Julia Lopez Ramirez has had an eventful rookie season thus far. One of the longest players on tour – she led the tour tour in driving distance earlier this year at 287.25 yards – is hitting it a bit shorter after undergoing an emergency appendectomy.
The Spaniard thought she’d contracted food poisoning while playing in China last month because the pain came on immediately after dinner. She played the first two rounds in considerable pain and, looking back, was grateful to miss the cut.
When Lopez Ramirez returned home, she immediately went to the doctor and had surgery the same day.
“Apparently the doctor says the appendix is higher than where your stomach is; that’s why it feels like food poisoning,” said Lopez Ramirez. “It end up coming like lower where the appendix is, and that’s kind of what happened to me … then I got back and I couldn’t move my right leg, and they say that’s appendix.”
Lopez Ramirez is making her fourth start to the season this week and opened with a 4-under 68 at the JM Eagle LA Championship. She trails leader Ashleigh Buhai by five strokes. She played the Ford Championship near Phoenix late last month against doctor’s orders and finished 73rd.
“Normally they say after four weeks you’re good to go. After two, that’s when I played in Arizona,” she said. “Obviously still having a bit abdominal pain, but I was like – I really wanted to play, especially being a rookie. I feel like you just want to play everything.”
Lopez Ramirez, 22, left Mississippi State early to take advantage of a berth in the final stage of LPGA Q-School last December, where she tied for 10th to earn her card for the 2025 season.
A two-time SEC champion, Lopez Ramirez won eight titles for the Bulldogs and reached No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
“I’ve been struggling with distance at the moment,” said Lopez Ramirez, who averaged 269 in the opening round at El Caballero Country Club. “I probably lost like 10 to 15 because I couldn’t go work out until last week.
“I lost a lot of weight because it was just all rehab, exercising. It was all abdominal pain, so anything related to that I couldn’t do. … I am starting to do things now.”