The year 2024 was a year of changes for golfer Julia López Ramírez. The sports career of the young 21-year-old athlete from Benahavís (Málaga) advanced by leaps and bounds in a matter of months. Towards the end of July, she became the first Spanish golfer to reach number 1 in the women’s amateur world ranking. In August, at the AIG Women’s Open, the British women’s event, played on the Old Course in St. Andrews (Scotland), she was the best of ours, finishing twenty-ninth against the best in the world.
This was the definitive boost for the Mississippi State University student to make the leap to professionalism to try to obtain the American circuit card (LPGA) through her qualifying tournaments. He appeared in the second phase of the same in October and already in the final (December) he earned a place in the major American leagues. On the eve of Three Kings’ Day, he headed from Malaga to Starkville (Mississippi), where he is already – after having to take three planes – preparing for an exciting 2025 that will start on February 6 at the Founders Cup.
According to the Andalusian, “I am very excited to play the LPGA, but no pressure.” Of course, he adds: “The only thing is that I now have to earn a living. In any case, I’m not going to do anything different than continue playing tournaments. Me, my game, my clubs and nothing else, although now competing for money.” Julia’s tone indicates that she loves this challenge. On the American circuit she will share the field with the also Spanish Carlota Ciganda, Azahara Muñoz and Fátima Fernández Cano.
I’m not going to do anything different than play tournaments. Me, my game, my clubs and nothing else, although now competing for money
Julia López (golfer)
Although she has made the leap to professionalism, the young woman from Malaga will continue for six more months in her university apartment and will use the golf team’s facilities to train. He still has a matter pending in what has been his home for the last three years: “I have one semester left of the Business Administration degree that I am studying and I am going to finish it online.” Afterwards, he will move to Florida, “where the connections and climate are better.”
Straight to the big leagues
At only 21 years old, Julia is already standing out to the point that she has gone from amateur to the LPGA without going through intermediate boxes: “To the second phase of the Q-School [torneo clasificatorio] I showed up to see and try. If it passed, the plan to turn professional was already there. I felt that I had to play this qualifier and once I was in the final I thought that the university could finish it online, because getting the LPGA card is an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to,” he explains.
I thought I could finish college online, because I couldn’t say no to the LPGA card.
Julia López (golfer)
To achieve this meteoric rise, the Spaniard had to go through the LPGA Q-School marathon, as she tells us: “The school final was the hardest tournament, but mentally, since there were three rounds of practice and Then we played for six days – five rounds – because of the bad weather. We had to be very patient because it’s not something you usually do,” he highlights. However, she didn’t take it badly: “But the fact of seeing that you can achieve it made the days go by and I didn’t notice so much fatigue because I was motivated. The last round was a shock, because I was doing better than anyone else.” day and, when it was -3, they stopped because of the weather.
There is no doubt that López Ramírez is very focused on doing well and one of the secrets of her success is the way she projects her goals: “I have always thought about setting big goals to be able to reach them. About playing in the United States United is because the best are here.” The objectives of the 2025 course are also clear: “I want to be making cuts and getting noticed. My priority is to qualify for the big ones.”
I want to be making cuts and being noticed. My priority is to qualify for the big ones
Julia López (golfer)
He was four years old when he started playing golf, but he did not consider that golf would be his life until his adolescence: “I thought I could dedicate myself to this seriously before going to Blume, because if I went there it was thinking about myself.” sporting future and not just by going to Madrid to study,” he says.
Number 1 in the amateur world
She also highlights the satisfaction that came with one of her great achievements as a fan: “The number 1 thing at first was like something unthinkable until Rose Zhang left, who was there for several years. Achieving it was one of the goals I had set for myself, but it didn’t work. I thought it would arrive because of how complicated it is. When it arrived it made me very happy and gave me confidence. At that moment I thought: ‘I’m not that bad at this, I can dedicate myself to golf,’ she says with sympathy.
Although it may not seem so relevant, the Andalusian confesses how good the support of two true leaders of our golf has been for her. “I talk a lot with Azahara Muñoz and Carlota Ciganda and this has helped me a lot,” he says, and explains it to us: “I wouldn’t highlight any specific advice, but rather the fact of feeling the support of someone who knows where you’re going. In such a sport individual like golf, they have always been there.
Talking with Azahara Muñoz and Carlota Ciganda has helped me; feel the support of someone who knows where you are going
Julia López (golfer)
Destiny took Julia to the southern United States, where she found a habitat conducive to her development. “I live in a university town that is quiet and this made me focus on golf, the gym and studies, something that has been very good for me.” He currently lives with the Spanish golfer Ana Pina and two other girls who are tennis players. Regarding his years there, he remains with the fact of “having learned to make my own decisions and organize my life.”
At university I have learned to make my own decisions and organize my life
Julia López (golfer)
Also golfingly they have taught her to fend for herself, due to the method applied in the golf teams of American universities, which focuses on providing its members with the necessary tools for their professional life: “The system is very different here from what I had at the National School in La Blume, where I had three technicians looking after me. At the university my ‘coaches’ are more dedicated to recommending than to acting as coaches. They allow you to be more individual and this helps you. that you have clear ideas.” Precisely now she is looking for a coach for her new stage on the other side of the Atlantic, although “it is not something that worries me,” she confesses, because in this sense she has learned to manage herself.
