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Sophia Popov, number 304 before the tournament, is the first German to win a golf major
Source: dpa-infocom GmbH
Sophia Popov felt badly, she lost more and more weight. Then the German finally got the diagnosis – she wanted to end her golf career. Now she made six times as much in a week as in her entire career.
Dhe tears flowed from Sophia Popov even before the last putt. In the certainty of being the first German female golfer to win a major tournament, the 27-year-old let her emotions run free at the venerable Royal Troon Golf Club. “It’s an incredible story,” said Popov in a tear-choked voice after her victory at the British Open on Sunday evening. “I think that’s why I collapsed on the 18th hole. Simply because it’s something I didn’t even dream of a week ago. “
Popov, who lives in the USA, actually wanted to pack her golf bag in the storeroom. For a long time she was thrown back by a mysterious illness, as she now reveals. Various symptoms tormented her, about 20 different doctors gave their opinion, she lost several kilograms of weight. In the end, after three years, the diagnosis was Lyme borreliosis – by far the most common tick-borne disease in Europe.
In addition, there were sporting setbacks: She lost her eligibility to play for the LPGA Tour, the top class for women, and just missed qualifying again by one stroke. The world number 304 to date was a bit. Still there: three weeks ago, when the LPGA Tour restarted after the Corona break, she was still wearing her friend Anne van Dam’s clubs as a temporary caddy.
“It feels amazing”
“I almost stopped playing last year. Thank god I didn’t. It feels incredible, ”said Popov, who was born near Boston and grew up in Weingarten in Baden. “There’s a lot of hard work behind that. In the last six years I had to fight my way through so many difficulties. ”Although she still experiences symptoms from time to time, she has the disease under control now. She received a lot of support during the difficult times from her friend Maximilian Mehles, who was there as a caddy in Troon in Scotland and, of course, was the first to congratulate her. “He calmed me down the whole time,” reported the winner.
Sophia Popov receives $ 675,000 for her triumph
Source: dpa-infocom GmbH
Popov took a winners check for $ 675,000 – more than six times what she had won in her entire career. Triumph in the $ 4.5 million tournament was almost impossible. Only recently did she get a place in a qualifying tournament – due to some cancellations due to the Corona crisis. She almost qualified for the major, where she celebrated her greatest success after just one training round. “The British Open were actually just a bonus for me,” said Popov, who had just celebrated her first professional victory a few months earlier on the small Cactus Tour in her adopted home of Arizona.
In the men’s category, only Bernhard Langer (Masters 1985, 1993) and Martin Kaymer (PGA Championship 2010, US Open 2014) have been successful in a major. “What an idea. Congratulations on your first major win ”, congratulated Kaymer on Instagram.
“A single week turned my life upside down,” Popov wrote on Monday on Twitter and Instagram. Now she no longer has to carry bags for others. From the coming season, she will be eligible to start on the LPGA Tour for five years.
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