September 2, 2020 • 53 mins
In this episode of the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon, Shane is joined by Women's British Open Champion, Sophia Popov, to discuss her week at Royal Troon which includes a conversation about her incredible driver off the deck shot. Sophia also talks about her run through the Cactus Tour, her motivation to continue grinding through low points and the biggest differences between the Symetra TOUR and LPGA TOUR
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon, a production of
I Heart Radio Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon.
I am your host, Shane Bacon. An exciting guest this
week are Women's British Open champion Sophia pop Off in
(00:21):
person interview did it in North Scottsdale. That was exciting,
obviously a world wind last few weeks for her after
the victory and we talked about everything we hit on her,
her run through the Cactus Tour this year and how
helpful that was to get some wins under her belt professionally.
Obviously the week that was a real troon. In the
victory there we talked driver off the Deck. I think
(00:43):
it's I said this within the interview her driver off
the deck on Saturday. It might be the best driver
off the deck in the history of major championship golf.
I would love to hear from people that have an
answer better than that, because I was trying to rack
my brain and think of one that the winner pulled
(01:03):
off and I can't really come up with a great one.
I don't I don't think Mo hit driver. I think
it was a three wood that she hit when it
hit the flagstick and nearly win in when she won
the British Open. So if you have a great driver
off the deck for a major championship title story, I mean,
nobody hits driver off the deck at Augusta. I don't
think maybe on eight I can't really think of a
great one that got close for the winner. And of
(01:24):
course you don't see a lot of US Opens and
PJA Championships. The Open will be the one Methan really
comes to mind. But we talked about a lot of stuff,
you know, obviously, the struggles that that she went through
professionally after having such a great career at USC and
what it's been like now being you know, a person
of interest that everybody's trying to get ahold of, including
you know, yours truly, I mean obviously reaching out to
get an interview was a big, a big property of
(01:46):
mine and I love getting and she has to do
it in person. She's awesome, she's lovely, she's great. She's
everything you'd want from someone that wins and has perspective
and understanding of the situation and everything. And I think,
you know, you go through stuff, you go through the
not so great times of being a professional golfer and
things like this are sweeter and you appreciate him a
(02:06):
lot more than maybe if everything went your way when
you turned pro. So I I love these types of stories.
I think everybody does in sports, and I think you're
really gonna enjoy you know, this particular podcast if you
don't listen to Get a Grip with Maxim and Shane Bacon.
That's my other podcast. Just a reminder to give that
one a listen. We have a lot of fun with it.
Max opens up a lot about you know, the ups
and downs of professional golf and everything that he loves
(02:29):
and things he'd love to see change. And he is awesome.
He's just excellent at this. It's annoying how good he
is at being a podcast co host. So make sure
you listen to subscribe to that. Let's get to Sophia.
We're welcome in Sofia pop off in person here in Arizona.
So before we get into you know, your two weeks,
(02:51):
can you run me through like Sunday on you were
obviously it in it Royal Troon you win. And what
has it been like because you've had to check a
lot of boxes. Yeah, it's been it's been crazy. So
I originally had planned to fly to Germany anyways, but
then you know, Sunday night, things went pretty late obviously,
(03:12):
and then you know a little bit of partying forgot
to eat. That was fantastic. Um I wake up early
in the morning and take a flight to Germany at
like six am, and um My management was like, well,
we have a couple of things lined up for you
this week, and I'm just going like Monday from nine
to five, just straight talking. And then the next day
(03:32):
the same thing, and I'm going like, is this what
it's like? It was just very surreal because I've obviously
never experienced anything like it. And then you've kind of
got you They're a little bit different, but you're almost
saying the same things, and I'm saying like multiple languages,
and I'm what is going on? And like I and
then all these I guess, you know, all these requests
that normally I'm like happy, happy to do a bunch
(03:55):
of them, especially in Germany, But then I was like, well,
I can't do twelve in one day. This not gonna work.
So kind of organizing that pretty stressful actually, and then
you're you're you're scared that you're gonna miss something, and
and it's like the Golf Channel interview and it's like, oh,
we're live with Sophia, and then you know, you never
show up and it's like, oh, well, I guess the
screens her of obviously the connection doesn't work. That's by
(04:18):
the way, little TV thing. If you ever hear oh
we lost him in the connection or something didn't work,
that means that person just didn't show up. But how
many languages do you speak? So well? I speak to languages,
um so I just kind of basically have been doing
everything in German and English, which is enough. My Spanish
is not good enough, so please knows aboutish your quasses.
But yeah, it's been all in dual, which is fine. Yeah,
(04:42):
And so you know, I'm sure you haven't talked to
anyone about this. I think it's maybe the sneaky thing
that happens when something huge occurs, especially in sport, is
how much you wanted, you know, like, all of a sudden,
you go from somebody that would be happy to do
anything that anybody wants to do, to all of a
sudden you have a hundred like this, You have a
(05:03):
hundred media requests me today, You've got a few lined
up as well, you know, you just did a couple
this morning, You're gonna do some this afternoon. Has that
been maybe the most surprising part is the attention, you know,
that the instant attention to who you are and people
want to hear what you have to say. I think
that's definitely been, um the biggest change, because I also
(05:23):
have to I don't know if it's a problem, but
I like, I don't I can't say no to people.
I or I I want to talk to people, and
I'm just that's not the nature of my personality is
like always always talking to people, and like I I don't.
I think it's always rude to turn people down. And
so with my management, they said, well, it's totally fine
(05:45):
if you say no to things, and I said, well,
you know, you know, they're taking time out of their lives,
and they're like, no, this is not how this works.
Like you're you're you're the subject. Now you're the first
I want to hear from. I want to ask what's
and you don't have to pinpoint obviously who said it
or who asked it. What's the worst question you've received
thus far? Any anyone stand out that you were like,
I don't know about that one. Well, yeah, maybe you
(06:09):
know it stands out because it's so uh. I just
I honestly, and I never say no comment or I
really don't want to comment on this, but on that
one I had to because it was it was from
German media and I'm not going to specifically say who was.
But literally the first question was how did you how
are you able to financially support yourself the last six years?
(06:32):
And and and you know, and did you take any
money from your parents? I'm like, I juice on the open, like,
is this really the first question? I was like, this
is so rude. I'm I'm I mean, I'm happy to
discuss that with you off record, Like, but it's not.
It's it's kind of none of your business. You know.
(06:53):
By the way, I do have to financial questions. I'll
scratch those. Yeah, I apologize that. So you know, I mean,
what is so appealing about your story, as you know,
is I mean, and and Cinderella story is is what
people always go to. I mean, your three and four
in the world and this is your first LPGA victory.
But you know, I don't know if people understand how
(07:15):
competitive Mini Tour golf can be and how important it
is to win. I mean, I played mini tour golf
back on my heyday. Uh not very successfully obviously, that's
what I'm doing this, but you know, I mean I
was out there and Kevin Strielman was playing, and you
had Steve Marino. I mean, these guys that had made
it and have one on the PGA Tour out there.
So I just want to go through your mini tour
run to kind of set this up because it's incredibly impressive.
(07:37):
So you when your first of been in April, you
wented at True North correct, A couple of you went
by a couple of shots to play well, and that
was a huge moment for you because that was your
first professional victory, right, correct. So actually my first one
was at let me think it was Yeah City, So
(07:57):
sun City was my first one, and then I want
the week after at Last Alinas, and then I think
I had two. I came in like second and third
maybe the next two, and then I want to North
to North was actually my last one, but it was
like it was the first one in some city. Was
so cool because I hadn't one as a professional, and
(08:20):
I think for me, regardless of how small the field is. Um,
you know, I was still I had a really cool
head to head battle of Sarah Burnham and it was
I mean, she's been playing really well on LPG, so
it's been that. I think that to me was a
little bit of a breakthrough because then I it was
kind of like, Okay, now you have your first win.
You don't even have to think about it. Even if
(08:41):
you're in contention on Semetric Tour, LPGA or wherever. You
don't have that added pressure of you know, she just
can't win as a professional. So that was very like
that was my biggest kind of you know victory or
maybe mental victory that I that I was able to
um kind of alebrate after the Cactus Tour events. Uh
(09:02):
and and just real quick at lost Colinas sixty one,
sixty sixty four, you shot sixty one. I was looking
at two parts on par five's as well with you.
Now you eagle the other two part fives, which helps.
But now, I mean that was you were on the
verge of something dirty that day. I was. So it
was it was weird because you know how you just
kind of play and then you're making birdies and you're
(09:23):
like okay, cool, and puts are dropping and I'm barely
been looking at that. We don't know this, but keep going. Yes,
let's hear from you. Even my dad said I have
these days where I just see the ball going in
and I'm like, Dad, That's how I felt that day,
and like I just kind of maybe hit it a
little bit better t de Green. But it was just
one of those days where everything was kind of working
and I didn't even think about I said, Okay, you know,
(09:43):
this is just fun. And I was playing with a
good friend of mine from Germany with Sophie, and it
was just kind of very relaxed. We're talking about god
knows what, but it was. It was kind of one
of those days. And then at some point I realized,
oh um, I think I'm like nine under now, and
and I was like, what are we? Is this a
part five? You? What are Parson two? It was kind
of one of those are then, And I actually wish
(10:03):
I had I thought about it a little bit earlier,
because I was like not even pushing very hard in
the middle, and I was like, well, maybe I should have,
But then again, you know, maybe if I did that,
was that your low competitive round? Yes, yeah, by two shots.
I think I shot sixty three in college UM and
a couple of times professionally, but sixty one was what
(10:24):
you three Conectus tour wins, you know, before you get
to the open, what what what has changed? What has
clicked for you this year? Especially, you know maybe the
last four or five months that maybe wasn't working for
you as you were out grinding and trying to compete.
I think that over the last like us, let's say,
we never have a very long off season, whether you're
(10:47):
LPJ or sumetra, you maybe have a month top two
months maybe too to you know, figure everything out going
into season, and you want to take some time off
there too. And so here we are. I have my
first I played my first metrator event. It was all right,
and then we go into quarantine and I think quarantine
(11:08):
people are like, what's gonna what are we doing? And
I just want to I guess I'll just take off
of gold like I'll just you know, to take time
off and not play at all. And I said, how
can I best use this time effectively? And I think
the thing that I work on the least, and that
I worked on the most during quarantine was my mental game,
(11:28):
I think I I always put it off. I was
always like, it's not that bad. And then you know,
I go out again and I get frustrated after a
couple of holes, after not even not even playing bad.
But I get so frustrated and affects the rest of
my my holes that day. And I was so and
I never really you know, I thought it was that
(11:49):
big of a deal. But you know, my boyfriend said too,
He said, you know, this is some time you can
use to read books, listen to some audiobooks really, or
work with someone. And so what I did is, I know,
I read a bunch of books. I worked on it.
We we had a game that we played. Every time
we played. We we played the game that you are
not allowed to comment on any of your shots. And
(12:11):
that is brootal reaction at no reaction at all. Like
I was kind of more Jordan speedsk just out there,
like you always got to be kidding me, What was that?
So no, no word. You can't whether it was good
or bad. You can't say anything. And it was the
hardest thing ever. He said, Okay, it's gonna be a
dollar per comment. I said, all right, So I mean
(12:33):
here we are it's money. I don't want to lose,
and and that really helped me and we we we
continue doing that game. We did all lust or two
weeks ago during the Open, and I think the mental
part of the game is what improved the most over
the last five months. So you play that game, you're
reading books, so you were would you consider yourself someone
(12:53):
that was that was frustrated on the golf course where
you were you negative on the golf course? I mean,
would you would you let one thing hang for their
whole round? Is that what you were doing and that's
something you've kind of let go? Yeah, I think, um,
you know, and I and I have no no problem
being honest about that, is that I would kind of
um a little bit of negative spiral. It would be
(13:14):
if I was playing well, fine, if not. I didn't
get obviously frustrated on the golf course, but it was
negative talk. I'd be walking next to my caddie or whatever,
my boyfriend, and I'd be like, well, here we go again.
