Nancy Lopez

Nancy Lopez was born on January 6, 1957, in Torrance, California, but was raised, along with her older sister, in Roswell, New Mexico, by her parents, Domingo and Marina Lopez. Of Mexican descent, Lopez grew up in a traditional Catholic household. Her father owned an auto repair business, and her mother tended the house and the children.

Lopez began to play golf with her family in 1964 at the age of eight, using old clubs with shortened shafts. Her natural ability was quickly apparent to her father, who began coaching her. Lopez won her first tournament when she was nine years old, finishing 110 strokes better than her nearest opponent. By the age of eleven Lopez was beating both her parents on the course, and her father became committed to developing his daughter's game. The family skimped and sacrificed to afford to finance Lopez's golf.

Lopez won the first of her three New Mexico Women's Amateur Championships when she was just twelve years old, but the pressure of competition was taking its toll. "I was so scared I always threw up," she admitted to Sports Illustrated. "I carried a trash can with me. My dad told me, 'If you're going to play golf, you've got to get over being sick.' I didn't want to quit so I decided to get over it." She did and kept winning.

A nationally ranked amateur during high school, Lopez led her otherwise all-male high school golf team to a state championship. She won the U.S. Girls Junior championship in both 1972 and 1974. Lopez had her first brush with fame the following year as a high school senior when, as an amateur, she finished second at the 1975 U.S. Women's Open. Lopez enrolled at the University of Tulsa in 1975 on a golf scholarship. As a freshman she won the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women golf championship and was named the University of Tulsa's Female Athlete of the Year. In need of new challenges, Lopez turned professional after her sophomore year.