‘86 Should Be Memorable Year for Lopez

In no particular order, Nancy Lopez is expecting two monumental additions to her life during 1986.

One will be the birth of her second child, and the other is the single victory she requires to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

For Lopez, only such lofty aspirations can make the new year any more notable than 1985 has been. At a time when she doubted her ability to rise to the top once again, Lopez won five titles, including the LPGA Championship, and became the first woman to earn more than $400,000 in a year with a total of $416,472.

As a result, Lopez achieved a sort of triple crown of awards. She was cited as the Rolex Player of the Year, the champion of the Mazda-LPGA Series, and as winner of the Vare Trophy for the third time with an all-time low scoring average of 70.73. Lopez herself held the previous mark of 71.20.

“The year was better than I thought it would be,” Lopez said. “I didn’t think I would play as much as I did, but there was so much incentive out there.”

Several times Lopez credited her success to her husband, New York Mets third baseman Ray Knight, who was with her at the ceremony, and twice she fought back tears in describing how supportive he has been of her career.

“He was never selfish of my career, and he took the pressure off me,” she explained. “He’s got so much competitiveness in him, and he kept telling me I can be No. 1. I didn’t have the dedication and I’d want to be home with him and Ashley (their 2-year-old daughter), but he pushed me and pushed me and pushed me--not bad pushing--and he told me I could be No. 1 over and over and over until I believed him.

“That’s why it means so much to be here today and to have him with me.”

Lopez is four months pregnant, and hopes to play at least the first three tournaments in Florida in 1986. She also is well aware that she needs only one more victory to achieve the 35 necessary for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Once she gets that, she’ll only have to remain active until July 1987, when she will have completed 10 consecutive years, to earn automatic entry into the Hall.

“I would like to have reached 35 before the baby comes,” Lopez said, “but I don’t want to think about it because I’ll get too nervous. But I don’t want to keep playing when I get too big because I don’t want it to affect my swing.”

Lopez expects to resume her career a month or so after the birth of her baby and to play full-time at least for another three years, when Ashley begins school. Ashley and a nanny travel the circuit with Lopez, and the 28-year-old golfer doesn’t anticipate the second child will require too much extra work.

“I always wanted children and didn’t want golf to stop me,” Lopez said. “I always felt when the time came I could play golf and God would take care of the rest.”