When Sophia Popov came up the 18th hole at her home club last Friday, members of FireRock Country Club in Fountain Hills, Arizona, had gathered around the green. They wanted to give Popov the applause she didn’t receive at Royal Troon. The party was capped at 50 people due to COVID-19.
Popov is a friendly pro, the kind of player who will stop what she’s doing and engage in conversation. Sometimes give a mini lesson. It’s no wonder that members had tears in their eyes when they came up to congratulate the most improbable winner of the AIG Women’s British Open. Heck, they were proud of those three Cactus Tour wins too.
“We realized that the cup could’ve been made by Yeti,” said Popov. “We put ice cold beer in there, and it stayed ice cold the entire time.”
Golf fans around the world became enthralled with the story of Sophia Popov, the 304th-ranked player who became the first major winner of 2020.
It’s the Story of the Year so far in all of golf. And yet, incredibly, she’s not in the 105-player field at this week’s ANA Inspiration.
It’s a complete whiff by the tour. Popov will be the most talked-about player who isn’t at the blistering Dinah Shore Tournament Course, and that includes the defending champion and No. 1-ranked Jin Young Ko.
Why?
Because Ko hasn’t played all year on the LPGA. She’s not top of mind for most fans. Popov, on the other hand, is the new LPGA darling, the Cinderella who catapulted from Symetra Tour status to major champion in the span of seven days. In the weeks following her victory, Popov averaged five to six media interviews per day. She was in demand, and rightly so.
Interest grew even more after a Golf.com story reported that Popov wasn’t eligible for the tour’s five-year exemption as she was a non-member at the time of her victory. Instead, Popov is exempt for the remainder of 2020 and all of 2021. Her first eligible start is next week’s Cambia Portland Classic.
Popov, a four-time All-American at USC, isn’t in this week’s field because the criteria for the ANA Inspiration (originally scheduled for April) was set before the LPGA took a 166-day break due to the coronavirus. The winner’s five-year exemption into the ANA was slated to start in 2021.
LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said that there was no changing it.
The simplest answer to this would have been to let Popov start her five-year exemption into the ANA in 2020. She wouldn’t get more years than anyone else. She’d simply be able to start the clock now. That would’ve given Popov and the LPGA the chance to capitalize on the momentum of the moment.
There was plenty of room for Popov in the field. Plenty of players chose to skip this year’s ANA due to COVID-19, including former major winners So Yeon Ryu, Jeong Eun Lee6, Hyo Joo Kim, Shanshan Feng and Ko.
The world needs more Popov stories in these uncertain times. A bigger picture perspective would’ve served the tour well here.
Popov kept waiting for the LPGA to offer her a seat on the charter flight and a spot in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. There was a spot reserved in the Arkansas field for the winner at Royal Troon if needed, but Popov didn’t qualify for that either because she wasn’t a member when she won. (And her winnings from the AIG don’t count toward the money list either because she wasn’t a member.)
No one was more shocked by this than the player who benefited from that bewildering rule, first alternate Kristy McPherson, who made the most of the start by finishing in the top 10.
While the criteria was set for the ANA last spring, there was still a way to play in through the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. The top 20 players and ties on the money list, not otherwise qualified, through the end of the Walmart event made the field, provided those players were within the top 80 on the money list.
Dani Holmqvist was the last player in through that category with $48,127. She’s 80th on the money list.
Popov first earned LPGA membership in 2015 and lost her card last year by one stroke. She has competed in 34 LPGA tournaments in her career and played three times on the Symetra Tour this season.
Several male pros, including Ian Poulter and Tommy Fleetwood, took to Twitter to express their disdain for the LPGA’s exemption rule for non-members.
This story is absolutely embarrassing to the @LPGA and quite frankly embarrassing to the game of golf. Somebody wake up and figure this out. To the best story in golf for a very long time to the worst story in a few days. @SophiaCPopov https://t.co/0Vbb5iUwiV
— Ian Poulter (@IanJamesPoulter) August 28, 2020
Whan said he would look into the rule in the offseason but wouldn’t change it midseason, pointing out other non-members who have won previous majors – last year’s Women’s British winner, Hinako Shibuno, for starters. Shibuno didn’t take up LPGA membership.
Shibuno differs from Popov in that she hadn’t spent any time on the LPGA in previous years, nor had she competed on the LPGA’s developmental tour. She came directly from the Japan LPGA.
“I think everybody in their right mind thinks (Popov) should get a five-year exemption,” said McPherson, “but that’s how it’s written.”
It’s time for the LPGA to loosen up its non-member rules and reward exceptional play.
Anyone who wins a major – regardless of what tour they came from – deserves a five-year exemption.
Anyone who wins a tournament deserves a spot in the next week’s field.
The LPGA should also take this time to strongly consider adopting a top-10 rule that allows non-members and members alike the chance to play their way into the next event with a top-10 finish.
Growing the tour should always be the main goal.
“I truly believe that a major champion is a major champion,” said Popov, “regardless of what status you came into the tournament with. It should be rewarded the same.”
Popov isn’t exempt into this year’s U.S. Women’s Open either but has a strong chance to get into the field by way of her Rolex Ranking, which vaulted to 24th after the British.
“It was imperative to us as we built the exemption categories for this year’s U.S. Women’s Open that the final field most closely resemble a traditional championship, which includes rewarding players for solid play leading up to the event,” said Shannon Rouillard, Senior Director, Championships.
“In addition to several play-in events this fall, we also created a category for LPGA money list high performers not otherwise exempt, as well as made the decision for the remainder of the field to be filled using the Rolex Rankings, to ensure those playing well would find themselves in the championship.”
As of now, the final 11 spots will be awarded off the Rolex Rankings and Popov tops that list.
Popov has taken the high road throughout the controversy, saying that she doesn’t want to dwell on it too much ahead of Portland. She also made sure to note that the LPGA staff has been overwhelmed in general with COVID-19 protocols and that she appreciates what they’ve done to get tournaments running again.
This is a player with great perspective. A player who has overcome health battles with Lyme Disease and Q-School heartbreak, battling back from obscurity to give the LPGA a storyline that reverberated throughout the sports world.
Baffling rules and inflexibility robbed Popov from making her debut in the ANA Inspiration. That robbed the rest of us too.
It didn’t have to be this way.
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