It started as a joke, this loosely hung nickname of being the “iron woman” of the LPGA Tour. But as in so many things Spain’s Beatriz Recari undertakes, there would be no backing down.

No thoughts of relenting. Nothing conceded.

So, for more than 21⁄2 years now, Recari has played every event on the tour. From Australia to Arkansas, with plenty of stops in between and back again, she has tackled them all, across 13 nations.

Wednesday’s opening round of the Lotte Championship at Ko Olina was her 59th consecutive LPGA appearance, if you’re counting.

But as the leaderboard that showed her tied for fourth place, three shots off Ariya Jutanugarn’s 8-under 64 attests, Recari does more than merely show up.

She has made 39 consecutive cuts, last missing one 19 months ago. Recari has five top-25s, including a championship, in six finishes this year with $439,384 to show for it.

And, of course, a nickname.

“It started as a joke with another player, a friend of mine,” Recari said. “She was just kind of joking and saying, ‘Oh, you’re playing every tournament. Stop!’ And, then she came up with the name.”

Only the 25-year-old Recari hasn’t stopped; she has embraced the nickname and all the grind-it-out grit it implies. “I mean, I kind of adopted it. I thought it was a nice nickname. Now I have to keep it up, you know. I have to keep up the consistency,” Recari said.

It has kept her going through bad weather, poor playing conditions, slumps, illness and jet lag. Always, the ever-resilient Recari said, “I find a way to keep going.”

Suzann Pettersen jokes, “She’ll get to my age (32) and figure out that her body and mind need a rest.”

But Recari says that isn’t happening anytime soon. “I love playing. I feel fit, I’m young,” she said. “They give me a lot of crap because I play every event, but I love it. I absolutely love it. I love the competition. If I didn’t feel physically, mentally ready to put myself in a position to win every week, I wouldn’t do it.”

There was a point six years ago, soon after turning pro on the European Tour, that Recari did have to take a break to battle an eating disorder that reportedly saw her drop down to 100 pounds. But she has since overcome it and become a spokeswoman for the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, whose cause she has championed.

For all the talk about playing a gruelingly “crazy” schedule these days, Recari said it doesn’t compare with what the people who come to her hometown of Pamplona do. “I’ve watched it (the annual running with the bulls through the city streets) enough times to realize it is just too crazy.”

Even for the one they call the “iron woman.”

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Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.