THE NEXT LOPEZ

The next Nancy Lopez. Four-time New Mexico high school champion January Romero has been hearing that prediction for years.

Alyssa Otero was good enough at 13 to be a medalist at the New Mexico Women’s Amateur and is one of the youngest qualifiers for the U.S. Junior Girls National Championships.

Maggie Ramirez shot 72 last summer in her first national tournament, the U.S. Women’s Public Links. Not bad for someone who’s been playing competitive golf for just three years.

There’s a new generation of talented young Hispanic female golfers in the state where Lopez grew up: 16-year-old Otero and the 17-year-old pair of Romero and Ramirez. All three have enough game to bring college recruiters calling and think they might be able to make it to the LPGA Tour.

Lopez, an LPGA Hall of Famer who did more to popularize women’s golf than just about any other player, says the three teens and their parents need to proceed cautiously.

“If I had three daughters who wanted to play professional golf, I would be very, very critical of their game,” Lopez said. “If I didn’t think they could, I’d advise them to go to school and get more experience playing collegiate golf. There’s a lot of players out here who come out early and are struggling to make ends meet.”

Lopez grew up in Roswell, N.M., and became one of the country’s best junior players. She won three U.S. Junior titles and three New Mexico Women’s Amateur championships--the first one when she was 12. Her high school, Goddard High, didn’t have a team for girls, so Lopez played on the boys’ team and helped them win two state championships.

Romero, Otero and Ramirez aren’t experts on Lopez’s career or her 48 tour victories, but they know enough to appreciate that she remains one of the state’s greatest sports figures.

“I’ve always heard that I’m going to be the next Nancy Lopez. She’s the one I’m compared to,” Romero said. “I take it as a compliment.”

Ramirez said: “I know how good she was. I’ve seen videos of her playing. She’s someone to look up to.”

Romero won the first of her four straight individual state titles as an eighth-grader. Next year she’ll try to become the first New Mexico high school golfer--male or female--to win five straight titles. Otero and Ramirez also captured individual titles in their respective classes at this year’s New Mexico high school championships.

Romero is the only one of the three teen-agers who has reservations about trying to play professionally.

“It’s a hard life,” she said. “There’s a lot of traveling and people get burned out. I just want a normal job and a regular place.”

Otero’s dad, Luke, said his daughter has been talking about the LPGA ever since she started competing in junior tournaments in New Mexico.

“She did an interview when she was about 10 and had just won a state championship. Someone asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go to school and then play on the tour. I see her still carrying that message,” he said.

“I’ll get a scholarship hopefully through golf,” Ramirez said. “We’ll see where it goes from there. I’d like to play on the tour.”

Romero and Otero got started in golf early.

Romero has lived with her grandfather, A.V. Romero, since she was a toddler and began taking lessons when she was about 7. The elder Romero, a police detective, didn’t always have a baby sitter, so he’d take January with him when he’d play a round.

“My papa bribed me,” Romero said. “He said if I played golf, I could drive the cart.”

Otero would tag along with her father to the Santa Fe Country Club course. She shot 111 for nine holes in her first junior tournament at age 9, but by the time she was 13 was competing against and beating older players. Her game, she says, still has a ways to go.

“I’ve known right from the start how hard a game it is,” Otero said. “It’s never been easy for me. I have that inherent talent ... but I can’t go out without months of practice and expect to shoot low 70s.”

Ramirez, a former standout pitcher in Little League softball, switched to golf when she was 11. After going through many buckets of range balls at the municipal course where her father worked, Ramirez felt she was ready.

Sam Zimmerly, a local pro who’s been working with Ramirez since her freshman year, believes she has a lot of potential.

“She shot 72 in her first national competition,” he said. “You take a 16-year-old in her second year of golf and she shoots 72. Talent is looming somewhere.”

Jill Trujillo, a pro who has worked with Otero for several years, said Otero’s game has vastly improved over the last 1 1/2 years.

“She’s always had a good swing and has always been a good ball-striker,” Trujillo said. “Now she’s more mature. She’s tasted winning, so she knows what it takes.”

The LPGA has been foreign territory for women of Hispanic heritage.

Lopez says many Hispanic youngsters still don’t have access to golf courses and if they do, their parents often don’t have the money for lessons and equipment.

“When I was growing up, the opportunity to play golf was a difficult one,” Lopez said. “I’d play in two or three tournaments in the summer, whatever my parents could save for. Golf has always been known as a rich man’s sport and being Mexican-American, we didn’t fall into that category.”

It’s a void in the game not lost on Ramirez.

“I want to represent my heritage well,” she said. “I’m proud of who I am, and because there’s not very many of us out there, it makes me want to do better.”