And I was six under. Now I'm probably gonna, you know,
get in the clubhouse at even like classic Sophia, that
was myself. It was terror. So it's just like negative
(13:36):
self talk and so unnecessary, like really and and I
would only figure that out after that and I said,
why were you Why were you doing that? Like why
do you even why does that happen? And I think
that was the hardest thing for me to change and
work on and just be more not not even just
positive on the golf course, but just neutral. Just don't
(13:59):
say anything, take things as they are, and then just
you know, focus on every shot as a new shot. Yeah.
I played golf at James Hant a couple of years ago,
and you know, he had that long miscut run and
then he won the Wells Fargo and I was talking
to him and he said that he got in a
place where it would be Thursday afternoon and he'd be
on the eleventh hole and he'd hit it in the
(14:19):
fairway and being a divot, and he said he would
look at his caddie and go, well, I'm gonna miss
the cut by one, and he would miss the cup
by one. And he said he had to just to
your point, he had to just switch that off. And
the moment he did, he goes out there and wins.
You know, after all these misscuts in a row, it's
just so funny how the things can cloud your brain
and if you just let it go, then golf seems
to be somewhat easy. Was there around on the Cactus
(14:41):
Tour where you felt like, Okay, I've I've got I've
kind of got this under control. You know? It is
actually really interesting because the round that I would it
was a specific round actually at True North, where um
I was. I think I had like a four shot
lead and going to like the last four holes, and
I knew it could be pretty comfortable. But I kind
(15:02):
of second guests in a little at that point, and
I don't know why. Literally the widest fairway, I'm hitting
hybrid off the tea, I hit hybrid into the desert
and I'm like, this is the most reliable club you
have in the bag. Like when I play track Man
simulator golf, my, you know, I get some like a
lot of auto birdies with my hybrid, Like I love
(15:23):
that club. So I'm just hitting in the desert. I go,
what was that? And then I chipped out and made
up and down from like a hundred ten yards for
par and that because I didn't get flustered about it,
I just kind of continue playing. And that was such
That's why it's so vivid in my memory because it
was such a key moment for me, even though it
seems like just this random hole in the middle of
(15:44):
my cactus tour or whatever career and and but it
was so to me, so important, just that one home
because I realized, all right, you're you're fine, Like as
long as you keep you know your shots are there.
So you just have to trust yourself and know that
at any point you're capable of making up and down
from anywhere. It's not you know, you're not saying saying
(16:08):
to yourself, well, here we go again. Here's a bogey
one lesson like that. I don't want to have it now,
I have a three shot lead, I'm so nervous and
all that, and it's just it's okay, one bad swing.
I can handle it exactly. Um So Troon and you
played it? Did you watch the Open with with Phil
and Stinson? I mean, was that something you paid attention
to it all? Yeah? So I never played it, but
(16:28):
actually Friday night, Max and I rewatched the back nine
of that. Basically, I just I just call it a
match between the two of us, and I did watch
it live back into right and Um, it was incredible,
and then Max said, you know what, we we should
really rewatch it. It would have fun, would that be
(16:49):
just to kind of see where they hit it, see
what all that stuff. So I rewatched it, and honestly,
I think I took a lot out of it because
the way that they were playing, both of them, it
was so aggressive, so confident. It felt like nothing. You know.
When I look at Stens and it was to me
like he just he kind of knew, like and that's
(17:11):
the same feeling that I had on Sunday. It was
just I could be aggressive, you know, smart but aggressive,
and the shots were just there, like everything. I knew
it was fine because the worst I'm gonna do is
just not that bad. So I think it helped me
a lot, you know, with the conditions. And I mean
I heard a Nellie Cord interview I think on Thursday,
(17:32):
and they were asking her have you played anything like this,
and she said, it's hard for me to walk in this,
Like that's how hard the wind was blowing. It wasn't
just hard to play golf, it was hard to walk
in there in the conditions, the gusty conditions. The problem
with that is if you go out and fire around. Awesome.
You know you're gonna because a lot of people are
gonn shoot themselves out of the event. I always go
back to Rory at St. Andrews in two thousand ten.
He shoots sixty three the first day, he should have
(17:54):
shot sixty two, honestly missed a bunny on seventeen, shoots
eighty the second round in high conditions, and then now
all of a sudden you're out of the championship. So
the conditions can kind of knock a lot of people out.
You know, it can be frustrating. It's the whole Jack quote, right.
I knew the guys complaining on the range had no
real chance of winning this. When you looked at the weather,
you saw it was gonna be windier than hell, you
know where you like, let's use this to our advantage.
(18:15):
Let's just go out there and lean on the wind
and not let it frustrate us and goes back to
your middle side. Absolutely. Um, I think that being on
the range, it was very interesting because literally my first
shot on the range, I fell backwards because it gus
were so hard, and Max looked at me, said, what
was that? I said, I could couldn't. Yeah, And he
just said, well, this should be really interesting today. And
(18:37):
I said, okay, well I don't know if I can
just have a normal range session right now. So he said, well,
why have a normal range session. Let's just hit. So
he said, first shot, he said, here's a fore iron.
Hit this. Try to hit that like a sign back there.
We we shot it. It It was like a hundred thirty
yards out. I hit like these low stingers. That was
all I did for my warm up was just low stingers,
low stingers with every iron pitching much low nine iron,
(18:59):
low every thing. And I got to the and I
got to the first team and I looked at him.
I said, I said, honestly, I'm kind of excited, like
this is so brutal and it could be really fun.
Like we're gonna start shots forty yards right and and
they're gonna just like drift in and be like, I
think it's the coolest thing. And he said, yeah, and
(19:20):
you know it's to be nice. Let's let's pick some
good shots. Sometimes we want to hold some up into
the wind. Sometimes we want to use the use the wind.
And I think I honestly enjoyed that first round a
lot even though it was really brutal, but it was
it was fun to me. It's just it's different golf.
I mean you it's we get especially here in Arizona
right where there's barely any wind ever and conditions are
(19:43):
nice most of the year. You like have a stock
number and you hit it and that's it's an eight iron.
It goes this far, alright, cool, that's the number, and
you you have like a hard time wavering man, I
don't think it's a seven, you know, And it's so
weird we have these. Then you go across the pond,
or you go to Bandon Dunes and you play in
thirty mile wind and all of a sud and you're
hitting four irons from five yards and you go, I
don't care as long as I get it close to
(20:03):
the hole. Everything switches in our brain. Yeah, it said
that was like, that was so interesting. That first hole.
I remember a hundred twenty six yards and I was like,
I don't think I think this is a fore iron
and MAXI loiks and he goes, yeah, that actually that
that seems right, and he's just like, just chip it
up there, and I said, okay, So I hit these
like shots where I'm almost gripping down to the shaft
(20:26):
and I basically just to meets like a three quarter swing.
I'm not sure if it's actually that short, but that's
what it feels like to me, and it just comes
off really low and the wind isn't affected as much
and I think I really enjoyed playing those shots and
so but it was cool to see for me that
on the weekend I could switch back and actually hit
normal shots again. Because I was a little bit worried
(20:48):
about that. I said, well, now we've been hitting like
everything as high as a table, and now I just
what am I gonna? Like, what's my stock shot again?
Like how does this work? And he said, well, let's
set some balls on the range on Saturday morning, so
let's get some normal shots. And then it was fine though,
like everything was still there. I hadn't lost it. You
can you can still pull off a seven iron from
where you like your Saturday round. I mean, where does
(21:12):
that rank in terms of the best you've played? Just
I mean as solidly as you can play in a
in a big time moment. It honestly felt like probably
on a normal course in normal conditions, like a six
round to me because it was not It was still
not easy. We still had guss stup to about thirty
five miles an hour, so it was pretty pretty windy
(21:32):
out there. Um bogey free, I think was just wild.
I think I didn't honestly didn't even realize until we
got out to eighteen and I said, well, I think
we're I think we're bogey free right now, which is great. Again,
those are the rounds where yeah, so that's that's the
best thing. I'm like, I'm so glad and no point
(21:53):
in my rounds. I was so occupied with just figuring
out shots that I wasn't thinking about the score all
years trying to figure out It's like, okay, I got
one one wind is from here? What do we think?
It's all that and and so it's actually really exhausting.
When you get off the round, you're just like so drained.
But it's great because you don't think about where you're
(22:15):
at at every moment. We're gonna take a quick break
and be right back. So, boyfriend on the back, you've
mentioned him a few times. Has he cardied a decent
amount for you? As he has? He cardied a few times?
(22:36):
Have you guys done that? I mean, this is a
pretty big stage, you know. I mean he's Eddie Catty
caddied in a few events. He's honestly not very caddied
very often. He I think he caddied for me at
a couple of semtch events and at an LPGA at
my rookie year. So that's been like five years, um,
and I mean I think maybe a handful of times.
I honestly can't remember him cartying more than about five
(22:58):
six times. So that was definitely it was very interesting
when we made the decision is that I need a
caddy And he said, I mean, this is awesome. I
haven't seen you in two months because of you know,
COVID and he had to fly back to Germany and
his visa was was expired. And I said, well, this
is awesome. I get to see you and I get
to play the British Like it was amazing. It was
(23:19):
like he was like, we get to hang out and
we're playing pretty decent yaship that we're gonna be a
part of. So how is how is y'all's relationship on
the golf course? Because I mean I I caddy on
the LPGA tour for a couple of my friends back
in the day. I'm older than you and Maximo will
let you know that, let me tell you. But you know,
I caddied in and I did see some relationships out
(23:39):
there that maybe we're a bit testy on the golf
course versus how they were in real life. And that's
why he will caddy for me the rest of the season. Um,
just because right now I think we're in a good
spot and I think we want to keep it that way.
But at the same time, he's a golfer himself, he's
not you know, we both know technically there could be
(24:04):
better people in my bag. Like I don't even know
how to how to describe this, Like we get along
really well, but at the same time, we've had moments
on the golf course in that caddy player relationship where
I was like, like, do we want to risk our
whole relationship just for like a round of golf? I
know exactly. I'm like, it's really nice when it works
out this way, but when it doesn't work out, that's
(24:24):
where it gets very testy. And I don't think I
could do that, like for the rest of my golf career.
And he said the same thing, He said, oh, no, No,
next year, I have my own like I want to.
I want to play again, like I'm gonna do my
own thing, and I'll enjoy being with you the rest
of this year because it's just like this crazy COVID year.
But I think I'm back to like my normal lifestow. Yeah,
(24:45):
so when I you know, I was, I played, as
I mentioned, I played, tried to play professionally, didn't work out,
and then I caddied for a couple of friends, and
I kind of always had this perception that caddy and
was you have the bag, you have the number. Like
I play, I know what to do. And the professional caddy,
you know, the guys out there and the girls out
there that professionally do it, it's a completely different ball game.
(25:07):
It took me three or four holes the first round
hiper caddy Sofa to understand what they were stepping off.
I was like, what are they stepping off? And they
were like, oh, it's a dot for the next day,
and I went, oh, that's a I didn't know that
was a job, you know, I didn't know that was
something you're doing within the round to get ready for tomorrow.
And then I would always remember on Sunday. I always
though I thought it was gonna be the most stressful day.
There's no stepping off the flags for tomorrow, so this
(25:29):
is actually a pretty easy day. Um driver off the
deck hole. I was thinking about it for a couple
of days. It might be the most famous driver off
the deck shot in the history of major championship golf.
I can't think of one that would beat that. Considering
you won. Are you a driver off the deck player?
Is that just? Was that? What a one time pull?
