While she never won the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge during her time at the University of Southern California, Sophia Popov has a lot of good memories at Palos Verdes Golf Club. The former Trojan finished T7 her freshman year, solo second her sophomore year and T10 her senior year at the Northrop Grumman, and the major champion returns to Palos Verdes Estates excited for the opportunity to tee it up again at a course she knows so well.
“You have to really think your way around the golf course,” said Popov who won the 2020 AIG Women’s Open. “It's not straightforward. You need to know where to miss the shots into the green, you need to know where to miss your drives, if you do miss them. That's something that I like to do – I like to think my way around a golf course. I don't love golf courses that are extremely low-scoring, and this was never a low-scoring event. I think every year if you finished under par you were finishing top 10 usually because of the weather conditions, and I think that's something that just set up well for me.”
It hasn’t been the greatest of starts to the 2022 season for Popov. She missed the cut last week at Wilshire Country Club, her fourth one of the year, and her best finish so far is a T18 at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. She’s only shot two scores in the 60s, a pair of 69s that came at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio and the JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol, and currently sits in the 84th spot in the Race to the CME Globe. In short, it’s not where she wants to be, but Popov isn’t one to get down on herself. This week, she’s just focused on strengthening her on-course mentality and scoring around what’s set to be a tricky Palos Verdes Golf Club.
“Mental work I think is the key here,” Popov said. “I've actually put a lot of work in the last four to six weeks into my swing and some of the physical things. I've been playing well. I just haven't figured out a way to score. It's been quite tough actually these last few weeks. I think I would definitely like to see myself in a different position. I've just decided, you know what? It is what it is. You're going to have weeks and months like this. It doesn't define you as a player. I think that's been important for me, just to not have it completely take over my whole being, golf is everything. It just really isn't. That's what I'm trying it keep in mind as I go into the next few weeks and into a swing of events that I really, really like.”
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