Lopez does whirlwind tour of Kerry

NANCY Lopez, the dominant player on the LPGA tour for almost ten years in the late 1970s and early 80s, was in Kerry last week and visited a number of courses in the area including Killarney, Waterville and Ballybunion.

Sadly, the superstar was unable to play as she is recovering from hip surgery, but she did manage to make a tour of the courses on buggies to ample the delights and she promises to come back again, possibly next year, when she is back playing the game.

A three-time major winner, she burst on the LPGA scene in 1978 winning nine tournaments in her debut season including five-ina-row.

I was fortunate to be introduced to her at Ballybunion and we chatted for almost a half hour about her career and golf in general.

A lovely unassuming lady with a personality rather like that of Lee Trevino, she talked freely about her achievements in golf and the one outstanding statistic that came to mind from our chat was that she never three-putted even once, on her debut season on tour where she played 34 events, making the cut in each !

LPGA tour players today drive the ball on average 280 yards, yet Nancy was doing that in the last 70’s with a persimmon driver and balls that don’t fly anything as far as they do today.

She dominated ladies golf for a period of over ten years winning the LPGA championship on three occasions (1979, 1983 & 1989) while amassing 48 LPGA tour wins.

Considered to be one of the greats of women’s professional golf, she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987.