Latest news with #SophiaPopov
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sophia Popov had emotional Mother's Day win on Epson Tour
Sunday marked Mother's Day in the United States, a day that is often accompanied by a lot of emotion. While it was a special day there were still lots of things happening in the golf world and one of htem was the Carlisle Arizona Women's Classic on the Epson Tour. It was Sophia Popov who came out on top, her fifth professional win, and she did so with four overall generations of her family in attendance (her grandmother, mother and daughter were all there). Advertisement Popov, the 2020 AIg Women's Open Champion, is an Arizona resident so her family was on hand to see her victory in person. In her comments afterward she got quite emotional, especially as it all related to her 2-year old daughter Maya what with it being Mother's Day. 'You only get this chance once a year, so I think that was also a driving force behind me playing this week. It's a home game, finishing on Mother's Day, and I wanted it so bad... I don't know if she'll ever get to see me win on Mother's Day again, and I think starting out the round, I thought about that a lot, and I was trying to calm my brain a lot because I was like, there are many things going on, a lot of thoughts and what ifs, but you've got to play 18 holes.' Popov's dad was on her bag so the whole day and event was a family affair for her. It is easy to see how it was all incredibly emotional for her, especially as she has fought so hard to find proper form as of late. Thanks to this win and her T30 at the first LPGA major of the year in the Chevron, she'll get into a few more fields and have more opportunities to shine. Congratulations to her and to her family.
USA Today
12-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Major champion Sophia Popov wins for the first time as a mom on Epson Tour
Major champion Sophia Popov wins for the first time as a mom on Epson Tour It proved an especially sweet Mother's Day for Sophia Popov, who won the Carlisle Arizona Women's Golf Classic close to her Arizona home. The last time Popov competed in an Epson Tour event was 2020, the same year she went on to win a major championship. The 32-year-old German began the final round with a four-stroke lead at TPC Scottsdale's Champions Course and won by two over China's Michelle Zhang, finishing at 14-under 270 for the 72-hole event. Popov wasn't the only major champion in the field. Another local mom, Cristie Kerr, competed in the event and took a share of 10th. It's been a strange year for Popov, who was stripped of her results from her first three starts of the LPGA season after an administrative error placed her in the wrong spot on the original 2025 Priority List. To correct the error, her CME points, earnings and Aon Risk Reward Challenge points were removed from official standings. Popov went from getting into limited-field events early season to not even qualifying for the Ford Championship, the full-field event near home. She did, however, have a spot in the Chevron Championship by virtue of her 2020 victory at the AIG Women's British Open. She took full advantage of that with a T-30 showing in Texas. After a recent reshuffle, she's now 371st on the priority list. In June 2023, Popov gave birth to her daughter, Maya Mae Mehles. Her original medical leave turned into a maternity leave, and she returned to the tour in 2024, competing in 17 events. She finished 136th on the CME points list and went to the final stage of LPGA Q-School last December finishing T-58th, which means she failed to improve her status. A player is entitled to the equivalent of one full season of events upon returning from maternity leave. Popov, who was incorrectly placed in the highest category on the LPGA Priority List at No. 57, told Golfweek that she reached out to the LPGA in January to clarify her status. She received confirmation from the tour that her priority number of 57th was correct and she was good to go. The tour notified her of the error in March. Earlier this year at the JM Eagle in Los Angeles, where the former USC player competed on a sponsor exemption, Popov said that while she's disappointed in what transpired, she's trying to leave it in the past. "Because I think in the end," she added, "good golf takes care of everything. I think that's just my mindset now." Three weeks later, she's a winner once again and, for the first time, as a mom.
USA Today
22-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Sophia Popov asked LPGA to clarify her status before playing, still had points stripped
Sophia Popov asked LPGA to clarify her status before playing, still had points stripped Sophia Popov reached out to the LPGA in January to clarify her status after coming back from a medical and maternity leave. She received confirmation from the tour that her priority number of 57th was correct and she was good to go. "Trusting that, I left my 20-month-old at home for two weeks to compete halfway across the world," Popov told Golfweek in a text on Saturday. "Two days ago I was notified about the administrative error and stripped of all my CME points earned this year." The LPGA released a memo to players on Friday evening informing them of an error that resulted in Popov being placed in the wrong spot on the original 2025 Priority List. As a result, the major champion competed in three tournaments for which she was not otherwise qualified: Founders Cup, Honda LPGA Thailand and HSBC Women's World Championship. To correct the error, the memo, written by Chief Tour Business and Operations Officer Ricki Lasky, said the member's CME points, earnings and Aon Risk Reward Challenge points will be removed from official standings. "Even though I believe the right decisions were made," said Popov, "it is very frustrating that this error occurred, after I specifically reached out to clarify my status situation. It is very unfortunate for me and the girls that didn't get into these events and missed out on guaranteed points in Asia." The HSBC and Thailand events are limited fields and don't have a cut. Popov earned a paycheck in all three starts as well as CME points, which determines a player's status for the season. Popov said her priority number dropped from Category 1 (full card, 57th) to Category 19, which is Nos. 126 to 150 on the list. The German competed in 17 events in 2024 and finished 136th on the CME points list. She went to the final stage of LPGA Q-School in December and finished T-58th, which means she failed to improve her status. Because Popov won the 2020 AIG Women's British Open, she's exempt into all the majors this year. She can't still play out of the winner's category, however, because she wasn't a tour member at the time she won at Royal Troon. That rule has since been changed to allow non-members who win majors a five-year exemption on tour. The LPGA did not release the names of any of the players involved, but according to the Final Entry Lists for each of the events in question, the three players listed as the first alternate for each field include Saki Baba (Founders Cup), Hira Naveed (Thailand LPGA) and Peiyun Chien (HSBC). Baba, the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur champion, posted a note on Instagram Saturday that said, "In golf, you have to accept bad luck and mistakes as part of the game. But I believe that opportunities will always come around again." A rookie on the LPGA, Baba has reed it up once so far this season in China at the Blue Bay LPGA, where she took a share of 17th. An LPGA official said the error was discovered during the review of another member's maternity leave. "We will share more details as we work internally to best remedy the situation for the three players who were inadvertently impacted and left out of these tournament fields," said Lasky. "We apologize to those that have been directly affected and sincerely regret the error."
