Nancy Lopez, Lorena Ochoa, Julieta Granada, Gerina Michelle Mendoza Piller, Lizette Salas are just a few of the Hispanic Women golfers you’ll read about on a regular basis on the pages of Minority Golf Magazine.
Minoritygolfmag.com opens this new feature on Hispanic women in professional golf. Nancy Lopez is certainly not the least known Hispanic female golfer of all time, a gross understatement, and those who lie between her and the two young professionals presented below are many and the stories more unique. Come back often to read about the Hispanic women making an impact on the professional tours.
Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is a retired American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three major championships.
During her first full season on the LPGA Tour in 1978, Lopez won nine tournaments, including five consecutive. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in July,won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, LPGA Rookie of the Year, LPGA Player of the Year and was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. She won another eight times in 1979, and won multiple times each year from 1980 to 1984, although she played only half-seasons in 1983 and 1984 due to the birth of her first child.
Playing full-time again in 1985, Lopez posted five wins, five seconds, five thirds, won the money title, the scoring title, the Player of the Year Award, and was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for the second time. She entered only four events in 1986, when her second daughter was born, but came back with multiple wins in 1987–89 – three times each in 1988 and 1989 – and once again won Player of the Year honors in 1988. Lopez’ schedule was curtailed again in the early 1990s when her third daughter was born. In 1992 she won twice. Lopez continued to play short schedules – from 11 to 18 tournaments – through 2002, then in 2003 cut back to just a half dozen or fewer events a year.
Lopez was considered to be one of the greats of women’s golf, and she was the game’s best player from the late 1970s to late 1980s. She won three majors, and all were at the LPGA Championship, at the same course, in 1978, 1985, and 1989. Lopez never won the U.S. Women’s Open, but finished second four times, the last in 1997 when she became the first in the event’s history to score under 70 for all four rounds, yet lost to Alison Nicholas.[3] She won the Colgate-Dinah Shore in 1981, two years before it became a major, and was a runner-up three times at the du Maurier Classic in Canada.
Lopez was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987. She was a member of the United States Solheim Cup team in 1990 and was captain of the team in 2005. Lopez retired from regular tournament play in 2002 and attempted a return in 2007 and 2008. In her return season, she played six tournaments, missed the cut in each, and only broke 80 in three of the 12 rounds.In 2008, she played in three events, with a low score of 76, never making the cut. She was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.
Lopez is the only woman to win LPGA Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and the Vare Trophy in the same season (1978).
Article on Nancy Lopez provided by Wikipedia
Maria Torres became the first Puerto Rican player to earn full-time status on the LPGA Tour when she captured the final 2018 qualifying card at LPGA International Sunday.
By: Beth Ann Nichols
Torres, 22, secured the 20th card for 2018 by winning a three-hole aggregate playoff on the Hills Course at Q-School.
Her triumphant moment comes in the wake of Hurricane Maria wreaking havoc on her homeland, The storm left Torres stranded on the mainland and forced her to hitch a ride to Florida last September, where she remained with former University of Florida teammates while prepping for the previous two stages of Q-School.
“I know I say this word a lot,” said Torres, “but be grateful. I feel throughout this disaster that we’ve had in Puerto Rico … just being able to have laundry, being able to have an A/C.”
Still, it would’ve been tough to get past the five-putt Torres had on the par-3 third hole had this turned out differently. When it was over, Torres called her parents back in Puerto Rico, where power and reception can still be spotty. She told them she’d been in a playoff and mom sighed heavily.
Torres then paused for dramatic effect.
“I wanted it to be like a movie,” she said.
When she finally delivered the news, both parents screamed. It was the first time Torres had ever heard her mom cry over a golf tournament. Torres knows the feeling.
“One of the things I had in mind during the round, just thinking of so many things,” she said. “I want to give back … I’ll be the first (Puerto Rican) … you have all these emotions, and sometimes you don’t know how to control them and stuff. Thankfully it went well – after the five-putt.”
Paloma Santiago hopes to follow Maria Torres of Puerto Rico as the second Caribbean player to earn her card on the LPGA
Paloma Santiago PGA, 23, is the Founder of Live Golf Enterprise and the head PGA golf professional in the Mercer County area in New Jersey. Paloma started her golf career at the age of nine in an inner-city golf program, Greater Trenton Junior Golf in Trenton New Jersey and while playing golf competitively decided to pursue the business of golf as a career.
Paloma graduated from Methodist University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Professional Golf Management. Paloma was elected into membership in February of 2017; as a Class A professional in the New Jersey PGA Section. During her college career, Paloma interned at facilities such as TPC at Jasna Polana, Royce Brook Golf Club, Upper Montclair Country Club, Piping Rock Club, and Spirit Golf Management. After her final internship, and graduation from college Paloma returned to her home of Mercer County and decided while working to also offer the introduction to Golf to her community where she started. She founded Live Golf in November of 2017, Live Golf is a non-profit that was created to support the local community with a focus on introducing the game to junior golfers, military, and the everyday layman. Enabling access to PGA Professionals and Golf Instructors dedicated to growing the Game of Golf, while also giving back to her community and introducing the game of golf to all people in Mercer County, Paloma became a head golf PGA professional in Mercer County, New Jersey and continues to introduce golf in the Mercer County and surrounding areas and hoping to reach and many people as possible by motivational speaking, mentoring and exposure, and of course she is waiting on the Golf Channel call.
