Sophia Popov asked LPGA to clarify her status before playing, still had points stripped
Sophia Popov reached out to the LPGA in January to clarify her status after coming back from a medical and maternity leave. She received confirmation from the tour that her priority number of 57th was correct and she was good to go.
"Trusting that, I left my 20-month-old at home for two weeks to compete halfway across the world," Popov told Golfweek in a text on Saturday. "Two days ago I was notified about the administrative error and stripped of all my CME points earned this year."
The LPGA released a memo to players on Friday evening informing them of an error that resulted in Popov being placed in the wrong spot on the original 2025 Priority List. As a result, the major champion competed in three tournaments for which she was not otherwise qualified: Founders Cup, Honda LPGA Thailand and HSBC Women's World Championship.
To correct the error, the memo, written by Chief Tour Business and Operations Officer Ricki Lasky, said the member's CME points, earnings and Aon Risk Reward Challenge points will be removed from official standings.
"Even though I believe the right decisions were made," said Popov, "it is very frustrating that this error occurred, after I specifically reached out to clarify my status situation. It is very unfortunate for me and the girls that didn't get into these events and missed out on guaranteed points in Asia."
The HSBC and Thailand events are limited fields and don't have a cut. Popov earned a paycheck in all three starts as well as CME points, which determines a player's status for the season.
Popov said her priority number dropped from Category 1 (full card, 57th) to Category 19, which is Nos. 126 to 150 on the list. The German competed in 17 events in 2024 and finished 136th on the CME points list. She went to the final stage of LPGA Q-School in December and finished T-58th, which means she failed to improve her status.
Because Popov won the 2020 AIG Women's British Open, she's exempt into all the majors this year. She can't still play out of the winner's category, however, because she wasn't a tour member at the time she won at Royal Troon. That rule has since been changed to allow non-members who win majors a five-year exemption on tour.
The LPGA did not release the names of any of the players involved, but according to the Final Entry Lists for each of the events in question, the three players listed as the first alternate for each field include Saki Baba (Founders Cup), Hira Naveed (Thailand LPGA) and Peiyun Chien (HSBC).
Baba, the 2022 U.S. Women's Amateur champion, posted a note on Instagram Saturday that said, "In golf, you have to accept bad luck and mistakes as part of the game. But I believe that opportunities will always come around again."
A rookie on the LPGA, Baba has reed it up once so far this season in China at the Blue Bay LPGA, where she took a share of 17th.
An LPGA official said the error was discovered during the review of another member's maternity leave.
"We will share more details as we work internally to best remedy the situation for the three players who were inadvertently impacted and left out of these tournament fields," said Lasky. "We apologize to those that have been directly affected and sincerely regret the error."
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