The LPGA made a glaring error that put a golfer in three tournaments she shouldn’t have been in, thereby leaving three qualified golfers out, according to a report.
The clerical error caused a series of problems, and it’s unclear how those left out of the tournaments will be compensated. Golfweek reported the story last Friday that a memo, written by chief tour business and operations officer Ricki Lasky, was sent to players about the gaffe. The outlet also reported the player mistakenly given priority for the events was past Women’s British Open champion Sophia Popov. According to the report, she was erroneously placed in the wrong position on the Priority List to start the season.
“We apologise to those that have been directly affected and sincerely regret the error,” Lasky wrote.
In a statement to Golf Digest on Saturday, an LPGA spokesperson said, “While we cannot comment on details relating to individual players, we can confirm that we sent a letter to our membership regarding an administrative error that was made with our Priority List. We are addressing this issue with all players directly affected.”
The Golfweek report stated that the LPGA is working to remedy the situation because the first alternate for each of those events was mistakenly left out of those tournaments. The players incorrectly left out were Saki Baba, Australia’s Hira Naveed and Peiyun Chien, according to the report, but the LPGA didn’t confirm that.
The LPGA said, according to the report, that the error was made due to an incorrect calculation of return to play combining a medical and maternity leave.
Popov had an injury in 2022 and took medical leave, then had a baby in 2023. She returned to the tour in 2024 for her first season back from maternity leave. This year, Popov played in the Founders Cup, finishing in a tie for 59th and earned $US5,170. She finished 68th at the Honda LPGA Thailand and earned $US3,811 and in the HSBC Women’s World Championship, tying for 52nd, earning $US7,932. Neither of the final two events had a cut. The LPGA memo said that Popov’s CME points, earnings and Aon Risk Reward points will be removed from official standings.
The error was finally uncovered during a review of another player’s maternity leave status, according to Golfweek.
