This year marks the 10th anniversary of Gaby Lopez having her rookie campaign on the LPGA Tour. And she admitted she's been looking at her career of late through a different lens.

But that doesn't mean she's been slowing down on the golf course.

After a pair of steady, if unspectacular, results to start her season, she's found herself in a solid spot through 54 holes at the Fortinet Founders Cup, sitting inside the top 3 on the leaderboard.

Lopez, who ended her 2025 season with back-to-back top-5 finishes – a solo third at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and a solo fourth at the CME Group Tour Championship – is at 11 under through 54 holes.

Hyo Joo Kim is pacing the field at 17 under while Nelly Korda is alone in second at 12 under.

Although she has just an outside shot at winning Sunday, Lopez is awfully pleased with her week so far.

Lopez, who was paired with Kim for the third round, shot a 4-under 68 Saturday. She opened with a bogey on the par-4 2nd hole but went on a tear before making the turn, making two birdies and an eagle on the stretch of Nos. 6-9. The eagle came on the par-5 7th and was a product of one of her best-ever shots.

"I hit a perfect drive, a little fade. Then I had a like baseball lie, and I hit the perfect 3-wood, I think, probably of my life," Lopez said of her seventh hole. "It was just perfect contact. Just drew and it was like 254 to like two feet. It was like a great bonus after staying patient. You know that that pays off."

Lopez added another birdie on No. 14 before closing with a final one on No. 18.

"It was a fun round. Playing with Hyo Joo is always a great scenario to kind of come to play your best. She did an amazing job," Lopez said. "I stayed very patient. I knew I was going to have some chances, and I just kept believing and trusting that process."

Lopez, who has won three times in her career on the LPGA Tour, said earlier this week that reflecting on her 10 years as a pro has made her feel "nostalgic" as she looks back and tries to honor the years that have passed.

"Trying to love all the practices that I'm putting on and try not to put so much pressure on myself, trying to accept a little bit more than before, and truly really enjoying it. Like I'm happy out there," Lopez said. "I struggled at the beginning of the season, the first two events in Asia, and I worked my butt off to see the ball how I wanted to fly."

Lopez has hit more than 77 percent of her greens so far this week, and although she hasn't yet ripped up the leaderboard through two events in 2026 – she began the year with a T38 at the Honda LPGA Thailand before notching a T27 at the HSBC Women's World Championship – she's right on track for an impressive one this week in California.

This is the kind of finish that Lopez might have really tried to push for in her early years as a professional, but now, she admitted, there's not as much pressure on week-in and week-out results.

The first year as a pro, she explained, is easy – you come in "fearless," she said. Then the years following that become difficult because you have memories and experiences from different events and tournaments, and you think you should be building on the past. But parallel to that experience is the scar tissue that also comes along with it.

"Our job as professional athletes is being able to cleanse every single week and not sticking to the bad and negative thoughts or memories," Lopez said. Right now (I) don't care what happens tomorrow. I don't care if I end up high enough or […] I just care that I'm going out there and feeling the nerves and embracing those situations (that) I can overcome that fear or obstacle that, probably in the past, I didn't."

Lessons learned, and leaderboards climbed.

Gaby Lopez Looking to Record Her Best Finish of the Year

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