Ballantyne Magazine

WINTER 2010

Ballantyne Magazine covers news, events, real estate, restaurants, shopping, health, schools and business in the upscale Ballantyne Area of Charlotte, NC.

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Right: Lopez — and her bag — travel far and wide promoting golf. Below: Teaching pro Debbie O'Connell (left) shares a laugh with Lopez. Bottom: Approximately 100 golfers attended the golf clinic that featured top teaching pros. The event drew top LPGA brass and fanned talk of an LPGA tour event to Charlotte. WHEN NANCY LOPEZ stepped up to the practice tee at the Dana Rader Golf School, she smacked the ball so long and straight with her trademark swing that "oohs" and "aahs" filled the air. The only louder reaction had come minutes earlier when LPGA teaching professional Julie Cole introduced the golfing great to the crowd, on hand for a clinic in conjunction with the 23rd annual LPGA Teaching and Club Professional National Championship. In September, the tournament began a three- year run at The Golf Club at Ballantyne. The event drew the top brass of the LPGA and fanned talk of bringing an LPGA tour event to Charlotte. "We just need a guy to write a big check," says LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, WINTER 2010-2011 referring to a title sponsor (see page 32). Meanwhile, Cole's introduction featured the CliffsNotes of Lopez's remarkable career. At the end, the approximately 100 attendees at the clinic rose from their chairs and gave her a rousing ovation. Most of them teaching professionals, they know the enormous impact Lopez had on the game when she turned pro in 1977. Not only did she rake up titles like so many autumn leaves, her poise and affable personality made her a media magnet, raising the profile of the LPGA and women's golf in general. For the charisma she brought to the game, Sports Illustrated writer Jaime Diaz once likened her to Babe Didrikson Zaharias. At the height of Lopez's career from 1978 through 1989, she won 42 of her 48 tour titles. She captured an astounding nine titles in 1978 and eight in 1979, her first two full-time years on the tour, when she was in her early 20s. Today, she is still the only player to win LPGA Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year and the Vare Trophy (lowest scoring average) in the same season (1978). 'Golden Bear' Calls In 2011, she will be feted for her contributions to the game at Jack Nicklaus's Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, a PGA event on par with the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte. In hearing of the honor, the readout on her private phone noted a call coming in from "Golden Bear." Battling a case of vertigo at the time, she nonetheless picked up the phone and Jack Nicklaus was CELEBRATING TEN YEARS 2000-2010 soon on the line. "My vertigo went away," she says. So what is Lopez, who turns 54 on January 6, doing these days? Dealing with a lot of new things, it turns out. When she came to the LPGA event in Ballantyne, she had golfer's elbow, an inflammation that marked the first injury she'd ever had in golf. Late this year she hopes to rest it for a BALLANTYNE MAGAZINE 31

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