(25:49):
What happened there? No, no, no, I used that shot
a lot. It's actually really interesting. I think like my
first Semetira event back this year, I hit it two
or three times on a PR five because you have
a little bit of a run up. So whenever I
have a little bit of a gap and I can
run it up and it's not super soft and it's
like two, we're like two six sixty out and I
(26:11):
know my three was just not gonna get there, especially
because it comes in a little bit higher. I I
love hitting drive off the deck and to me, we
were right and that was two a little bit into
the wind off the right, but it was like a
nice lie and I knew that I'm in general I
hit those pretty well. But I said, even if I don't,
if I mishit this, it doesn't really matter because it's
(26:32):
going to be like a layup, So why aren't we, Like,
why don't we go for it? And max Immedia said absolutely,
like go for it. I'm I'm all for it, and
obviously turn out to be a really great shot. And
it's very interesting. I don't know if you experience this,
but like when I look through social media right now,
people are like talking about drivers off the deck all
(26:53):
the time, Tigers driver off the deck here, and this
guy's driver off the deck and this guy's driver off
the deck, and I'm like, what, Like, I feel it's
so weird to me because I feel like, maybe it's
just because I just hit that driver off the deck,
but I feel like I'm hearing it everywhere right now,
and but it's kind of people are paying attention more
to it, like on the men's side right now, which
is fine, but but it was just it was like
(27:14):
a very funny thing. I don't know if it's that
thing where you buy a car and then you see
it everywhere, maybe that's it, but it was really funny.
It's a shot. I think that has made a little
bit of a comeback. I mean I think that to
your point, especially now, and I mean this is on
both sides, men's and women's. Is the launch of the
three wood. You know. I did the match with Tiger
and Phil. I was on course reporter for that the
first year up in Vegas, and they had three woods
(27:36):
from like three hundred in on one hole. And I
remember standing there, and I mean I play golf with
with pro bolfers occasionally. I mean I've seen it, and
I just remember they both hit three woods and I
couldn't believe how high they launched it off the ground.
But with that being the case, if you need to
hit one low and run it up, it's a hard
shot to hit if you're not used to pulling that off.
And so the driver off the deck, I do feel
like it's making a comeback. Still, I think you, I
(27:58):
think you win this year, you win me. This is
this is arguably driver off the deck of the century,
not just the year. You know. That's one of those things.
Thank you, thank you. I'll take that. So I asked
Homer for a question for you, because he was very
excited um, and and Max is a guy that has
been very open about, you know, the great times about
being a professional golfer, but also the times that it
hasn't been so easy. And he said, he asked me
(28:18):
to ask you this, what was your motivation when you
were at the lowest you were at in professional golf
to suck it up and keep grinding. So I think, um,
it's actually very interesting because I mentioned him in one
of my interviews because people, I think it was like
with sky Sports, and they asked me pretty much exactly
that question, and I said, you know, I'm not the
first person to be in this position. Especially golfers go
(28:41):
through really intense highs and really intense lows. And I
think that, um, you know, you kind of get I
got to this point about three years ago where I
finally I got my line disease diagnosis, and it was
just very hard for me because I was like, I
need to I need first of all, I need to
physically get fit again and then mentally get to the
(29:03):
spot where I feel, you know, I want to get
back into a tournament and feel like I'm here for
all the right reasons and I can win this no problem.
That's how I was in college. When I was in college,
every tournament we played, I said, well, I'm here, I'm
the one to be beat, and which is like, this
(29:24):
is not you know, I'm not. I don't want to
sound cocky or anything, but that was my mindset and
my confidence level at that time, and that confidence just
completely went away because I think all the expectations that
I had after my amateur career were like, I don't
I don't even know I would say they were. I
crushed people's like kind of dreams, especially in Germany, of
(29:46):
becoming like the next German player to come out after
Caroline and and and um Sandra, And I think it
was I had this like mentally, it weighed so heavy
on me that I couldn't fulfill expectations, and I couldn't
fulfill my own expect ptations. Knowing where I can be
and not being able to perform perform worst worst thing
ever to go through. And at the same time, you're
(30:07):
you're on the golf course, things are kind of going
sideways and you don't know why you're trying to and
people are like, well, honestly, you've just lost twenty pounds,
Like maybe you should start getting into like you're a
physical spot where you can actually expect yourself to be there.
And I was like, no, I can do it. I can.
I know I can, and so frustrating for about three
(30:29):
or four years there, and then finally two thousand eighteen,
I started having a pretty decent year on LPGA again
and regaining confidence, but I knew my mental game was
still not where it had to be, and so just
grinding that out and and barely missing out on my
card in two eighteen nineteen, all three years like I
(30:49):
got it to conditional status to the years, and then
after last year, I missed my by just literally one shot.
I missed my status for this year. And I think
in like you know you and that when you're in
that position, you're like, this is the worst possible thing.
It's just such a blow to your I know, your
whole system. You're like why why again? Like why this
(31:13):
has been six years of this? Like I know I
can compete with these girls, but now I have to
start all over again. And this that was why I
seriously considered quitting last year, because I said, am I
going to get to that point? Um? I know I
my physically like ability, I can, but can I like
mentally get to that spot. And I think that was
(31:33):
the hardest thing for me to it's it has happened
on the and I know, Sally and you mentioned this
on the New line Up podcast about the age and
the age of being a professional and expecting things and
how in the LPGA Tour has been younger than the
PGA Tour, but the PGA Tour's going that way as well.
I mean, you're seeing guys come out of college early
(31:54):
and expect to win. The LPJ has been like that
for a long time, where you're seeing year olds come
out and dominate, and you get to thirty and all
of a sudden, you're this vat that you know, it's like,
oh my my, my great years are behind me, you know,
And so I'm sure there's pressure there, right, I mean,
you're a four time All American, you come out of USC,
you're this stud. Everybody's expecting great things. They don't happen,
(32:14):
and time's ticking, right, So the time ticks away and
you're and you're going how much longer? Can I do this? Absolutely?
And um yeah I did. I I talked to Solly
about that and it was kind of like as as females,
we also have that added pressure of you know, you
have your biological clock. You need to figure out when
are you going to start all that? And so how
(32:36):
much time am I going to give myself? And did
I miss my prime? Or am I now my prime?
And now looking back and obviously with this win, things
that become a little bit clear to me too are
like everyone, you know, everyone has their prime at a
different time, where everyone breaks through at a different time,
and it doesn't have to be you know, Martin is
(32:57):
the greatest example of that. I mean, she grinds it
out for years on cemetri Tour, same thing, she wins
the open and it's like and after that, you know,
her confidence levels high, and and it's just you never know,
you never know when it is. And my expectation was
for it to be way earlier. And then I'm now
I'm twenty seven, you know, turning this year, and I'm thinking, man,
(33:18):
two years until I'm thirty, and like talking to my boyfriend,
I'm like, what what's the deal here? Like what am
I doing? And I think it was really great that
he always took all the pressure off. He said, you're
you're not old by any means, like you know, where
now they always say, um thirties and new twenty and
all that stuff, and I said, well, okay, maybe, but
(33:40):
I don't know, I'm not sure. I'm like, tell me
again when I'm actually thirty, that's a new twenty, because
like I'm not sure. I feel like I'll make it
my Instagram post. I'm good to exactly exactly. And then
but it kind of like just really took a lot
of pressure off of, you know, my golf game. And
end of last year, I gave myself that ultimatum. I said,
you know, I'll give yourself until you're thirty, see where
(34:02):
it goes. And I think that actually took some pressure
off because I realized, okay, you have two ft actually
almost three years, although two of them were gonna be
smetra years, right, So I think it was like a
little bit and that and now obviously with everything expedited
a little um, I think that's been really nice for
me too, and just you know, it just takes a
lot of pressure off this whole clock thing. I mean,
(34:25):
and then that again, this goes back to professional golf,
and I mean, I I wonder Max the kind of
the second part of Max's question was, you know, do
you feel like you're better now as a professional golfer
considering what you went through? And you know, you you
look through you you go, why am I still doing this?
You have days on the range? Why am I still grinding?
You shoot seventy six in a tournament? You've been playing great,
(34:46):
and you're like, what the hell happened there? How can
I shoot that number? Even to your point about the hybrid,
how do I hit a hybrid in the desert? And
then you finally have this switch, and I would say
the switch was I mean people are going to focus
on the open. I mean the switch, at least from
what I've read and looked at, was the Cactus to
a wins. I mean you been able to run through
there and win three times in four events or whatever.
You know, that's the click where you go, I can
do this, I can win, and then you know, you
(35:06):
go win this enormous major championship and you have all
of that behind you that you went through to get here.
I mean it makes you stronger, right, you know now, now,
looking back and especially the mental state I was in
from Cactus Tour on to the win as a player,
I feel way more, you know, experienced, ready to go,
(35:32):
Like I wasn't this player three or four years ago.
I don't even know if I was this player in college,
like I I really don't think so I think this
when you go through all that stuff, it makes you
so much, I don't know, it just puts you like
makes a more full player, Like I don't know, I
don't know, just all the the facets of of a
(35:53):
great golfer, like I think they haven't hadn't for me
come together yet before this week. Like for me that
I think that mental game that I had that week
was just the thing that I had been missing for
a long time. And and you know where you're like,
you know, we talked about this earlier and we said,
like these you know the people that keep missing cuts
and they go, I'm so close. I'm so close, Because yes,
they have these rounds that are like seventy three, seventy
(36:15):
four that could have easily been sixty nine had they
made a couple of key puts, or had they been
a little bit more maybe a little bit better off
the tea box towards the end of their second round,
Like they're they're so small. Those are all just confidence
and mental um errors that happened right there. So you
know where everyone goes, oh my god, here we go again,
(36:37):
and now he or she's talking about how they miss
the cut by one. Those are really we We don't
just say that. It's actually that way where we're working
so hard and it's we're so close, But we just
were trying to find that little thing I found during
Cactus Tour this year where Okay, like this is what
I have to do and my attitude has to be
better and I need to play smarter. I I did
(37:00):
a lot of decade golf stuff, and those those two
things coming together and just accepting certain misses and all that.
I think that was what I was missing the whole time.
So you already mentioned the thing you said you you
might you know you had a time where you were
going to step away from golf. I looked online you
you did some TV work during the Solhem Cup. Um,
(37:21):
so what were you thinking you would do if golf
didn't work out? Were you going to think about going
down that road? And also I wanted you to give
us a grade on how you were on TV and
your Solhem Cup debut. So I'm definitely going to be
serious competition to you guys. Okay, I'm nervous already. I know,
I know. I can tell you you can speak your knives,
you smile. It's like, these are all the checkering marks, right,
(37:43):
I know, watch out, I'm coming check marks. But now,
you guys have a couple of years before I, you know,
hit the sports journalism side of things and obviously broadcast
UM that week. Actually, I ad so much fun. I
think you know, I wanted to be at the compound
(38:05):
at five thirty in the morning because I was so
ready to go. I was like, let's do this. Pumped up.
I couldn't even sleep at night because I was so
excited about what I was doing. And I I think
from all the feedback that I got, I would give
myself a pretty good grade. But I just think that
that's something I want to do so badly one day.
And I think that's what made it very hard for
(38:26):
me at the point that I was in last year
to not question whether I was going to continue playing
golf or not. Like I had to question that because
I knew I had a couple of internships lined up
and I have all I had a lot of opportunities
that I could have taken back then, and obviously now
looking back, I'm glad I didn't, and I'm sure everything
(38:47):
you know happens for a reason. But sometime down the road,
I'm very excited to pursue that and and get into
I don't even know you maybe golf, maybe maybe just
general sports, but like anything um in that area, I
just I'm pretty excited about that. So um, Okay, a
couple more for you. One is, you know, I feel
(39:09):
like we hear a lot in the golf world about
the differences in the corn Ferry and the PGA Tour,
you know, and even the European Tour and the in
the PGA Tour. Something I don't hear a lot about
is the differences in the symmetric tour in the LPGA.
