Ohio Golf Journal September 2020

Sophia Popov’s Women’s OPEN Victory Began at Marathon Classic T he win by a Symetra Tour player Sophia Popov at the 2020 AIG Women’s OPEN at Royal Troon last month was certainly unexpected but can be traced directly back to the restart of the LPGATour in Toledo at the beginning of August. WHO IS SOPHIA POPOV? One of the coolest things about sports in general and golf especially, you just never know where the next great player will come from. Case in point Sophia Popov, who before her major championship win was outside the top 300 in the women’s world golf rankings. Popov, originally from Germany, is 27 years old and played collegiately at USC. She missed qualifying for the 2020 LPGA Tour season by a single shot last fall at LPGA Q School at Pinehurst. She found herself back on the Symetra Tour this season and kept her game sharp during the quarantine period by winning three Cactus Tour events in April and May. Sophia first earned conditional LPGA status in 2015, but her golf career was put on hold when she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. In an interview after capturing the 2020 AIG Women’s Open title, Popov revealed she has fought an extended battle with Lyme Disease that kept her health and her golf game at bay for several years. “My rookie year, I started having a lot of health issues, and honestly we didn’t even know what it was. It took a total of about 20 doctor visits three years later to figure out that I had Lyme disease,” said Popov. “At that point it was so chronic, though, that I had just been struggling a lot with fatigue, and honestly, I had like 10 different symptoms and it was just a very tough time to go through just because I didn’t know what it was, and it took so long to pinpoint exactly what was going on.” By Fred Altvater Ohio Golf Journal