Popov becomes lowest ranked player to win a women’s major

Sophia Popov poses with the trophy following her win in the Women’s Open in Scotland last month. Photo credit: Getty Images/R&A.

Sophia Popov had not previously won on the LPGA Tour or the Ladies European Tour.

The German-born 27-year-old had a world ranking of 304 and had recently caddied for a friend on the LPGA Tour in the United States. 

Last year she had failed to gain a spot on the LPGA Tour by a single shot.

But that was all put behind Popov when she won the Women’s Open in Scotland last month and pocketed the first place prizemoney of $US675,000. That was nearly seven times her career earnings.

It was a stunning victory by Popov, who became the lowest-ranked player to win a women’s major. 

She said she “almost quit playing last year” as she cradled the trophy and sobbed tears of joy. “I’m so glad I didn’t,” she added before the tears took over again.

“I got here on Tuesday and I knew my game was in really good shape. I took that belief into every round but I didn’t expect this. I was very nervous the whole round. I was glad I could get it done.”

Popov’s only other professional wins have all come on the satellite Cactus Tour in the United States earlier this year, with the last of the three being at Troon North in Arizona.

She only secured qualification for the Women’s Open with a top-10 finish at the Marathon Classic in the United States a fortnight previous. That was the tournament in which New Zealand’s Lydia Ko finished second after a meltdown on the last hole.

A week before the Women’s Open, Popov had played on the Symetra Tour, the feeder circuit for the LPGA Tour, and going into the week of the Open, she had earned $US108,000 in her career.

Popov, who moved to the United States with her family when she was aged four, started the final round of the Women’s Open with a three-shot lead but immediately dropped a shot after pulling her opening drive into a fairway bunker.

However, in benign conditions on the west coast of Scotland after three days of storms and blustery winds had made scoring difficult, Popov found her rhythm with birdies on the next two holes and a third of the day on the sixth.

The threat came from world No 138 Thipada Suwannapura of Thailand, who had a run of four successive birdies from the fourth as she closed the lead to one shot by the seventh but bogeys on the 11th and 13th holes handed the advantage back to Popov.

Suwannapura then birdied the 15th and 16th but Popov, playing in the group behind, responded with the same to set up a processional finish that even allowed her the luxury of a bogey at the last.

Even that came after a sensible decision to putt around, rather than chip over, the front-left greenside bunker. In fact, Popov’s only real error of the day was trying to enter the scorer’s hut without wearing a face mask.

She turned away with a huge grin on her face and then told an official, who offered her one, “I’d like to buy the whole box.”

Ko started the final round six shots adrift but a couple of birdies on the front nine briefly raised her hopes before four successive bogeys from the 10th saw her drift backwards.