George Lopez

THE COURSE JESTER OF L.A. GOLF AND STAR OF LOPEZ VS. LOPEZ IS, AT AGE 62, A RELATIVELY SHORT HITTER BUT DEFINITELY A WORLD-CLASS F-BOMBER

-  John McAlley

G: Your early life in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles was filled with real hardship. Back then, could you have imagined you’d be teeing it up at some of the most exclusive country clubs in town some day?

GL: Probably not, but we did have a 7-iron in the backyard and lemon trees. So I started to hit lemons. If you got ’em young enough, they took off like Top-Flites. If the lemon split in a certain way, I knew I nailed it. If not, I knew I pulled my head up. I can tell you everything about the golf swing by hitting a lemon.

G: How old were you then? 

GL: About 11.

G: You began playing golf for real in 1982, when you were 21. Your first round was at a scruffy muni called El Cariso, right?