An administrative error reportedly led to an LPGA Tour player competing in three events for which she had not qualified.
Per Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, the error concerned the circuit’s 2025 Priority List, which determines who is eligible for LPGA Tour events.
While the LPGA Tour has not released the name of the affected player, who competed in the Founders Cup, Honda LPGA Thailand and HSBC Women's World Championship, Sophia Popov has confirmed to Golfweek that it was her.
In the three events, which were the only ones the German has competed in this season, she finished T59th, 62nd and T52nd, which helped her accumulate Race to CME Globe points, Aon Risk Reward Challenge points and prize money. However, with the error identified, those will now be removed from the official standings.
The situation doesn’t only affect Popov. Another issue is that the first alternate at each of the three tournaments she played in couldn’t compete despite being eligible.
Golfweek reports that players received a memo written by the LPGA Tour’s Chief Tour Business and Operations Officer Ricki Lasky on Friday explaining the error and apologizing to those affected by the mistake.
The memo also vowed to “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.”
Per Golfweek, the first alternates at each of the affected tournaments were Saki Baba at the Founders Cup, Hira Naveed at the Honda LPGA Thailand and Peiyun Chien at the HSBC Women's World Championship.
Popov was 57th on the Priority List for the 2025 season, which was published in January, along with a notification of maternity leave. That is identical to the position she held on the 2024 list, which also featured a double-asterisk alongside her name to denote maternity leave. However, a revised list dated March 10th now shows Popov in Category 19 for players finishing between 126th and 150th (and ties) on the previous season's Race to CME Globe rankings. Meanwhile, her name appears without the maternity leave indicator.
The 2020 AIG Women's Open champion had a prolonged absence from the LPGA Tour between 2022 and 2024. It began soon after an MRI at the 2022 AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield revealed an injury to her right shoulder.
After playing one more event that August, she took the rest of the year off on medical leave to recover before discovering she was pregnant.
In early January 2023, she announced on Instagram that she wouldn’t return until after the birth of her daughter, who was due in June. In the end, Popov didn’t play at all in 2023, but she made 17 LPGA Tour appearances in 2024.
The top 80 and ties on the Priority List are determined by the the top 80 and ties on the previous season's Race to CME Globe rankings. Popov finished 136th in the 2024 rankings, and she was unable to improve her status at LPGA Q-Series in December.
