Founders Cup, Upper Montclair CC Spark LPGA Memories

This memorial at the first tee of the Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club honors Shirley Spork, one of 13 LPGA founders. Spork died April 12. Photo: Sarah Stier, Getty Images

CLIFTON, NEW JERSEY | Not only did she get it airborne, she felt so good about the way she hit it that she almost walked down the fairway to continue the round. Nancy Lopez was introduced on the first tee at Upper Montclair Country Club at 7 a.m. Thursday, the first time she had set foot on the place in a couple of decades, although the memories of this part of the country are as fresh as the blooming Jersey Thimbleweed.

“I remember every shot,” Lopez said of Upper Montclair. And why wouldn’t she? In 1979, her second year on tour, Lopez won the 13th of her 48 career events at this Tillinghast-designed gem located a dozen miles from Manhattan and a lob wedge from the New Jersey Turnpike. That event was the LPGA Coca-Cola Classic, which Lopez won in a five-way playoff that included Hollis Stacy and 44-year-old semi-retired Mickey Wright.

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