Groomed as a Child, Nancy Lopez Was Tiger 20 Years Before Tiger

Groomed for the game from childhood by a protective father. Aware of the difficulties a minority would have making it in golf. Turned pro after two years in college and was an immediate success on the pro tour.

If the Tiger Woods story seems familiar to Nancy Lopez, it should. She lived it. And Lopez set standards for competitiveness and class that Woods should be happy to achieve.

“When I see how Tiger Woods is doing, I kind of feel proud because I want to put myself in the same boat with him,” Lopez said Tuesday from her home in Georgia.

“He reminds me of me,” Lopez said. “I think I will always understand what he is going through.”

More importantly, Woods should understand what Lopez went through, what she accomplished and how well she handled the attention from fans and the media.

Looking at Lopez, Woods can see a perfect model for how to deal with success.

Woods won two of the eight tournaments he played after turning professional and finished 24th on the PGA Tour money list.

Lopez played six tournaments in 1977 after her sophomore year at Tulsa University. Her best finish was second and she was 31st on the LPGA money list.

It was in 1978 -- her first full year on tour -- that the 21-year-old Lopez put up numbers not even Woods is likely to match.

Lopez won nine tournaments that year--including the LPGA Championship--and a remarkable five in a row. She won eight tournaments the next year and has won 47 times in her career.

“I think they are always trying to compare people to me,” Lopez said. “And I think that they should not. I know what I did. My record is a good goal for anyone.”

Lopez, who turns 40 in January, would like to win a few more times on the LPGA Tour, but with three children--the youngest just 5--she finds it difficult to put in the time to remain at her highest competitive level.

“I love playing on the tour,” she said. “And I love competing. But when I’m home and see my kids. . . .” Her voice broke off as she searched for the right words. “If I’m not there to watch my children dance and they have a recital, it kills me.”

Lopez always had her priorities straight. That’s her message to Woods.

“I think that he always has to remember where he came from,” said Lopez, a Mexican-American of humble origins whose father, Domingo, taught her the game when she was 8 years old in Roswell, N.M. In her life, there really were golf courses that turned her away because of her ethnic background.

Lopez never lost sight of where she came from, but she also never held a grudge.

“It’s always important to be modest and be thankful for what golf has given him,” she said about Woods. “He has to sign autographs and make himself available.”

No one in golf--with the possible exception of Arnold Palmer--was more available than Lopez. Even on this morning, she made time to talk in part because of her participation in the ITT LPGA Tour Championship on Nov. 21-24 in Las Vegas. Lopez always had time to increase awareness of golf.

“We can be touched and talked to and people can get close to us,” Lopez said about the unique access fans have to golfers.

“He’s going to have a lot of responsibility,” she said about Woods. “He’s going to have to look at it and accept it now. He’s got to step into those big shoes and fill them and hopefully in the right way.”

Lopez filled those shoes as well as anyone. Still does.

A vivid memory from this golf season is Lopez answering question after question after the Saturday round at the LPGA Championship was cut short by rain. She had to be back at the course at 6 a.m. the next day to play 25 holes.

But she never made a move to leave until she was certain everyone got what they needed. Lopez never thought she was bigger than the game.

“He’ll have to deal with some jealousy,” Lopez said about Woods. “I had that, too. He just has to talk with his golf clubs.

“I thought I was a pretty decent person. I just played golf and did what I could to represent the LPGA. I was proud of the LPGA.”

If Tiger Woods can measure up to the standards set by Nancy Lopez as a player and as a person, then the PGA Tour will have someone it can be really proud of.