48-Time LPGA Winner Nancy Lopez Enters PGA of America Hall of Fame

Stop for a second and think about women’s golf in the United States.

Names will start to pop into your head. It won’t take long, likely in the first few seconds, one name has to find its way into your mind: Nancy Lopez.

The list of accomplishments isn’t short, nor is it merely a blip in time. Instead, the list goes for pages and stretches for decades. It is why Nancy Lopez will be inducted into the 2025 PGA of America Hall of Fame Class Nov. 5 during a ceremony at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort in Texas.

Among those also being honored are: PGA of America Past President Jim Richerson, PGA; Ronny Glanton, PGA; Jim McLean, PGA; JD Turner, PGA; and PGA of America Honorary Member and adaptive trick-shot artist Dennis Walters.

For Lopez, it’s another honor in a game she started playing when she was 8 years old. She won the New Mexico Amateur when she was 12 . . . and that’s just when she was getting started. Let’s go through just some – we can’t do them all, there isn’t enough time or space – of her accomplishments:

"I had great parents and I always wanted to be the best I could be,” Lopez said years ago during a news conference at the Founders Cup. "I wasn't satisfied with being mediocre. My mom would tell me if I made my bed I had to make it right or she would take it apart. She would say ‘If you're not going to do it right, don't do it.' It was always trying to be the best I could be, and it was because of my mom and dad that I wanted to do that.

"I just wanted to be the best I could be. If it was to make my mom and dad proud, great. The best I could be on the LPGA Tour, to be able to play the best golf. I wanted to be the best I could be in anything that I tried. Wasn't perfect. I knew if I reached a goal and set it, I wanted to reach it. It was so important to be able to be the best I could be, to show everybody I could do it."

Add in all that she has done for the sport and women who want to play it. Her company, “Nancy Lopez Golf,” has been dedicated to creating golf equipment for women and “Nancy Lopez Golf Adventures” has focused on helping learn the game and be more comfortable on the golf course.

“We always used to say, and probably still feel that way, we want to leave it better than we found it,” Lopez said earlier this year at the Portland Classic. “I think that's just so important.”

It makes sense then that she was named First Lady of Golf by the PGA of America in 2002.

And while it has been two decades since her competitive playing days ended, Lopez’s peers will never forget what it was like to walk the fairways with her.

"I think we all know that Nancy has done so much for women's golf,” Annika Sorenstam said years ago when asked about Lopez. “I had the opportunity to play with her a few times as a rookie and [after that]. I have a lot of fond memories of my time with Nancy, and she's as competitive as it gets. One example I have that comes to my mind is when I played with her in Canada. It was my first or my second year. We were about 185 yards from the pin and she hit this beautiful 5-iron, and, you know, she was so into it. She kept saying, "Go in," and the ball had only gone like 10 yards. Once the ball landed she walked over to a fan and started talking and smiling, and I said, ‘Wow, this is pretty cool.’"

"She was just so into it. I admired her for that."