Shortly after graduation from Goddard High School in Roswell, she played in the U.S. Women's Open as an amateur, first in 1974 and again in 1975 where she tied for second.

As a collegiate freshman in 1976, Lopez was named All-American and Female Athlete of the Year for her play at the University of Tulsa.

She entered only four events in 1986, when her second daughter was born, but came back with multiple wins in 1987–89 - three times each in 1988 and 1989 - and once again won Player of the Year honors in 1988.

Lopez continued to play short schedules - from 11 to 18 tournaments - through 2002, then in 2003 cut back to just a half dozen or fewer events a year.

Lopez never won the U.S. Women's Open, but finished second four times, the last in 1997 when she became the first in the event's history to score under 70 for all four rounds, yet lost to Alison Nicholas.

[3] She won the Colgate-Dinah Shore in 1981, two years before it became a major, and was a runner-up three times at the du Maurier Classic in Canada.

[6][7] Shortly after her divorce, she married Major League All-Star baseball player Ray Knight, then a member of the Houston Astros, in October 1982 in Pelham, Georgia.

[9] She currently resides in The Villages, Florida[10] where she hosts an annual golf tournament to benefit the charity AIM (Adventures in Movement), an organization that helps mentally challenged, visually impaired, hearing impaired, physically handicapped and other children and adults with special needs.