And by this I mean not the golf, you know,
like away from the golf, the camaraderie, the friendships, how
they how the players travel and and deal with all
of the stuff to get to events. So can you
(39:30):
just enlighten us a little bit on the differences in
your experiences symmetric versus your experiences in the LPGA tour. Um. Yeah,
I think the biggest difference is the camaraderie thing on
Semetric tour. I have a group of friends and we're
very close. We in the previous years we always traveled
together and that's been a little bit tougher this year,
but still we we we were still very good friends
(39:51):
and um here and there, um we can ruin with
one person and um so it's been I think the
you know, I noticed that the most after my win
was all my friends from Sumetra called me and they
were in tears, and I was like, I am not
used to this. This on on the l p g A. Yes,
you get a lot of congratulations and then my closest
(40:12):
friends obviously they're they're really happy for me. But you know,
everyone kind of does their own thing, and everyone has
their little entourages. Maybe some do, some do, some don't,
but everyone has their own way of going about things.
And my way is I think a little bit different.
Like I'm pretty, Um, I like to be pretty, like
relax and fun and do other stuff like I love
(40:34):
when I go to a tournament week I look at
what hikes are around here? Can we serve? Can we do?
What can we do? And now I think, you know,
with winning this tournament, I think one of the most
exciting parts is that you know, and Van Dam's my
best friends. So I get to finally travel with her
full time. We're so excited about that and um and
and we can do all this stuff because she's the
(40:55):
same person or like she's also kind of made me
into that person too, So we visit your entire life. Yes,
we have like other things that we love to do,
and we want to keep a really good balance. And
I think on smetroc To you have a lot of
people like that. On an LPGA people be are very
singular focus. Yeah, singular focus. It's all golf, golf, golf, golf,
(41:17):
And at the at the end of every week, I'm like, okay,
like what kind of what else is going to talk about?
I'm done with the golf conversation. I want a paddle
board by myself, and I don't want to talk to
anyone like that's that's my mind. When you caddied for
Van Damn, I mean, to your boyfriend's point, you're a
professional golfer. How hard was it to you? I mean,
(41:38):
I know you play a lot of golf with her,
but like she bombs it, right, she beats it. She's
a long straver on LPG Tour, Right, So was it
hard for you to get the numbers? Did it? Were
you kind of onto them pretty earlier? You're like, she
in your mind, are you going she really hit an
eight iron from here? No, It's actually really funny because
I very quickly realized after we're after we were on
track man on the range, that she hits it exactly
(42:01):
the same distance as I do in meters, so everything,
like my it was so easy. My eight aarn goes
and hers goes, and I'm like, oh, this is easy.
And so it was so funny because at the end
of the tournament she said to me, she said, Sophia, like,
I've never had a caddy in my life who has
(42:23):
figured out my distances so quickly and has given me
the right clubs all the time, like you were never
you were never wrong. And because there was one key
shot where I was like, I think we were two
nine meters so that's about two roughly to thirty and
the wind was into off the right, and you know
that's the kind of distance where I'm just smashing three
(42:43):
with like and hoping it gets there. And she was like,
I don't know if it's like a five would or
three would, and I was like, you know what I
think five would is. I think five would all day
And she said, I just don't know if it's gonna
get there. I'm like, no, it's gonna get there. It's
I'm pretty sure. And then she goes, all right, I'm
gonna smash five would and she hits it to like
four ft, like the most incredible shot I think I've
(43:04):
ever seen, and she goes good club Caddy. I was like,
I was like, yeah, I really, you know, I really
appreciate that because I felt like I actually gave her
that club. And but you know, sometimes it was incredible
to see, like it would be pouring rain and it
would be a hundred sixty five meters which is like
one yards pouring rain, and she'd be like and we
(43:26):
would be be between like a seven and a six iron,
and I'm like, and we'd be like, seven is going
to get there, and then seven gets there, and it's
just for me, like, I'm pretty sure I'd be smashing
five iron at this point, you know, and so I'm
like just amazed that that's the club. So it was
very cool to see, but at the same time just
to strategize with her on the golf course because that
(43:46):
part doesn't change whether I'm hitting the ball or she's
hitting the ball. I think that helped me a lot
going into the next few weeks. I bet I gotta
touch on this, you know, before we go. Obviously, you know,
one of the big stories that came out of all
this was, you know, the amount of time you're getting
UM in terms of your exemptions, and on the LPGA
Tour typically be five years. UM you're not I guess
(44:06):
technically an LPG Tour members that was at the wording,
and you're not an LPGA Tour member, so you get
two years. But yeah, so I get the rest of
this year and next year. So I wouldn't even really
call it two years a year now unless I misunderstood something,
because I know Mike said two years, but I'm finished
this season and then for either either two years or
year whatever it is, and then you're not in the
(44:27):
in then in the majors in two thousand twenty. And
that's because they set them all the same same thing
they're doing with the Masters where they said it all
you know, pre COVID. You know it's it's a one
of my the COVID Bingo terms is fluid situation. You know,
people say for the situation a lot um. I mean,
the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour are very very different.
I mean in the number one thing is is simply
(44:50):
the money. I mean it's just PGA tour players. If
you're a top twenty or thirty player, you never had
to stress about money your entire life. It's not even
a thing on your mind. If you're a top twenty
or thirty LPGA player, there are a few who are
set and who have deals and who make a lot
of money. But I mean, you get to thirty five,
forty forty five the money list and life isn't private
jets and and BMW cars waiting for you at the airport.
(45:10):
So I'm a huge Mike jan fan. I had him
on this podcast just about a month and a half ago.
I did love what he did. I love the way
you approached it. I'm sure you respected it as well.
But there is he did leave some wiggle room in
terms of hopefully changing that. And if we call it
the pop off rule, that'd be awesome. I mean, just
something to change this and hopefully lean on it, because
(45:30):
again I think the point here, and something you obviously
know is you know, five years you talked about family
and having a kid and all these things. I mean,
these things play into it, and five years is a
long time to feel secure in your job. Absolutely, and
I think, you know, I obviously respect their decision completely.
You know, those are the LPGA rules and regulations and
(45:51):
you can't just change those. So to me, um it
was a definitely I wasn't going to fight them on that,
you know, it was I respect that, and I think
Mike said it really well in his press conference, and
that's the way things are. And he sent me a
really nice email congratulating me, and we have a good
relationship and that's something I would never want to jeopardize
because you know, I still have my year and a
(46:12):
half exemption. And I think the one thing that I
was disappointed about and why I felt like my situation
was different from let's say, someone like Shabuno last year,
was that I had played four seasons on LPGA and
this is my first season back again where I'm just
only on Semetra and Semetra as a developmental tour of
the LPGA, And I'm thinking you kind of want to
(46:36):
support your players like that, Um that you give them
that five year exemption because five years of you know,
your job is job security, exactly like exactly, like you said,
I think the way I think about it now is
I'm saying, you know, good golf takes care of itself.
So I'm just gonna have to go out and I'm
gonna have to play well. And that's just the way
it is. And that's that's fine because you can't change it.
(46:59):
Although he did leave some wiggle room and obviously I think,
you know, we might go into some negotiations at the
end of the year, but hopefully you know, you never know. Um,
but I would I mean, I would love for that
rule to change. And if it's not for me, then
for the girls that come after me. And I think
that's the biggest thing. Well, I mean, you're your point,
I mean, your your spot on there is you. This
(47:20):
is the dream scenario for the Symmetric Tour if you
really think about it, right, your story is a dream situation.
I mean the dream would be a Cement store player
wins an LPGA event, right, And that's the dream thing. Now,
you want a major championship. So if you're thinking about
how to develop players into the top tier professionals. This
is it. I mean, you went through the grinds of symmetrical,
you played me into our golf. You did everything, you
(47:42):
missed out on a card by one single f and shot,
and it's like, you know, let's if there, if we've
learned anything in two thousand twenties that we can change
stuff kind of quickly. And I'm praying fingers crossed everything
that this does change because you just hey, you deserve it,
and be it is too logical not so I will
speak for you if you don't mind them saying that
(48:04):
last thing. Who was the most random, can, most famous,
most most surprising? Congratulatory text? Call email you got and
if you have multiple, we will listen to multiple. Well
I think, um, I got some. I got some from
which is really nice, from people I haven't heard from
in a long time, like are my athletics director when
(48:25):
I was at USC, Pat Hayden, um, J K McKay
who's the assistant athletic director, and um, those were some
like really cool ones and from people I haven't heard
from a long time. But it was very cool through
this whole thing, and obviously UM also the exemption stuff
that happened after. Um, I got some congratulations at congratulatory
(48:45):
messages from like on my social media from like big
name guide players where I was like Ian Poulter just
like set me a message and congratulated me, and I
was like, this is the coolest thing. These are the
guys I look up to on the my Ends tour.
Like obviously I'm a big fan of European players too,
just because um I'm European. But uh, it's it was like,
(49:07):
you know, Tommy Fleetwood reaching out like stuff like that
to me, where I'm like, oh my god, these people
kind of know me now, which is it's a little
bit surreal, I think. But at the same time, um,
you know, I honestly the ones I was most excited about,
or just people that I worked with over the years
that reached out to me, um and we're like, you know,
(49:28):
all the stuff that we went through and all that,
and and it's just those made me probably the most emotional,
just because I think they can relate to what I
went through and and and where I am now. Yeah,
it's it's going back to you know, when when things
weren't great. I mean, these are the people you're leaning on,
you know, when the game wasn't exactly where you wanted
it to be, and then now you get to this point,
it's like you guys can all appreciate the moment. You
(49:50):
can all appreciate the trophy. I mean it's one trophy, right,
but it's like, you know so much something you can
share with so many people that have like walked through life.
So you're back in Arizona, you still that media stuff,
You've still got things going on. At what point do
you feel like life's going to be normal? Um, I
think it's gonna take a little bit, because I think
(50:12):
next week is gonna be probably the first week where
I can actually just fully focus back on I'm practicing
and getting ready for Portland. But even going to Portland,
I think it's going to be different teeing it up there.
I think we're gonna have a different tea time than
what I'm used to having. You know, I know exactly,
I'm not gonna have that seven am or the two pm,
(50:32):
the one that I really love. Um So I'm assuming,
but um it's it's gonna be just a little bit different.
I think from the media attention and stuff like that.
You know I have to be realistic about that, um,
but I'm hoping within the next few weeks things will
just kind of get back to normal and I can
kind of focus on everything I've been doing. And but
I hope that just as like when you say, like
(50:54):
things get back normal, to get back to normal for
you and your lifestyle, I mean, I hope that with
everything that I'm doing right now, I'm basically my personality
doesn't change and the kind of person that I am
just a little bit more. A couple more appointments here
and there, but I'm hoping that, like things set on,
I could just be me and not be rude to people,
(51:16):
just still be nice. Is this now the last thing?
Is this the first interview you've done where the person
that's interview and you brought you gifts? This is the
first one? Multiple multiple get. You don't have to use them,
You don't have to use any of this stuff, but
they're they have the right. There's nothing worse than someone
(51:38):
showing up with like teas that are you know, are
those really long? The plastic ones? Get the plastic one
out of my face? Out of my face, Sophie, I
appreciate it, Thanks so much. Congratulations, thank you, thank you.
We're gonna take a quick break and be right back.
(52:06):
A big thanks to Sophia for joining and giving us
all that time. It was excellent. One of my favorite
interviews I've ever done on this here podcast, and I've
done a lot for a lot of years, so that
was that was just, you know, everything you'd want to
hear from someone that is so appreciative of the opportunity
and what comes with it and the victory of course.
And uh, I asked her after weird things she's drank
(52:28):
out of the trophy and all I got was champagne
and she said she had a couple of beers. I
think it's some champagne out of it. So hopefully, you know,
maybe the weirder liquids poured into the open trophy will come.
Thanks so much for listening, subscribing. We'll be back soon
with another guest to hope you guys have a great week.
