Lopez finds inspiration in all corners of golf, with the biggest source of all being the close friendship he has developed the past few years with Lee Trevino. "There's no one I admire more than Lee," says Lopez. "To be Mexican-American at a time when our culture was really invisible, and to slay the best golfers in the world with a homemade, 'freehand' swing -- which is such a Mexican thing -- and for me to see that with the big eyes of a kid, as a lot of young kids connect success to Tiger, I connect my success to Lee. It turned out we both grew up knowing what it's like to be alone, we both learned how to mask some of that by being funny, and now to know him and love him, and have him love me more than anyone from my own upbringing, to have him call me 'My boy,' man, that's it."
"George found his niche with golf, and it gives him a purpose to live a good life," says Trevino. "I appreciate George. Some might say he was in the right place at the right time with his comedy. But George never gave up. I can tell that. He wanted to get out. And he kept working at it and working at it, and he did it. And see, I did the same thing. So we come from the same mold. With us, nothing has to be said. We know each other pretty well."
The journey seemed to culminate last fall when Lopez played St. Andrews for the first time.
"My wife gave me a book before we got married, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, by Dr. Seuss," says Lopez. "She was trying to tell me something, about what I was capable of, but I didn't get it. Over time, I've sort of lived the message in that book, and I couldn't have without what golf taught me. So I put it in my bag while I played the Old Course, and on the last hole when I posed on the Swilcan Bridge, I held it up.
"You know, I don't know how long this kidney is going to last," he says, now looking out over the Pacific from the 18th tee at Pebble. "So I just keep trying to collect great moments. That's why on as many days as possible, I play golf."
As he does, George Lopez is giving the game something it can remember.
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