. It
was going up, everything was going up, and my cholesterol and
everything was going up.
I went to the doctor, and she said, We're
going to have to put you on all this medication. What's going
on? And I think I just was kind of settling into the comfort
zone of just being home. I said, you know, I just don't want to
do this.
So from that point in February to this point now I've lost
around 37 pounds, more for my health more than anything. But I
think by being with the Solheim Cup players and being a part of
that team, being the captain of that team, I watched a lot of
great golf. It was inspiring during that time, but when I walked
away from it I was still enjoying my time of not having to do
anything on the golf course.
Then in February when I started working out
in the pool, which is probably what made me feel like I could
come back out if I could get myself in physical condition, but I
think what I struggled with the most at the end of really my
golfing career full time was that my body was hurting a lot.
I was doing a lot of working out, if
anyplace, in the gym, and a lot of that was hurting. When I
would get out on the golf course and play everything was hurting
more than I wanted to, especially after I played or walked for
so many days in a row.
Then from there, when I started working in
the pool, my body started to become more flexible. I felt more
comfortable. When I got on the golf course my bones weren't
tight, and the flexibility that I was feeling made me feel like
I could work out every day in the pool.
So I got my trainer to get in the pool with
me, and we've been working out pretty much every day. And if she
doesn't show up I'd go in the pool and work out in the morning.
That's really what got me feeling better.
From there I said, I'm still hitting the
ball really well. If I worked on it a little bit and tried to
get in better physical condition, I think I still might be able
to go out there.
I think there's still a question in my mind
if I can still compete, at least at a high level, not just to
play with compete with some of the best players that are on this
Tour now.
I still have about 20 pounds to go. That's
what my goal is, maybe about 18 now. But I'd really like to get
in that kind of shape and see what my body tells me. Even though
I've worked out and lost weight, will my knees bother me? Will
my body hurt? I want to see what my body tells me, if I'm doing
all right and it's all right to get out there and play again.
Q. I think you won your first LPGA
Tour event in Sarasota, and I won the tournament that put you in
the Hall of Fame here. Any special memories about either one of
those tournaments?
NANCY LOPEZ: Yeah, I did win my first
LPGA event in Sarasota, and I won my 35th. It got me into the
LPGA Hall of Fame. That was a special place for me for sure.
Q. I was wondering if you could just
talk a little bit about what your off course endeavors have been
since the Solheim Cup, in the business world what you've been
doing.
NANCY LOPEZ: I've just really been
staying involved in my golf club company which has been
purchased by another gentleman in Canada, and working on that
more trying to promote women's golf clubs, my golf clubs.
Been working with them. That's been exciting
because of the new ownership. I think we're going to be where we
should have been, and I wasn't happy with what was happening
before. So now working with that has been great.
I'm very involved with the Villages in
Florida. It's a retirement community, but I stay very active
there with golf schools. I have three to four golf schools a
year there. We have 30 students when we have the school.
Staying busy with my kids. I have two
daughters that are at Auburn University: One will be graduating
this year, and then Torrie is still 15, still at home. So I stay
busy, busy with them. Now with Ray accepting the job with the
Washington Nationals I'll be back watching baseball I'm sure
many times. So I'm staying very busy with all that.
I was doing Golf Channel last year. I
decided if I was going to spend eight weeks of doing Golf
Channel I'd rather be playing golf.
Q. Do you have any idea what your
schedule is going to look like, any other tournaments?
NANCY LOPEZ: I will probably play
tournaments that I've played well in, courses that I have good
feelings about, places that I have a lot of friends. I think the
thing about golf is you always seem to go back to the places
that have the positive memories, not the negative memories, and
there's quite a few that I feel that way about that I'd like to
play.
I'm looking forward to it. I know those golf
courses well and I think that will help me to be able to play
well on those courses because I do know them. Like I said, my
goal is really I would love to finish in the Top 10 quickly.
Hopefully that will happen. Just see where I compare.
That's just a big question in my mind, and
how I will be able to compete again. I know Orlando might be a
rough tournament for me because I haven't been under that
pressure for a while, but I might surprise myself. I might be
able to play well with that kind of pressure and just take it
from there.
Q. Is there any part of your game
that takes longer to get into shape than any of the other parts?
NANCY LOPEZ: Well, I think my short
game was probably the one that probably I struggled the most
with. But I guess I'm going to say about two or three years ago
I took short game lessons from Dave Pelz, and he really helped
me a lot because I always pretty much never had a teacher. My
dad was always my teacher. Everything was feel and more just
what I felt good about.
