Giving back: Lopez helps LPGA any way she can
When she was a competitive player, Nancy Lopez represented the LPGA with a grace equal to her remarkable golfing ability.
Today, Lopez is representing in an entirely different manner, but with similar dignity.
On Aug. 17-19, Lopez will serve as the captain to the 2009 U.S. Junior Solheim Cup team, a group of 12 junior golfers selected to challenge a European team Aug. 17-19 at Aurora Country Club in Aurora, a few days before the professional-level Solheim Cup takes place at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.
When Lopez was an amateur player, the Junior Solheim Cup did not exist. Lopez played in the inaugural Solheim Cup for pros in 1990, and in 2005 she captained the U.S. Solheim Cup team of pro golfers.
Such involvement is part, a large part, of who Nancy Lopez is today.
"I am trying to get involved with the LPGA any way I can," Lopez said. "I went to rookie orientation, to be a part of that, to encourage players to represent the LPGA tour. With the economy the way it is, we need to encourage the players to look at the sponsors and thank them, look at the volunteers and thank them.
"We need to let them know this is their tour, and it is only going to be as successful as they want it to be, and they have to work hard at it," she said.
Lopez won 48 LPGA tournaments, including three majors, but before that she was the U.S. Junior Champion in 1972 and 1974, at the ages of 15 and 17.
Today, she still hits the links, although she probably spends more time working on her game than playing her game.
"I'm still playing, and I'm working on getting more physically fit," Lopez said. "I'm getting stronger, and trying to hit the ball out a little bit further, get a little more distance on my shots.
"I play in pro-ams, and do charity work for the LPGA, staying involved any way I can," she said. "I really just want to support the LPGA."
Serving as captain to the Junior Solheim Cup team is one way she is giving back, and what she is giving is the vast amount of knowledge she has about playing well and winning.
"I went to (a tournament in) Pheonix, and about 80 percent of the players were there,'' Lopez said. "I got to sit down with them and told them what I expected of them. I told them I want them to have a great time, and what a great experience it is to represent their country.
"As we get closer to the event, I will spend more time with them the days before the Cup, to make them feel comfortable with me, and hope they can talk to me about something that is bothering them, or questions about," she said.
Lopez, the mother of three daughters, sees the golfers as both future professional players and as youngsters.
"They are such great little players," Lopez said. "All I want to do is make sure they believe in themselves. If they have a sense they are not going to do well, I will do anything I can to let them know they can do well. I don't let any negativity creep into my mind. I want then to know positive thoughts create positive things. Negative thinking creates negative things."
"Negative things" could be a slogan for the current economic picture in the United States, and the sponsorships for all sporting events are more difficult to come by. While the LPGA has done a tremendous job maintaining long-time relationships with national sponsors like Rolex and Merrill-Lynch, Lopez worries about the economic state of the game as it tries to survive in these worrisome economic times.
"I know it is like that for everybody, not just the LPGA, but I worry about my players, my tournament I was a part of for so many years," Lopez said. "The players are good people and love what they do. They should have a tournament every week if they want. We need to have more tournaments so our players don't have to look for a job in the off-season.
"They finish in September and don't have another tournament until March," she said. "That hurts our tour. I worry about our players and I will do anything I can to help it, whatever that means."
For now, that means serving as captain to the 2009 Junior Solheim Cup team.