FROM OUT OF NOWHERE
Sophia Popov’s win at last year’s AIG Women’s Open came just a few months after she considered quitting the game for good...
ophia Popov scripted one of the greatest fairytale stories in modern golf history at last year’s AIG Women’s Open. As the German headed to Royal Troon, she was playing on the second-tier Symetra Tour in America, ranked 304th in the world and had recently considered walking away from competitive golf. But one week on the South Ayrshire coast changed her life forever as she became the third German to win a Major
(joining Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer), pocketed $675,000 and sewed up her LPGA Tour playing rights – albeit for two years, rather than the usual five-year exemption.
It was the dream ending to an incredible turn of events. When the LPGA Tour resumed after lockdown with the Drive On Championship last July, Popov was there, but she wasn’t playing. The German caddied for her best friend, Anne van Dam. She managed to squeeze into the field for the Marathon LPGA Classic a week later, and a T9 at her first LPGA event for over a year got her into the AIG Women’s Open. Just 277 shots later, she was holding the trophy.
“My life has changed a lot, and in very many ways,” Popov tells Golf Monthly. “I have more appointments and more things going on. It’s all good stress to have, but it’s also shown me that the time I spend at home with my friends and family is more valuable to me. I want to be the same person no matter whether I have this win or not.”
She continues: “I’ve just gone back and looked at all the pictures because I’m putting together an album, and it’s still pretty surreal. It just changes my whole season for this year, and I’m put in a position I wasn’t previously in. Putting my schedule together and making sure I’m not playing too many events – that wasn’t an issue previously. It’s a different spot to be in, but something that I’m very excited about. It’s still kind of a dream.”
Popov shot 67 on the Saturday to take a three-shot advantage into the final round. Despite not getting much sleep, she cruised to a two-shot victory with an ice-cool closing 68. “I’ve watched the coverage myself and I’m surprised at how calm I look to the outside,” she admits. “I was extremely nervous on the first tee shot, but as soon as I hit that first shot, I thought ‘okay, this is just regular business’. Internally you have nerves, but it was weird because I felt I could rely on every part of my game. I think that’s why I was so calm. I was a little bit surprised at how calm and collected I was able to be.”
Another surprise was the magnitude of the reaction to her win. “It was crazy. I switched my phone off on Friday night, so I didn’t know what happened on my phone on Saturday or Sunday until after the win. I turned my phone on and it was absolutely crazy. I haven’t experienced anything like it. I win a mini tour event and there’s like ten people texting me ‘good job’. Then suddenly Twitter and Instagram’s exploding, and that’s when you realise ‘wow, more people than I thought actually watched this and got excited about it’.”
Bouncing back
One of the reasons it struck a chord with so many people was the fact Popov had bounced back from the doldrums. Loss of form and health issues had derailed a career that had appeared destined for the top from a very young age. She played in the Junior Solheim Cup in 2009, secured the International European Ladies Amateur Championship in 2010 and won five times and achieved four-time All-american honours while at the University of Southern California.
The 28-year-old never quite lived up to those standards in the early part of her professional career, and she spent 2016 and 2017 playing on the Symetra Tour before stepping up to the LPGA and making six of 12 cuts in 2018. The following year she made just one cut in eight starts on the LPGA Tour. Life in the paid ranks was tough, health issues compounded the situation and she considered quitting.
“The 2017/18 winter right before my diagnosis for Lyme disease was my lowest point. I’d got to a point where I had so many symptoms, I was so tired, and I felt so bad all day where I couldn’t execute the shots the way I wanted to or practise as much as I wanted to,” she says. “I think after the diagnosis in January 2018 things changed a lot for me, because of the way I changed my lifestyle and nutrition. I was able to slowly become the same player and person that I was before. But I think definitely at the end of 2017, I was just mentally in such a dark spot that to this day I don’t even know how I got out of it, because I think it could have gone a lot of different ways.”
The only way for Popov’s career now is up, although there was a setback in the immediate aftermath of her victory. Every fairytale needs a villain, and this one’s was the LPGA Tour’s exemption rules. Popov was initially told one of the perks was a five-year exemption on the Tour, but this wasn’t actually the case because she wasn’t a full member when she won. It was a ludicrous situation, especially given she was playing the LPGA’S official feeder tour and had been a member for the previous five years. That rule has now been changed, but it was too late to help Popov and it did take some of the shine off her celebrations.
“I was mentally in such a dark spot. To this day I don’t know how I got out of it”
“A couple of days later, when I was in the middle of my celebrations in Germany, I was made aware of the fact I only had a two-year exemption. It was two years instead of one due to 2020 not counting as a full year because of Covid. It was tough at the time because I wanted to celebrate and all I wanted to do was be excited about the win and cherish the moment, but they made it difficult because all I could think of was the fact I only got a two-year exemption.
“I know over time I’m going to be fine anyway. I’m glad the rule change happened. I just think that in my situation, with someone who has been on the LPGA Tour for five years before, it was a tough pill to swallow. I definitely want to put it behind me and just go out and play and show them that I belong out here longer than two years.”
There can now be no doubt she belongs on the LPGA. She’s made the cut in 16 of her 17 starts on the circuit since her
Major breakthrough and started this year with a couple of top-tens. A runner-up finish in the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play in late May has taken her to a career-high 16th in the world rankings and 18th in the season-long Race to CME Globe standings.
The German is in fine form and she’s looking forward to defending her title at Carnoustie in August. “It’s pretty exciting. Carnoustie was the venue of the first AIG Women’s Open I played in 2011 and I had a great experience there. I made the cut and I played well. I absolutely love that course, so it’s really exciting to know I’m going to defend there. There’s almost no better place,” she says.
Popov’s AIG Women’s Open victory was certainly a fairytale ending, but her form since has proven it could be just one chapter of a much bigger story. It’s a story that’s guaranteed to provide even more drama as she defends her title this summer, makes her Solheim Cup debut in September and cements her rightful place on the LPGA Tour for many years to come.