Hope you get a chance to get out and play
a little bit of golf, and hey, give yourself that
three footer. You deserve it. The Clubhouse with Shane Bacon
(53:01):
as a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
from My Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon, a production of
I Heart Radio Welcome to the Clubhouse with Shane Bacon.
I am your host, Shane Bacon. An exciting guest this
week are Women's British Open champion Sophia pop Off in
(00:21):
person interview did it in North Scottsdale. That was exciting,
obviously a world wind last few weeks for her after
the victory and we talked about everything we hit on her,
her run through the Cactus Tour this year and how
helpful that was to get some wins under her belt professionally.
Obviously the week that was a real troon. In the
victory there we talked driver off the Deck. I think
(00:43):
it's I said this within the interview her driver off
the deck on Saturday. It might be the best driver
off the deck in the history of major championship golf.
I would love to hear from people that have an
answer better than that, because I was trying to rack
my brain and think of one that the winner pulled
(01:03):
off and I can't really come up with a great one.
I don't I don't think Mo hit driver. I think
it was a three wood that she hit when it
hit the flagstick and nearly win in when she won
the British Open. So if you have a great driver
off the deck for a major championship title story, I mean,
nobody hits driver off the deck at Augusta. I don't
think maybe on eight I can't really think of a
great one that got close for the winner. And of
(01:24):
course you don't see a lot of US Opens and
PJA Championships. The Open will be the one Methan really
comes to mind. But we talked about a lot of stuff,
you know, obviously, the struggles that that she went through
professionally after having such a great career at USC and
what it's been like now being you know, a person
of interest that everybody's trying to get ahold of, including
you know, yours truly, I mean obviously reaching out to
get an interview was a big, a big property of
(01:46):
mine and I love getting and she has to do
it in person. She's awesome, she's lovely, she's great. She's
everything you'd want from someone that wins and has perspective
and understanding of the situation and everything. And I think,
you know, you go through stuff, you go through the
not so great times of being a professional golfer and
things like this are sweeter and you appreciate him a
(02:06):
lot more than maybe if everything went your way when
you turned pro. So I I love these types of stories.
I think everybody does in sports, and I think you're
really gonna enjoy you know, this particular podcast if you
don't listen to Get a Grip with Maxim and Shane Bacon.
That's my other podcast. Just a reminder to give that
one a listen. We have a lot of fun with it.
Max opens up a lot about you know, the ups
and downs of professional golf and everything that he loves
(02:29):
and things he'd love to see change. And he is awesome.
He's just excellent at this. It's annoying how good he
is at being a podcast co host. So make sure
you listen to subscribe to that. Let's get to Sophia.
We're welcome in Sofia pop off in person here in Arizona.
So before we get into you know, your two weeks,
(02:51):
can you run me through like Sunday on you were
obviously it in it Royal Troon you win. And what
has it been like because you've had to check a
lot of boxes. Yeah, it's been it's been crazy. So
I originally had planned to fly to Germany anyways, but
then you know, Sunday night, things went pretty late obviously,
(03:12):
and then you know a little bit of partying forgot
to eat. That was fantastic. Um I wake up early
in the morning and take a flight to Germany at
like six am, and um My management was like, well,
we have a couple of things lined up for you
this week, and I'm just going like Monday from nine
to five, just straight talking. And then the next day
(03:32):
the same thing, and I'm going like, is this what
it's like? It was just very surreal because I've obviously
never experienced anything like it. And then you've kind of
got you They're a little bit different, but you're almost
saying the same things, and I'm saying like multiple languages,
and I'm what is going on? And like I and
then all these I guess, you know, all these requests
that normally I'm like happy, happy to do a bunch
(03:55):
of them, especially in Germany, But then I was like, well,
I can't do twelve in one day. This not gonna work.
So kind of organizing that pretty stressful actually, and then
you're you're you're scared that you're gonna miss something, and
and it's like the Golf Channel interview and it's like, oh,
we're live with Sophia, and then you know, you never
show up and it's like, oh, well, I guess the
screens her of obviously the connection doesn't work. That's by
(04:18):
the way, little TV thing. If you ever hear oh
we lost him in the connection or something didn't work,
that means that person just didn't show up. But how
many languages do you speak? So well? I speak to languages,
um so I just kind of basically have been doing
everything in German and English, which is enough. My Spanish
is not good enough, so please knows aboutish your quasses.
But yeah, it's been all in dual, which is fine. Yeah,
(04:42):
And so you know, I'm sure you haven't talked to
anyone about this. I think it's maybe the sneaky thing
that happens when something huge occurs, especially in sport, is
how much you wanted, you know, like, all of a sudden,
you go from somebody that would be happy to do
anything that anybody wants to do, to all of a
sudden you have a hundred like this, You have a
(05:03):
hundred media requests me today, You've got a few lined
up as well, you know, you just did a couple
this morning, You're gonna do some this afternoon. Has that
been maybe the most surprising part is the attention, you know,
that the instant attention to who you are and people
want to hear what you have to say. I think
that's definitely been, um the biggest change, because I also
(05:23):
have to I don't know if it's a problem, but
I like, I don't I can't say no to people.
I or I I want to talk to people, and
I'm just that's not the nature of my personality is
like always always talking to people, and like I I don't.
I think it's always rude to turn people down. And
so with my management, they said, well, it's totally fine
(05:45):
if you say no to things, and I said, well,
you know, you know, they're taking time out of their lives,
and they're like, no, this is not how this works.
Like you're you're you're the subject. Now you're the first
I want to hear from. I want to ask what's
and you don't have to pinpoint obviously who said it
or who asked it. What's the worst question you've received
thus far? Any anyone stand out that you were like,
I don't know about that one. Well, yeah, maybe you
(06:09):
know it stands out because it's so uh. I just
I honestly, and I never say no comment or I
really don't want to comment on this, but on that
one I had to because it was it was from
German media and I'm not going to specifically say who was.
But literally the first question was how did you how
are you able to financially support yourself the last six years?
(06:32):
And and and you know, and did you take any
money from your parents? I'm like, I juice on the open, like,
is this really the first question? I was like, this
is so rude. I'm I'm I mean, I'm happy to
discuss that with you off record, Like, but it's not.
It's it's kind of none of your business. You know.
(06:53):
By the way, I do have to financial questions. I'll
scratch those. Yeah, I apologize that. So you know, I mean,
what is so appealing about your story, as you know,
is I mean, and and Cinderella story is is what
people always go to. I mean, your three and four
in the world and this is your first LPGA victory.
But you know, I don't know if people understand how
(07:15):
competitive Mini Tour golf can be and how important it
is to win. I mean, I played mini tour golf
back on my heyday. Uh not very successfully obviously, that's
what I'm doing this, but you know, I mean I
was out there and Kevin Strielman was playing, and you
had Steve Marino. I mean, these guys that had made
it and have one on the PGA Tour out there.
So I just want to go through your mini tour
run to kind of set this up because it's incredibly impressive.
(07:37):
So you when your first of been in April, you
wented at True North correct, A couple of you went
by a couple of shots to play well, and that
was a huge moment for you because that was your
first professional victory, right, correct. So actually my first one
was at let me think it was Yeah City, So
(07:57):
sun City was my first one, and then I want
the week after at Last Alinas, and then I think
I had two. I came in like second and third
maybe the next two, and then I want to North
to North was actually my last one, but it was
like it was the first one in some city. Was
so cool because I hadn't one as a professional, and
(08:20):
I think for me, regardless of how small the field is. Um,
you know, I was still I had a really cool
head to head battle of Sarah Burnham and it was
I mean, she's been playing really well on LPG, so
it's been that. I think that to me was a
little bit of a breakthrough because then I it was
kind of like, Okay, now you have your first win.
You don't even have to think about it. Even if
(08:41):
you're in contention on Semetric Tour, LPGA or wherever. You
don't have that added pressure of you know, she just
can't win as a professional. So that was very like
that was my biggest kind of you know victory or
maybe mental victory that I that I was able to
um kind of alebrate after the Cactus Tour events. Uh
(09:02):
and and just real quick at lost Colinas sixty one,
sixty sixty four, you shot sixty one. I was looking
at two parts on par five's as well with you.
Now you eagle the other two part fives, which helps.
But now, I mean that was you were on the
verge of something dirty that day. I was. So it
was it was weird because you know how you just
kind of play and then you're making birdies and you're
(09:23):
like okay, cool, and puts are dropping and I'm barely
been looking at that. We don't know this, but keep going. Yes,
let's hear from you. Even my dad said I have
these days where I just see the ball going in
and I'm like, Dad, That's how I felt that day,
and like I just kind of maybe hit it a
little bit better t de Green. But it was just
one of those days where everything was kind of working
and I didn't even think about I said, Okay, you know,
(09:43):
this is just fun. And I was playing with a
good friend of mine from Germany with Sophie, and it
was just kind of very relaxed. We're talking about god
knows what, but it was. It was kind of one
of those days. And then at some point I realized,
oh um, I think I'm like nine under now, and
and I was like, what are we? Is this a
part five? You? What are Parson two? It was kind
of one of those are then, And I actually wish
(10:03):
I had I thought about it a little bit earlier,
because I was like not even pushing very hard in
the middle, and I was like, well, maybe I should have,
But then again, you know, maybe if I did that,
was that your low competitive round? Yes, yeah, by two shots.
I think I shot sixty three in college UM and
a couple of times professionally, but sixty one was what
(10:24):
you three Conectus tour wins, you know, before you get
to the open, what what what has changed? What has
clicked for you this year? Especially, you know maybe the
last four or five months that maybe wasn't working for
you as you were out grinding and trying to compete.
I think that over the last like us, let's say,
we never have a very long off season, whether you're
(10:47):
LPJ or sumetra, you maybe have a month top two
months maybe too to you know, figure everything out going
into season, and you want to take some time off
there too. And so here we are. I have my
first I played my first metrator event. It was all right,
and then we go into quarantine and I think quarantine
(11:08):
people are like, what's gonna what are we doing? And
I just want to I guess I'll just take off
of gold like I'll just you know, to take time
off and not play at all. And I said, how
can I best use this time effectively? And I think
the thing that I work on the least, and that
I worked on the most during quarantine was my mental game,
(11:28):
I think I I always put it off. I was
always like, it's not that bad. And then you know,
I go out again and I get frustrated after a
couple of holes, after not even not even playing bad.
But I get so frustrated and affects the rest of
my my holes that day. And I was so and
I never really you know, I thought it was that
(11:49):
big of a deal. But you know, my boyfriend said too,
He said, you know, this is some time you can
use to read books, listen to some audiobooks really, or
work with someone. And so what I did is, I know,
I read a bunch of books. I worked on it.
We we had a game that we played. Every time
we played. We we played the game that you are
not allowed to comment on any of your shots. And
(12:11):
that is brootal reaction at no reaction at all. Like
I was kind of more Jordan speedsk just out there,
like you always got to be kidding me, What was that?
So no, no word. You can't whether it was good
or bad. You can't say anything. And it was the
hardest thing ever. He said, Okay, it's gonna be a
dollar per comment. I said, all right, So I mean
(12:33):
here we are it's money. I don't want to lose,
and and that really helped me and we we we
continue doing that game. We did all lust or two
weeks ago during the Open, and I think the mental
part of the game is what improved the most over
the last five months. So you play that game, you're
reading books, so you were would you consider yourself someone
(12:53):
that was that was frustrated on the golf course where
you were you negative on the golf course? I mean,
would you would you let one thing hang for their
whole round? Is that what you were doing and that's
something you've kind of let go? Yeah, I think, um,
you know, and I and I have no no problem
being honest about that, is that I would kind of
um a little bit of negative spiral. It would be
(13:14):
if I was playing well, fine, if not. I didn't
get obviously frustrated on the golf course, but it was
negative talk. I'd be walking next to my caddie or whatever,
my boyfriend, and I'd be like, well, here we go again.