But when I would go out on the golf course
I'd really struggle with my short game more than anything, not
really putting. But he even helped me with that to get in better
ball position when I was putting and head position. But the rest
of the game doesn't seem to be as far off, it's just the short
game would be.
But now that I've taken lessons from Dave, I know what to work
on. He's got me moving the ball, in a better position in my
stance, and my chipping and putting, which now I do miss a few
more greens than I used to, it becomes it puts less pressure on
me because now when I'm swinging a golf course I'm not afraid to
miss a green because I know that my short game is going to be
there to support me.
I hope to hit a lot of greens, but my goal
is to always hit fairways and greens, and hopefully that will
happen quickly. Golf is a game that is a lot of mental, and you
want to feel a lot of positive things happening, and I'd like to
see that happen in that first tournament.
Q. Did your swing in any way change
much because of the weight loss?
NANCY LOPEZ: No, not really. It just
became easier. My timing I pretty much practiced through the
weight loss. My timing stayed pretty strong. I feel stronger. I
definitely feel better, because when you start to get too heavy,
you know, your legs hurt, your knees hurt, you're more tired. I
would, like I said, like to lose 20 more.
It's going to take a while because my body
has kind of come to a halt in what it's accepting and what I've
lost. Now it's just really important to keep that going on and
working hard to be strong because I don't hit the ball as long
as I used to. Average is probably about 245, 250 off the tee
right now.
But I think with the more I work out and I
keep working out, I hope to get a little bit stronger, and of
course with equipment, I think that will help me, too.
Q. Everybody wants to see the great
champions of the game still competing and out on the course. Are
you worried about being viewed as a novelty out there at all?
NANCY LOPEZ: Well, I'm sure that that
will happen, and I think even in my mind sometimes I always
looked at Arnold and Jack and I kept saying, When are they going
to stop playing? I remember my dad saying I was playing my
strongest when I was about 45 years old, and I really kind of
quit playing at age 45.
I never really kind of proved him right. And
now that I'm 50, I still feel that when I'm out there playing
I'm hitting the ball real well, and I just want to see.
I mean, maybe I'm not the player that I
think I am if I go out there and compete against the best
players in the world, because I think I've had a lot of anxiety
over the last few years because I watched Annika play so great
and just always kind of was sitting back watching and waiting to
see the other players kind of come out of the come out of
somewhere to try and give her some competition.
I think at that time I was wishing I was
back in those young days and I could play against Annika and
work hard to be able to compete against her because I respect
her very much. She has a great golf game.
I think now that players are starting to
come the cream is coming to the top, and they're really working
hard because I think their goal is to be as good as Annika
because she has really set a high standard, not just physically
but with her golf game.
I mean, I'm far from that, I believe, but I
think that I might be able to pick it up quicker than I think.
You know, I have to be able to walk and play rounds of golf
five, six days in a row. Can I do that? You know, now that I'm
more physically fit, yeah, I think I can. It might still hurt my
body a little bit, but I want to see what I can do out there on
the golf course.
Watching these great players play,
especially when they were on my Solheim Cup team, it jarred a
lot of memories of what I could do and what I did do on the LPGA
Tour. Now I'm just saying, Let's see what you can do. I really
want to play well. I'm not going to just play to play. I'm going
to work hard on me game, see how good I can get again and just
see where it takes me.
Q. Just a quick follow up. You
mentioned Arnold and Jack. It's so hard for great champions such
as yourself who have that competitive fire to walk away from the
game completely. How do you know when to say when?
NANCY LOPEZ: I think this time I'll
know if it's really the time to walk away because of your body
and because of your age and what your body is telling you more
than anything. I know talking to Arnold so many times, he can
still shoot those low 70s and then he'll shoot a high score and
it just frustrates him. At one time in his life he just didn't
do that, and it does frustrate him. I'm sure I'll feel
frustrated sometimes.
I think that my mental game is still there.
I think my mental game is very strong still, and I think that's
what made me win and help me win tournaments for so many years
is I just felt like I could. I thought I could. I worked hard on
my game, and I think when I played with better players, of
course, and they are going to be better than me now, I'm just
going to get better again if I get to play with them.
Q. I just want to say for everyone
who's listening, and you'll probably take this to heart, they
keep telling us that 50 is the new 40, so I think it's terrific
what you're doing. I have a question here about it. You
mentioned getting to the Top 10 is one of your goals. Is there
anything else that's motivating you more than anything to get
out there again and compete?
