Caitlin Clark ready to tee it up at LPGA Pro-Am
WNBA sensation Caitlin Clark is playing in The ANNIKA Pro-Am on Wednesday. She'll tee off at 7 a.m. and Golf Channel is enhancing its coverage to meet demand. Ticket sales are up 1200%.
BELLEAIR, Fla. — Caitlin Clark frequently cracks jokes, demonstrates her witty banter, and she’s fluent in sarcasm. But even she was surprised how much her comment about becoming a golf professional in the offseason took off.
She was joking, people.
“Now everyone thinks I'm such a good golfer,” she said on Tuesday. “I set myself up for failure with that.”
However, there was some truth to it.
Clark, at just 22 years old, is super competitive and has been wildly successful on the basketball court. She grew up playing every sport imaginable — and with the boys, too, because she has two brothers. Including golf.
Early Wednesday morning, Clark will tee it up at Pelican Golf Club in Florida, just west of Tampa, as she plays in the Pro-Am for The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge.
She plans to hit the range around 6 a.m., pose for a ceremonial photo at 6:45, and then tee off at 7 a.m. Because of the interest, the Golf Channel is coming on live from the tournament at 11 a.m., 90 minutes earlier, and they plan to have Kira Dixon do a walk-and-talk with Clark.
Gainbridge, of course, is one of her sponsors. The company not only has its name on The Fieldhouse and is the presenting sponsor of the Indianapolis 500, but it’s also headquartered in Zionsville, Ind.
Clark signed her deal with Gainbridge before entering the draft, where she was ultimately selected No. 1 overall by the Fever.
“I've known about this for a while,” she told me, “and I've been pretty excited about it. Honestly, it's been in conversation before I decided if I was going to go back to college for a year. I didn't know if I would be able to make this event this year. I'm fortunate that I am.”
So when Clark joked after her final basketball game in late September that she looked forward to playing some golf, this is what she was hinting at. Part fun, part entertainment, and part business.
And make no mistake, she’s a businesswoman. After her plane arrived about an hour later than expected in Clearwater, she hurried to have hair and makeup completed before joining a panel with legend Annika Sorenstam at the Women’s Leadership Summit. Clark was a big hit and then Kathy Ireland joined for the second part.
“I forgot how sticky it is here,” Clark said of her arrival to Florida. “That was one thing. I got off the plane I was and I was, ohhh!”
Clark has been playing lots of golf in the two months following her spectacular rookie season with the Fever ended with a first-round exit to the Connecticut Sun, who were coached by Stephanie White — now the Fever head coach.
Clark has played at several courses in central Indiana, including a very public round at The Fort. She’s also taken lessons from Martha Foyer-Faulconer, a former tour player who is now a pro at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind. She politely declined an interview with Fieldhouse Files about their preparation, citing Clark’s privacy.
“I've practiced a little bit and I just had the quote about becoming a professional golfer,” Clark repeated. “Everybody thought I was serious. I was not serious. I love it. I love being outside and making it competitive with my friends. That’s what's been fun about it. It's challenging and getting to come here and be around the best and have a good time is what I'm looking forward to.”
Clark has several different sets of irons. You can imagine all the companies continue to send her clubs to try as she talks more and more about her love for the game. Golfing was one of the things she looked forward to most over the Olympic break when basketball was on the back-burner.
She’s strong and can hit it far, she said, “but it just doesn't usually go straight. Depends. You just step up there and hope for the best. It's so much different than basketball. That's why I love it. It's individual. It's a challenge. Especially mentally.”
Perhaps the world’s No. 1 golfer, Nelly Korda, will enjoy not having the spotlight on her Wednesday as she gets this practice round in before the start of the second-to-last LPGA event of the season. This tournament features the top eight women’s golfers in the world.
Korda is playing with Clark to begin, then Sorenstam will replace her at the turn. “Yeah,” Clark jumped in, “no pressure.”