And I was six under. Now I'm probably gonna, you know,
get in the clubhouse at even like classic Sophia, that
was myself. It was terror. So it's just like negative
(13:36):
self talk and so unnecessary, like really and and I
would only figure that out after that and I said,
why were you Why were you doing that? Like why
do you even why does that happen? And I think
that was the hardest thing for me to change and
work on and just be more not not even just
positive on the golf course, but just neutral. Just don't
(13:59):
say anything, take things as they are, and then just
you know, focus on every shot as a new shot. Yeah.
I played golf at James Hant a couple of years ago,
and you know, he had that long miscut run and
then he won the Wells Fargo and I was talking
to him and he said that he got in a
place where it would be Thursday afternoon and he'd be
on the eleventh hole and he'd hit it in the
(14:19):
fairway and being a divot, and he said he would
look at his caddie and go, well, I'm gonna miss
the cut by one, and he would miss the cup
by one. And he said he had to just to
your point, he had to just switch that off. And
the moment he did, he goes out there and wins.
You know, after all these misscuts in a row, it's
just so funny how the things can cloud your brain
and if you just let it go, then golf seems
to be somewhat easy. Was there around on the Cactus
(14:41):
Tour where you felt like, Okay, I've I've got I've
kind of got this under control. You know? It is
actually really interesting because the round that I would it
was a specific round actually at True North, where um
I was. I think I had like a four shot
lead and going to like the last four holes, and
I knew it could be pretty comfortable. But I kind
(15:02):
of second guests in a little at that point, and
I don't know why. Literally the widest fairway, I'm hitting
hybrid off the tea, I hit hybrid into the desert
and I'm like, this is the most reliable club you
have in the bag. Like when I play track Man
simulator golf, my, you know, I get some like a
lot of auto birdies with my hybrid, Like I love
(15:23):
that club. So I'm just hitting in the desert. I go,
what was that? And then I chipped out and made
up and down from like a hundred ten yards for
par and that because I didn't get flustered about it,
I just kind of continue playing. And that was such
That's why it's so vivid in my memory because it
was such a key moment for me, even though it
seems like just this random hole in the middle of
(15:44):
my cactus tour or whatever career and and but it
was so to me, so important, just that one home
because I realized, all right, you're you're fine, Like as
long as you keep you know your shots are there.
So you just have to trust yourself and know that
at any point you're capable of making up and down
from anywhere. It's not you know, you're not saying saying
(16:08):
to yourself, well, here we go again. Here's a bogey
one lesson like that. I don't want to have it now,
I have a three shot lead, I'm so nervous and
all that, and it's just it's okay, one bad swing.
I can handle it exactly. Um So Troon and you
played it? Did you watch the Open with with Phil
and Stinson? I mean, was that something you paid attention
to it all? Yeah? So I never played it, but
(16:28):
actually Friday night, Max and I rewatched the back nine
of that. Basically, I just I just call it a
match between the two of us, and I did watch
it live back into right and Um, it was incredible,
and then Max said, you know what, we we should
really rewatch it. It would have fun, would that be
(16:49):
just to kind of see where they hit it, see
what all that stuff. So I rewatched it, and honestly,
I think I took a lot out of it because
the way that they were playing, both of them, it
was so aggressive, so confident. It felt like nothing. You know.
When I look at Stens and it was to me
like he just he kind of knew, like and that's
(17:11):
the same feeling that I had on Sunday. It was
just I could be aggressive, you know, smart but aggressive,
and the shots were just there, like everything. I knew
it was fine because the worst I'm gonna do is
just not that bad. So I think it helped me
a lot, you know, with the conditions. And I mean
I heard a Nellie Cord interview I think on Thursday,
(17:32):
and they were asking her have you played anything like this,
and she said, it's hard for me to walk in this,
Like that's how hard the wind was blowing. It wasn't
just hard to play golf, it was hard to walk
in there in the conditions, the gusty conditions. The problem
with that is if you go out and fire around. Awesome.
You know you're gonna because a lot of people are
gonn shoot themselves out of the event. I always go
back to Rory at St. Andrews in two thousand ten.
He shoots sixty three the first day, he should have
(17:54):
shot sixty two, honestly missed a bunny on seventeen, shoots
eighty the second round in high conditions, and then now
all of a sudden you're out of the championship. So
the conditions can kind of knock a lot of people out.
You know, it can be frustrating. It's the whole Jack quote, right.
I knew the guys complaining on the range had no
real chance of winning this. When you looked at the weather,
you saw it was gonna be windier than hell, you
know where you like, let's use this to our advantage.
(18:15):
Let's just go out there and lean on the wind
and not let it frustrate us and goes back to
your middle side. Absolutely. Um, I think that being on
the range, it was very interesting because literally my first
shot on the range, I fell backwards because it gus
were so hard, and Max looked at me, said, what
was that? I said, I could couldn't. Yeah, And he
just said, well, this should be really interesting today. And
(18:37):
I said, okay, well I don't know if I can
just have a normal range session right now. So he said, well,
why have a normal range session. Let's just hit. So
he said, first shot, he said, here's a fore iron.
Hit this. Try to hit that like a sign back there.
We we shot it. It It was like a hundred thirty
yards out. I hit like these low stingers. That was
all I did for my warm up was just low stingers,
low stingers with every iron pitching much low nine iron,
(18:59):
low every thing. And I got to the and I
got to the first team and I looked at him.
I said, I said, honestly, I'm kind of excited, like
this is so brutal and it could be really fun.
Like we're gonna start shots forty yards right and and
they're gonna just like drift in and be like, I
think it's the coolest thing. And he said, yeah, and
(19:20):
you know it's to be nice. Let's let's pick some
good shots. Sometimes we want to hold some up into
the wind. Sometimes we want to use the use the wind.
And I think I honestly enjoyed that first round a
lot even though it was really brutal, but it was
it was fun to me. It's just it's different golf.
I mean you it's we get especially here in Arizona
right where there's barely any wind ever and conditions are
(19:43):
nice most of the year. You like have a stock
number and you hit it and that's it's an eight iron.
It goes this far, alright, cool, that's the number, and
you you have like a hard time wavering man, I
don't think it's a seven, you know, And it's so
weird we have these. Then you go across the pond,
or you go to Bandon Dunes and you play in
thirty mile wind and all of a sud and you're
hitting four irons from five yards and you go, I
don't care as long as I get it close to
(20:03):
the hole. Everything switches in our brain. Yeah, it said
that was like, that was so interesting. That first hole.
I remember a hundred twenty six yards and I was like,
I don't think I think this is a fore iron
and MAXI loiks and he goes, yeah, that actually that
that seems right, and he's just like, just chip it
up there, and I said, okay, So I hit these
like shots where I'm almost gripping down to the shaft
(20:26):
and I basically just to meets like a three quarter swing.
I'm not sure if it's actually that short, but that's
what it feels like to me, and it just comes
off really low and the wind isn't affected as much
and I think I really enjoyed playing those shots and
so but it was cool to see for me that
on the weekend I could switch back and actually hit
normal shots again. Because I was a little bit worried
(20:48):
about that. I said, well, now we've been hitting like
everything as high as a table, and now I just
what am I gonna? Like, what's my stock shot again?
Like how does this work? And he said, well, let's
set some balls on the range on Saturday morning, so
let's get some normal shots. And then it was fine though,
like everything was still there. I hadn't lost it. You
can you can still pull off a seven iron from
where you like your Saturday round. I mean, where does
(21:12):
that rank in terms of the best you've played? Just
I mean as solidly as you can play in a
in a big time moment. It honestly felt like probably
on a normal course in normal conditions, like a six
round to me because it was not It was still
not easy. We still had guss stup to about thirty
five miles an hour, so it was pretty pretty windy
(21:32):
out there. Um bogey free, I think was just wild.
I think I didn't honestly didn't even realize until we
got out to eighteen and I said, well, I think
we're I think we're bogey free right now, which is great. Again,
those are the rounds where yeah, so that's that's the
best thing. I'm like, I'm so glad and no point
(21:53):
in my rounds. I was so occupied with just figuring
out shots that I wasn't thinking about the score all
years trying to figure out It's like, okay, I got
one one wind is from here? What do we think?
It's all that and and so it's actually really exhausting.
When you get off the round, you're just like so drained.
But it's great because you don't think about where you're
(22:15):
at at every moment. We're gonna take a quick break
and be right back. So, boyfriend on the back, you've
mentioned him a few times. Has he cardied a decent
amount for you? As he has? He cardied a few times?
(22:36):
Have you guys done that? I mean, this is a
pretty big stage, you know. I mean he's Eddie Catty
caddied in a few events. He's honestly not very caddied
very often. He I think he caddied for me at
a couple of semtch events and at an LPGA at
my rookie year. So that's been like five years, um,
and I mean I think maybe a handful of times.
I honestly can't remember him cartying more than about five
(22:58):
six times. So that was definitely it was very interesting
when we made the decision is that I need a
caddy And he said, I mean, this is awesome. I
haven't seen you in two months because of you know,
COVID and he had to fly back to Germany and
his visa was was expired. And I said, well, this
is awesome. I get to see you and I get
to play the British Like it was amazing. It was
(23:19):
like he was like, we get to hang out and
we're playing pretty decent yaship that we're gonna be a
part of. So how is how is y'all's relationship on
the golf course? Because I mean I I caddy on
the LPGA tour for a couple of my friends back
in the day. I'm older than you and Maximo will
let you know that, let me tell you. But you know,
I caddied in and I did see some relationships out
(23:39):
there that maybe we're a bit testy on the golf
course versus how they were in real life. And that's
why he will caddy for me the rest of the season. Um,
just because right now I think we're in a good
spot and I think we want to keep it that way.
But at the same time, he's a golfer himself, he's
not you know, we both know technically there could be
(24:04):
better people in my bag. Like I don't even know
how to how to describe this, Like we get along
really well, but at the same time, we've had moments
on the golf course in that caddy player relationship where
I was like, like, do we want to risk our
whole relationship just for like a round of golf? I
know exactly. I'm like, it's really nice when it works
out this way, but when it doesn't work out, that's
(24:24):
where it gets very testy. And I don't think I
could do that, like for the rest of my golf career.
And he said the same thing, He said, oh, no, No,
next year, I have my own like I want to.
I want to play again, like I'm gonna do my
own thing, and I'll enjoy being with you the rest
of this year because it's just like this crazy COVID year.
But I think I'm back to like my normal lifestow. Yeah,
(24:45):
so when I you know, I was, I played, as
I mentioned, I played, tried to play professionally, didn't work out,
and then I caddied for a couple of friends, and
I kind of always had this perception that caddy and
was you have the bag, you have the number. Like
I play, I know what to do. And the professional caddy,
you know, the guys out there and the girls out
there that professionally do it, it's a completely different ball game.
(25:07):
It took me three or four holes the first round
hiper caddy Sofa to understand what they were stepping off.
I was like, what are they stepping off? And they
were like, oh, it's a dot for the next day,
and I went, oh, that's a I didn't know that
was a job, you know, I didn't know that was
something you're doing within the round to get ready for tomorrow.
And then I would always remember on Sunday. I always
though I thought it was gonna be the most stressful day.
There's no stepping off the flags for tomorrow, so this
(25:29):
is actually a pretty easy day. Um driver off the
deck hole. I was thinking about it for a couple
of days. It might be the most famous driver off
the deck shot in the history of major championship golf.
I can't think of one that would beat that. Considering
you won. Are you a driver off the deck player?
Is that just? Was that? What a one time pull?