NANCY LOPEZ: Just the way I feel. I
feel the best I've felt in a long time. I think that's where
it's coming from. You know, my heart and my mind tell me I can
still do it. My body is what has really kind of given me the
most problems, because I know the last few years if I played at
all I would wake up in the morning and say, Why am I doing this?
I wasn't really preparing myself then. I
just basically played because the fans kept writing to me and
saying, Why aren't you playing? We just want to see you play. I
didn't play well, I didn't make any cuts those last few years,
but I just was out there because I loved the LPGA Tour. It's, to
me, the most exciting Tour that there is. We have some great
players now, and I have a lot of friends in so many of those
players.
To be able to get back out there and walk on
the golf course and enjoy that time in my life that has gone by
now, but, yeah, to really feel and go in there with a
competitive mind. I think, too, at the end of my career where I
never really retired, I just had a farewell tour where I didn't
feel I had the pressure of playing all the time. I just felt
like, Well, I'm going to go back out there and play my best golf
and really concentrate and see if I can do what I'm hoping I
might do when I get back out there.
So I'm excited about it. I'm nervous again.
When I was just playing to play I didn't have any nervousness
anymore, and I knew the competitive spirit was gone. And now
when I watch, when I play, just even last year when I played at
some of the Legend Tour events, there was some nervousness there
that I had in my younger years that I had kind of lost.
I thought maybe I just didn't care anymore.
Maybe I was just tired of competing. But I have that nervousness
back now, and it's good. The nervousness at that time helped me
play better. Hopefully this nervousness now will do the same
thing. I've got that nervous feeling back, which I like. I think
that's probably the reason I feel the way I feel about playing.
Q. The men have had their Champions
Tour, the Senior Tour. Do you wish perhaps at some point there
will be a full fledged Legends Tour for the women?
NANCY LOPEZ: Well, I'd love to see
that happen for The Legends Tour. But I think, still, the LPGA
is still building and still growing, and I just don't want to
interference there. I want The Legends Tour to grow. I want the
LPGA to support it 100 percent so when there aren't LPGA Tour
events that there will be Legend Tour events where they're not
really competing against each other.
I worked all my life to build the LPGA Tour. I hope and give as
much as I could to help build it. And now The Legends Tour has
come along, and I think they've got a lot of great players that
played the game and really brought a lot of personality to the
game that are playing on The Legends Tour now.
I'd like to see it grow, I just don't want
interference with either Tour. I want them to be growing
together and make sure that they're not competing against each
other.
Q. Arnold has a message for you I
picked up in Orlando that I'll pass on next time I see you. The
only question is: When you walk on the first tee and when you're
standing there with Annika and Lorena, can Nancy Lopez still
intimidate people?
NANCY LOPEZ: They won't intimidate
me. I'll be excited about that. I think that being able to play
with those players is something I want to do. I hope that I get
in that group. I'm looking forward to reaching that goal of
being able to play with those players.
Q. What are your impressions of the
depth of talent nowadays on Tour, especially among the younger
generation of golfers?
NANCY LOPEZ: It's exciting. I think
it's great because we've got I think somebody was joking that
probably one of the players was about 40 and she said if she
would quit the Tour the average age would be about 26. And I'm
like, Yeah, you're right.
But I think that the players that are out
there now, they have a lot of charisma, class, style, great golf
games, and they're young. That's a great future for the LPGA
Tour because they're going to be there for a long time. I think
that that is great.
You look at Lorena and Paula and you look at
Natalie and you look at Christina Kim and even Kristie Kerr
who's not a baby anymore. She's considered old now, and it's fun
to watch these players. They have a lot of fire, and I think
that that's what's making it so exciting.
Now we're still fighting for TV time. Golf
Channel does cover us, but we need national network coverage
because people need to see the LPGA Tour full time, every
weekend, because they will fall in love with the LPGA Tour.
I have seen some of the greatest players play the game really
since Annika came out, but even in the last few years when the
young players have come out. It's fun to watch the Juli Inksters
come out and beat some of those youngsters. She's still very
motivated to play on top of her game. But we do have a very
young Tour and it's outstanding. They do have personality and
class, and I think a lot of people need to watch LPGA Tour
because they're really nice girls, too. They're not all about
themselves and they're definitely good for the LPGA Tour.
Q. Do any of the younger ones remind
you of yourself?
NANCY LOPEZ: Paula Creamer does a
lot. When I watch her and when I was her captain I watched her a
lot and just the way she thinks and feels about golf and her
competing reminded me a lot of myself.
THE MODERATOR: Nancy, everything well
said there. We look forward to having you at Ginn, and good luck
and thanks for your time today.
NANCY LOPEZ: Thank you. I look
forward to being there very much.
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