Sunday marked Mother’s Day in the United States, a day that is often accompanied by a lot of emotion.
While it was a special day there were still lots of things happening in the golf world and one of htem was the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Classic on the Epson Tour. It was Sophia Popov who came out on top, her fifth professional win, and she did so with four overall generations of her family in attendance (her grandmother, mother and daughter were all there).
Popov, the 2020 AIg Women’s Open Champion, is an Arizona resident so her family was on hand to see her victory in person. In her comments afterward she got quite emotional, especially as it all related to her 2-year old daughter Maya what with it being Mother’s Day.
“You only get this chance once a year, so I think that was also a driving force behind me playing this week. It’s a home game, finishing on Mother’s Day, and I wanted it so bad… I don’t know if she’ll ever get to see me win on Mother’s Day again, and I think starting out the round, I thought about that a lot, and I was trying to calm my brain a lot because I was like, there are many things going on, a lot of thoughts and what ifs, but you’ve got to play 18 holes.”
Popov’s dad was on her bag so the whole day and event was a family affair for her. It is easy to see how it was all incredibly emotional for her, especially as she has fought so hard to find proper form as of late. Thanks to this win and her T30 at the first LPGA major of the year in the Chevron, she’ll get into a few more fields and have more opportunities to shine.
Congratulations to her and to her family.