(25:49):
What happened there? No, no, no, I used that shot
a lot. It's actually really interesting. I think like my
first Semetira event back this year, I hit it two
or three times on a PR five because you have
a little bit of a run up. So whenever I
have a little bit of a gap and I can
run it up and it's not super soft and it's
like two, we're like two six sixty out and I
(26:11):
know my three was just not gonna get there, especially
because it comes in a little bit higher. I I
love hitting drive off the deck and to me, we
were right and that was two a little bit into
the wind off the right, but it was like a
nice lie and I knew that I'm in general I
hit those pretty well. But I said, even if I don't,
if I mishit this, it doesn't really matter because it's
(26:32):
going to be like a layup, So why aren't we, Like,
why don't we go for it? And max Immedia said absolutely,
like go for it. I'm I'm all for it, and
obviously turn out to be a really great shot. And
it's very interesting. I don't know if you experience this,
but like when I look through social media right now,
people are like talking about drivers off the deck all
(26:53):
the time, Tigers driver off the deck here, and this
guy's driver off the deck and this guy's driver off
the deck, and I'm like, what, Like, I feel it's
so weird to me because I feel like, maybe it's
just because I just hit that driver off the deck,
but I feel like I'm hearing it everywhere right now,
and but it's kind of people are paying attention more
to it, like on the men's side right now, which
is fine, but but it was just it was like
(27:14):
a very funny thing. I don't know if it's that
thing where you buy a car and then you see
it everywhere, maybe that's it, but it was really funny.
It's a shot. I think that has made a little
bit of a comeback. I mean I think that to
your point, especially now, and I mean this is on
both sides, men's and women's. Is the launch of the
three wood. You know. I did the match with Tiger
and Phil. I was on course reporter for that the
first year up in Vegas, and they had three woods
(27:36):
from like three hundred in on one hole. And I
remember standing there, and I mean I play golf with
with pro bolfers occasionally. I mean I've seen it, and
I just remember they both hit three woods and I
couldn't believe how high they launched it off the ground.
But with that being the case, if you need to
hit one low and run it up, it's a hard
shot to hit if you're not used to pulling that off.
And so the driver off the deck, I do feel
like it's making a comeback. Still, I think you, I
(27:58):
think you win this year, you win me. This is
this is arguably driver off the deck of the century,
not just the year. You know. That's one of those things.
Thank you, thank you. I'll take that. So I asked
Homer for a question for you, because he was very
excited um, and and Max is a guy that has
been very open about, you know, the great times about
being a professional golfer, but also the times that it
hasn't been so easy. And he said, he asked me
(28:18):
to ask you this, what was your motivation when you
were at the lowest you were at in professional golf
to suck it up and keep grinding. So I think, um,
it's actually very interesting because I mentioned him in one
of my interviews because people, I think it was like
with sky Sports, and they asked me pretty much exactly
that question, and I said, you know, I'm not the
first person to be in this position. Especially golfers go
(28:41):
through really intense highs and really intense lows. And I
think that, um, you know, you kind of get I
got to this point about three years ago where I
finally I got my line disease diagnosis, and it was
just very hard for me because I was like, I
need to I need first of all, I need to
physically get fit again and then mentally get to the
(29:03):
spot where I feel, you know, I want to get
back into a tournament and feel like I'm here for
all the right reasons and I can win this no problem.
That's how I was in college. When I was in college,
every tournament we played, I said, well, I'm here, I'm
the one to be beat, and which is like, this
(29:24):
is not you know, I'm not. I don't want to
sound cocky or anything, but that was my mindset and
my confidence level at that time, and that confidence just
completely went away because I think all the expectations that
I had after my amateur career were like, I don't
I don't even know I would say they were. I
crushed people's like kind of dreams, especially in Germany, of
(29:46):
becoming like the next German player to come out after
Caroline and and and um Sandra, And I think it
was I had this like mentally, it weighed so heavy
on me that I couldn't fulfill expectations, and I couldn't
fulfill my own expect ptations. Knowing where I can be
and not being able to perform perform worst worst thing
ever to go through. And at the same time, you're
(30:07):
you're on the golf course, things are kind of going
sideways and you don't know why you're trying to and
people are like, well, honestly, you've just lost twenty pounds,
Like maybe you should start getting into like you're a
physical spot where you can actually expect yourself to be there.
And I was like, no, I can do it. I can.
I know I can, and so frustrating for about three
(30:29):
or four years there, and then finally two thousand eighteen,
I started having a pretty decent year on LPGA again
and regaining confidence, but I knew my mental game was
still not where it had to be, and so just
grinding that out and and barely missing out on my
card in two eighteen nineteen, all three years like I
(30:49):
got it to conditional status to the years, and then
after last year, I missed my by just literally one shot.
I missed my status for this year. And I think
in like you know you and that when you're in
that position, you're like, this is the worst possible thing.
It's just such a blow to your I know, your
whole system. You're like why why again? Like why this
(31:13):
has been six years of this? Like I know I
can compete with these girls, but now I have to
start all over again. And this that was why I
seriously considered quitting last year, because I said, am I
going to get to that point? Um? I know I
my physically like ability, I can, but can I like
mentally get to that spot. And I think that was
(31:33):
the hardest thing for me to it's it has happened
on the and I know, Sally and you mentioned this
on the New line Up podcast about the age and
the age of being a professional and expecting things and
how in the LPGA Tour has been younger than the
PGA Tour, but the PGA Tour's going that way as well.
I mean, you're seeing guys come out of college early
(31:54):
and expect to win. The LPJ has been like that
for a long time, where you're seeing year olds come
out and dominate, and you get to thirty and all
of a sudden, you're this vat that you know, it's like,
oh my my, my great years are behind me, you know,
And so I'm sure there's pressure there, right, I mean,
you're a four time All American, you come out of USC,
you're this stud. Everybody's expecting great things. They don't happen,
(32:14):
and time's ticking, right, So the time ticks away and
you're and you're going how much longer? Can I do this? Absolutely?
And um yeah I did. I I talked to Solly
about that and it was kind of like as as females,
we also have that added pressure of you know, you
have your biological clock. You need to figure out when
are you going to start all that? And so how
(32:36):
much time am I going to give myself? And did
I miss my prime? Or am I now my prime?
And now looking back and obviously with this win, things
that become a little bit clear to me too are
like everyone, you know, everyone has their prime at a
different time, where everyone breaks through at a different time,
and it doesn't have to be you know, Martin is
(32:57):
the greatest example of that. I mean, she grinds it
out for years on cemetri Tour, same thing, she wins
the open and it's like and after that, you know,
her confidence levels high, and and it's just you never know,
you never know when it is. And my expectation was
for it to be way earlier. And then I'm now
I'm twenty seven, you know, turning this year, and I'm thinking, man,
(33:18):
two years until I'm thirty, and like talking to my boyfriend,
I'm like, what what's the deal here? Like what am
I doing? And I think it was really great that
he always took all the pressure off. He said, you're
you're not old by any means, like you know, where
now they always say, um thirties and new twenty and
all that stuff, and I said, well, okay, maybe, but
(33:40):
I don't know, I'm not sure. I'm like, tell me
again when I'm actually thirty, that's a new twenty, because
like I'm not sure. I feel like I'll make it
my Instagram post. I'm good to exactly exactly. And then
but it kind of like just really took a lot
of pressure off of, you know, my golf game. And
end of last year, I gave myself that ultimatum. I said,
you know, I'll give yourself until you're thirty, see where
(34:02):
it goes. And I think that actually took some pressure
off because I realized, okay, you have two ft actually
almost three years, although two of them were gonna be
smetra years, right, So I think it was like a
little bit and that and now obviously with everything expedited
a little um, I think that's been really nice for
me too, and just you know, it just takes a
lot of pressure off this whole clock thing. I mean,
(34:25):
and then that again, this goes back to professional golf,
and I mean, I I wonder Max the kind of
the second part of Max's question was, you know, do
you feel like you're better now as a professional golfer
considering what you went through? And you know, you you
look through you you go, why am I still doing this?
You have days on the range? Why am I still grinding?
You shoot seventy six in a tournament? You've been playing great,
(34:46):
and you're like, what the hell happened there? How can
I shoot that number? Even to your point about the hybrid,
how do I hit a hybrid in the desert? And
then you finally have this switch, and I would say
the switch was I mean people are going to focus
on the open. I mean the switch, at least from
what I've read and looked at, was the Cactus to
a wins. I mean you been able to run through
there and win three times in four events or whatever.
You know, that's the click where you go, I can
do this, I can win, and then you know, you
(35:06):
go win this enormous major championship and you have all
of that behind you that you went through to get here.
I mean it makes you stronger, right, you know now, now,
looking back and especially the mental state I was in
from Cactus Tour on to the win as a player,
I feel way more, you know, experienced, ready to go,
(35:32):
Like I wasn't this player three or four years ago.
I don't even know if I was this player in college,
like I I really don't think so I think this
when you go through all that stuff, it makes you
so much, I don't know, it just puts you like
makes a more full player, Like I don't know, I
don't know, just all the the facets of of a
(35:53):
great golfer, like I think they haven't hadn't for me
come together yet before this week. Like for me that
I think that mental game that I had that week
was just the thing that I had been missing for
a long time. And and you know where you're like,
you know, we talked about this earlier and we said,
like these you know the people that keep missing cuts
and they go, I'm so close. I'm so close, Because yes,
they have these rounds that are like seventy three, seventy
(36:15):
four that could have easily been sixty nine had they
made a couple of key puts, or had they been
a little bit more maybe a little bit better off
the tea box towards the end of their second round,
Like they're they're so small. Those are all just confidence
and mental um errors that happened right there. So you
know where everyone goes, oh my god, here we go again,
(36:37):
and now he or she's talking about how they miss
the cut by one. Those are really we We don't
just say that. It's actually that way where we're working
so hard and it's we're so close, But we just
were trying to find that little thing I found during
Cactus Tour this year where Okay, like this is what
I have to do and my attitude has to be
better and I need to play smarter. I I did
(37:00):
a lot of decade golf stuff, and those those two
things coming together and just accepting certain misses and all that.
I think that was what I was missing the whole time.
So you already mentioned the thing you said you you
might you know you had a time where you were
going to step away from golf. I looked online you
you did some TV work during the Solhem Cup. Um,
(37:21):
so what were you thinking you would do if golf
didn't work out? Were you going to think about going
down that road? And also I wanted you to give
us a grade on how you were on TV and
your Solhem Cup debut. So I'm definitely going to be
serious competition to you guys. Okay, I'm nervous already. I know,
I know. I can tell you you can speak your knives,
you smile. It's like, these are all the checkering marks, right,
(37:43):
I know, watch out, I'm coming check marks. But now,
you guys have a couple of years before I, you know,
hit the sports journalism side of things and obviously broadcast
UM that week. Actually, I ad so much fun. I
think you know, I wanted to be at the compound
(38:05):
at five thirty in the morning because I was so
ready to go. I was like, let's do this. Pumped up.
I couldn't even sleep at night because I was so
excited about what I was doing. And I I think
from all the feedback that I got, I would give
myself a pretty good grade. But I just think that
that's something I want to do so badly one day.
And I think that's what made it very hard for
(38:26):
me at the point that I was in last year
to not question whether I was going to continue playing
golf or not. Like I had to question that because
I knew I had a couple of internships lined up
and I have all I had a lot of opportunities
that I could have taken back then, and obviously now
looking back, I'm glad I didn't, and I'm sure everything
(38:47):
you know happens for a reason. But sometime down the road,
I'm very excited to pursue that and and get into
I don't even know you maybe golf, maybe maybe just
general sports, but like anything um in that area, I
just I'm pretty excited about that. So um, Okay, a
couple more for you. One is, you know, I feel
(39:09):
like we hear a lot in the golf world about
the differences in the corn Ferry and the PGA Tour,
you know, and even the European Tour and the in
the PGA Tour. Something I don't hear a lot about
is the differences in the symmetric tour in the LPGA.
