Joining me on this episode it was a pleasure to be joined by 2020 AIG Women's Open champion Sophia Popov who bares all in this incredible raw and honest story about the highest highs of winning in a remarkable fairytale story at Royal Troon to finding out finally after 3 years she was diagnosed with Lyme Disease.
Sophia was born in Boston, Massachusetts but moved to the Karlsruhe district in Germany at the age of 4 where she would compete in numerous competitions as a German player although has now stayed in Arizona for a number of years. Sophia would have success in her earlier years representing Team Europe at 2009 Junior Solheim Cup which included Leona Maguire & Klara Spilkova, she also won the 2010 International European Ladies Amateur Championship.
Sophia would go to University of South California representing USC Trojans and would play a part of 2x Espirito Santo Trophy's & 3x European Ladies' Amateur Team Championships for Germany and won 2x Vagliano Trophy's for Team Europe as well as winning numerous collegiate titles. In 2014 Sophia would turn pro at her home event on LET at German Masters and would win both a LET card & LPGA card for 2015 before disaster struck the early signs of fatigue, multiple pains and lack of appetite left Sophia feeling pretty frail and it would take 3 years to have a diagnosis of deadly Lyme Disease and now raises much needed awareness on Lyme Disease as an advocate.
In 2020 while on Symetra Tour just before the height of Covid 19 Pandemic it would come at a great time for Popov as it meant being still able to practice fully in her state of Arizona where Cactus Tour mini tour events were still taking place for player which included some top LPGA pros from Arizona area including 3x major champion Anna Nordqvist & Carlota Ciganda playing a couple. This gave Sophia a platform to stay competitive and it would pay off winning 3x Cactus Tour events before Tour Golf made a comeback and would finish well at Marathon Classic which would get Sophia into 2020 AIG Women's Open at Royal Troon, the rest as they say is history as Sophia Popov would overcome all the odds to complete a truly remarkable feat coming from unknown pro to Major Champion defeating Jasmine Suwannapura by 2 shots to etch her name in the history books forever, truly one of the most unbelievable tales.
This year back playing on Epson Tour in Arizona would see Popov win Carlisle Arizona Women's Classic just a little over a year after giving birth to her little girl Maya and what makes the story even better is Sophia won the event on Mother's Day of all days to win in front of her daughter.
Please be sure to share this fantastic episode around as we try to tell the full story of Sophia Popov. Listen/Download on all the usual platforms and let's spread the word, one of the best episodes i've done on here!
