Lopez: One More Full Year

Nancy Lopez, who earned her way into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame 15 years ago, said Wednesday that she won’t play full time after this year.

“I’m not retiring from golf, but I will be playing one more full year and kind of say goodbye,” Lopez said at a news conference in Phoenix before the Ping Banner Health.

“I think I have some good golf left in me, but you know, I want to be realistic and say to myself, ‘Can you really go out there and still win?’ And I just don’t want to say no, I can’t.”

The 45-year-old winner of 48 tournaments, three of them majors, said she intends to play a limited schedule beginning in 2003 and will devote most of her time to corporate outings, television and golf course and golf club design.

Lopez ranks sixth in career victories, and in her breakout season of 1978 won nine times, including a record five consecutive tournaments. She is the only player in LPGA history to win rookie of the year, player of the year and Vare Trophy honors in the same year. A four-time player of the year and three-time Vare Trophy winner, Lopez qualified for the Hall of Fame when she won her 35th tournament, the Saratoga Classic, which was also the site of her first victory as a 21-year old rookie in 1978.

But Lopez has not won a tournament in five years and in 2001 dropped to 157th on the money list with $12,436--the lowest in her career. Lopez’s scoring average of 74.81 was also her worst. She played only 11 times last year and missed six cuts. She also played 11 times in 2000 after having gall bladder surgery in May. Lopez was also limited to 13 tournaments in 1999, a year in which she had knee surgery.

“I just feel like I can’t dedicate myself to playing the type of golf that I want to play out there,” Lopez said. “If I can’t do that, then I feel like it’s time to step away.”