And by this I mean not the golf, you know,
like away from the golf, the camaraderie, the friendships, how
they how the players travel and and deal with all
of the stuff to get to events. So can you
(39:30):
just enlighten us a little bit on the differences in
your experiences symmetric versus your experiences in the LPGA tour. Um. Yeah,
I think the biggest difference is the camaraderie thing on
Semetric tour. I have a group of friends and we're
very close. We in the previous years we always traveled
together and that's been a little bit tougher this year,
but still we we we were still very good friends
(39:51):
and um here and there, um we can ruin with
one person and um so it's been I think the
you know, I noticed that the most after my win
was all my friends from Sumetra called me and they
were in tears, and I was like, I am not
used to this. This on on the l p g A. Yes,
you get a lot of congratulations and then my closest
(40:12):
friends obviously they're they're really happy for me. But you know,
everyone kind of does their own thing, and everyone has
their little entourages. Maybe some do, some do, some don't,
but everyone has their own way of going about things.
And my way is I think a little bit different.
Like I'm pretty, Um, I like to be pretty, like
relax and fun and do other stuff like I love
(40:34):
when I go to a tournament week I look at
what hikes are around here? Can we serve? Can we do?
What can we do? And now I think, you know,
with winning this tournament, I think one of the most
exciting parts is that you know, and Van Dam's my
best friends. So I get to finally travel with her
full time. We're so excited about that and um and
and we can do all this stuff because she's the
(40:55):
same person or like she's also kind of made me
into that person too, So we visit your entire life. Yes,
we have like other things that we love to do,
and we want to keep a really good balance. And
I think on smetroc To you have a lot of
people like that. On an LPGA people be are very
singular focus. Yeah, singular focus. It's all golf, golf, golf, golf,
(41:17):
And at the at the end of every week, I'm like, okay,
like what kind of what else is going to talk about?
I'm done with the golf conversation. I want a paddle
board by myself, and I don't want to talk to
anyone like that's that's my mind. When you caddied for
Van Damn, I mean, to your boyfriend's point, you're a
professional golfer. How hard was it to you? I mean,
(41:38):
I know you play a lot of golf with her,
but like she bombs it, right, she beats it. She's
a long straver on LPG Tour, Right, So was it
hard for you to get the numbers? Did it? Were
you kind of onto them pretty earlier? You're like, she
in your mind, are you going she really hit an
eight iron from here? No, It's actually really funny because
I very quickly realized after we're after we were on
track man on the range, that she hits it exactly
(42:01):
the same distance as I do in meters, so everything,
like my it was so easy. My eight aarn goes
and hers goes, and I'm like, oh, this is easy.
And so it was so funny because at the end
of the tournament she said to me, she said, Sophia, like,
I've never had a caddy in my life who has
(42:23):
figured out my distances so quickly and has given me
the right clubs all the time, like you were never
you were never wrong. And because there was one key
shot where I was like, I think we were two
nine meters so that's about two roughly to thirty and
the wind was into off the right, and you know
that's the kind of distance where I'm just smashing three
(42:43):
with like and hoping it gets there. And she was like,
I don't know if it's like a five would or
three would, and I was like, you know what I
think five would is. I think five would all day
And she said, I just don't know if it's gonna
get there. I'm like, no, it's gonna get there. It's
I'm pretty sure. And then she goes, all right, I'm
gonna smash five would and she hits it to like
four ft, like the most incredible shot I think I've
(43:04):
ever seen, and she goes good club Caddy. I was like,
I was like, yeah, I really, you know, I really
appreciate that because I felt like I actually gave her
that club. And but you know, sometimes it was incredible
to see, like it would be pouring rain and it
would be a hundred sixty five meters which is like
one yards pouring rain, and she'd be like and we
(43:26):
would be be between like a seven and a six iron,
and I'm like, and we'd be like, seven is going
to get there, and then seven gets there, and it's
just for me, like, I'm pretty sure I'd be smashing
five iron at this point, you know, and so I'm
like just amazed that that's the club. So it was
very cool to see, but at the same time just
to strategize with her on the golf course because that
(43:46):
part doesn't change whether I'm hitting the ball or she's
hitting the ball. I think that helped me a lot
going into the next few weeks. I bet I gotta
touch on this, you know, before we go. Obviously, you know,
one of the big stories that came out of all
this was, you know, the amount of time you're getting
UM in terms of your exemptions, and on the LPGA
Tour typically be five years. UM you're not I guess
(44:06):
technically an LPG Tour members that was at the wording,
and you're not an LPGA Tour member, so you get
two years. But yeah, so I get the rest of
this year and next year. So I wouldn't even really
call it two years a year now unless I misunderstood something,
because I know Mike said two years, but I'm finished
this season and then for either either two years or
year whatever it is, and then you're not in the
(44:27):
in then in the majors in two thousand twenty. And
that's because they set them all the same same thing
they're doing with the Masters where they said it all
you know, pre COVID. You know it's it's a one
of my the COVID Bingo terms is fluid situation. You know,
people say for the situation a lot um. I mean,
the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour are very very different.
I mean in the number one thing is is simply
(44:50):
the money. I mean it's just PGA tour players. If
you're a top twenty or thirty player, you never had
to stress about money your entire life. It's not even
a thing on your mind. If you're a top twenty
or thirty LPGA player, there are a few who are
set and who have deals and who make a lot
of money. But I mean, you get to thirty five,
forty forty five the money list and life isn't private
jets and and BMW cars waiting for you at the airport.
(45:10):
So I'm a huge Mike jan fan. I had him
on this podcast just about a month and a half ago.
I did love what he did. I love the way
you approached it. I'm sure you respected it as well.
But there is he did leave some wiggle room in
terms of hopefully changing that. And if we call it
the pop off rule, that'd be awesome. I mean, just
something to change this and hopefully lean on it, because
(45:30):
again I think the point here, and something you obviously
know is you know, five years you talked about family
and having a kid and all these things. I mean,
these things play into it, and five years is a
long time to feel secure in your job. Absolutely, and
I think, you know, I obviously respect their decision completely.
You know, those are the LPGA rules and regulations and
(45:51):
you can't just change those. So to me, um it
was a definitely I wasn't going to fight them on that,
you know, it was I respect that, and I think
Mike said it really well in his press conference, and
that's the way things are. And he sent me a
really nice email congratulating me, and we have a good
relationship and that's something I would never want to jeopardize
because you know, I still have my year and a
(46:12):
half exemption. And I think the one thing that I
was disappointed about and why I felt like my situation
was different from let's say, someone like Shabuno last year,
was that I had played four seasons on LPGA and
this is my first season back again where I'm just
only on Semetra and Semetra as a developmental tour of
the LPGA, And I'm thinking you kind of want to
(46:36):
support your players like that, Um that you give them
that five year exemption because five years of you know,
your job is job security, exactly like exactly, like you said,
I think the way I think about it now is
I'm saying, you know, good golf takes care of itself.
So I'm just gonna have to go out and I'm
gonna have to play well. And that's just the way
it is. And that's that's fine because you can't change it.
(46:59):
Although he did leave some wiggle room and obviously I think,
you know, we might go into some negotiations at the
end of the year, but hopefully you know, you never know. Um,
but I would I mean, I would love for that
rule to change. And if it's not for me, then
for the girls that come after me. And I think
that's the biggest thing. Well, I mean, you're your point,
I mean, your your spot on there is you. This
(47:20):
is the dream scenario for the Symmetric Tour if you
really think about it, right, your story is a dream situation.
I mean the dream would be a Cement store player
wins an LPGA event, right, And that's the dream thing. Now,
you want a major championship. So if you're thinking about
how to develop players into the top tier professionals. This
is it. I mean, you went through the grinds of symmetrical,
you played me into our golf. You did everything, you
(47:42):
missed out on a card by one single f and shot,
and it's like, you know, let's if there, if we've
learned anything in two thousand twenties that we can change
stuff kind of quickly. And I'm praying fingers crossed everything
that this does change because you just hey, you deserve it,
and be it is too logical not so I will
speak for you if you don't mind them saying that
(48:04):
last thing. Who was the most random, can, most famous,
most most surprising? Congratulatory text? Call email you got and
if you have multiple, we will listen to multiple. Well
I think, um, I got some. I got some from
which is really nice, from people I haven't heard from
in a long time, like are my athletics director when
(48:25):
I was at USC, Pat Hayden, um, J K McKay
who's the assistant athletic director, and um, those were some
like really cool ones and from people I haven't heard
from a long time. But it was very cool through
this whole thing, and obviously UM also the exemption stuff
that happened after. Um, I got some congratulations at congratulatory
(48:45):
messages from like on my social media from like big
name guide players where I was like Ian Poulter just
like set me a message and congratulated me, and I
was like, this is the coolest thing. These are the
guys I look up to on the my Ends tour.
Like obviously I'm a big fan of European players too,
just because um I'm European. But uh, it's it was like,
(49:07):
you know, Tommy Fleetwood reaching out like stuff like that
to me, where I'm like, oh my god, these people
kind of know me now, which is it's a little
bit surreal, I think. But at the same time, um,
you know, I honestly the ones I was most excited about,
or just people that I worked with over the years
that reached out to me, um and we're like, you know,
(49:28):
all the stuff that we went through and all that,
and and it's just those made me probably the most emotional,
just because I think they can relate to what I
went through and and and where I am now. Yeah,
it's it's going back to you know, when when things
weren't great. I mean, these are the people you're leaning on,
you know, when the game wasn't exactly where you wanted
it to be, and then now you get to this point,
it's like you guys can all appreciate the moment. You
(49:50):
can all appreciate the trophy. I mean it's one trophy, right,
but it's like, you know so much something you can
share with so many people that have like walked through life.
So you're back in Arizona, you still that media stuff,
You've still got things going on. At what point do
you feel like life's going to be normal? Um, I
think it's gonna take a little bit, because I think
(50:12):
next week is gonna be probably the first week where
I can actually just fully focus back on I'm practicing
and getting ready for Portland. But even going to Portland,
I think it's going to be different teeing it up there.
I think we're gonna have a different tea time than
what I'm used to having. You know, I know exactly,
I'm not gonna have that seven am or the two pm,
(50:32):
the one that I really love. Um So I'm assuming,
but um it's it's gonna be just a little bit different.
I think from the media attention and stuff like that.
You know I have to be realistic about that, um,
but I'm hoping within the next few weeks things will
just kind of get back to normal and I can
kind of focus on everything I've been doing. And but
I hope that just as like when you say, like
(50:54):
things get back normal, to get back to normal for
you and your lifestyle, I mean, I hope that with
everything that I'm doing right now, I'm basically my personality
doesn't change and the kind of person that I am
just a little bit more. A couple more appointments here
and there, but I'm hoping that, like things set on,
I could just be me and not be rude to people,
(51:16):
just still be nice. Is this now the last thing?
Is this the first interview you've done where the person
that's interview and you brought you gifts? This is the
first one? Multiple multiple get. You don't have to use them,
You don't have to use any of this stuff, but
they're they have the right. There's nothing worse than someone
(51:38):
showing up with like teas that are you know, are
those really long? The plastic ones? Get the plastic one
out of my face? Out of my face, Sophie, I
appreciate it, Thanks so much. Congratulations, thank you, thank you.
We're gonna take a quick break and be right back.
(52:06):
A big thanks to Sophia for joining and giving us
all that time. It was excellent. One of my favorite
interviews I've ever done on this here podcast, and I've
done a lot for a lot of years, so that
was that was just, you know, everything you'd want to
hear from someone that is so appreciative of the opportunity
and what comes with it and the victory of course.
And uh, I asked her after weird things she's drank
(52:28):
out of the trophy and all I got was champagne
and she said she had a couple of beers. I
think it's some champagne out of it. So hopefully, you know,
maybe the weirder liquids poured into the open trophy will come.
Thanks so much for listening, subscribing. We'll be back soon
with another guest to hope you guys have a great week.
Hope you get a chance to get out and play
a little bit of golf, and hey, give yourself that
three footer. You deserve it. The Clubhouse with Shane Bacon
(53:01):
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