Basketball's Caitlin Clark leaves an impact in her brief LPGA visit
By Jeff Babineau
BELLEAIR, Fla. – It was dark, net yet 6:40 a.m., when basketball standout and Gainbridge ambassador Caitlin Clark arrived to the practice tee at Pelican Golf to hit a few golf balls before her first LPGA pro-am at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. She was under bright lights. Though only 22, Clark is accustomed to that.
A few minutes later, fans had formed a horseshoe around the first tee. They were stacked several deep, hoping to see if Clark could display just a splash of the magic she exhibited as WNBA’s 2024 rookie of the year for the Indiana Fever. Young and old, male and female fans who had lined up to board parking lot buses to make Clark’s 7 a.m. starting time. They sported red and gold Fever, and Iowa, basketball jerseys. Young girls skipping school held up handmade signs hoping to get Clark’s attention. “Go Hawks” and “Thank you Caitlin!” a few of them read. This wasn’t a basketball star they had gathered to see as much as a 22-yer-old rocket ship whose presence and personal brand are lifting all women’s sports.
It was not one’s normal sleepy Wednesday on the LPGA. It was special. Memorable. Impactful. A simple pro-am, yes, but a day and an atmosphere to remember for months and years to come.
Clark got an up-close view of two of the best LPGA competitors ever to play the game, Nelly Korda (current World No. 1) and Annika Sorenstam, tournament host and a former No. 1. Clark loves golf, but it’s not her first love. Basketball is. Golf is a hobby she might play once a week with friends, usually for little more than bragging rights. But Clark was all-in on Wednesday, showing frustration after poor shots and nodding with a tangible inner-confidence on the shots she did pull off.
Playing in a Shamble format (teams of one pro and three paying amateurs choose the team’s best drive each hole and play in as individuals from there), Clark sprayed a few shots, settled into a good rhythm for a while, and had a few nice highlights. There was deft up-and-down for par at the fifth hole, and a birdie putt Clark inside 10 feet she converted after a Sorenstam tee shot at the par-3 17th.
Mostly, Clark had fun. That was always the idea when Clark was invited months ago by to play in the pro-am by Gainbridge, the Indy-based company that also sponsors Clark. Golf is something she has loved since she wasn’t much older, or taller, than those little girls holding up signs on the course on Wednesday. Everyone who was part of the day at Pelican seemed to enjoy their time, basically.
“It was phenomenal. The energy out here was terrific,” said LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who was at Pelican to watch. “Our athletes were amazing. She (Clark) was amazing. I think it just shows how interested people are in women’s sports.”
Jason Rickard, who plays out of Bay Hill in Orlando, joined his longtime Indiana pal, Gainbridge CEO and President Dan Towriss, in playing alongside Clark, Korda and Sorenstam on Wednesday. For J-Rick, as his friends call him, a man who played college golf at Iowa, this was a golfer’s dream day fantasy camp, all rolled into 18 holes.
“Pretty good day,” he said. It was a common refrain.
On the back of Rickard’s white shirt were four numbers, circled, which represented his four favorite Iowa Hawkeye athletes of all time: Top to bottom, listed were No. 24 (Nile Kinnick, football player, for whom Iowa’s football stadium is named); 16 (football quarterback Chuck Long); 23 (Roy Marble, Iowa’s all-time leading scorer in men’s basketball; and 22 (belonging to Clark, who set the NCAA Women’s Div. 1 all-time scoring mark), leading Iowa to NCAA Championship finals in 2023 and 2024.
Clark said she relished being able to take a rare inside peek into the worlds of athletes such as Korda and Sorenstam, and what they experience when they are inside the ropes.
“People would pay for that,” Clark said. “I got to do it for free, and have fun with them. Definitely a fun morning.”
After spending time with Clark on and off the course for two days, first in a Women’s Leadership Summit and then a pro-am setting, Sorenstam, the tournament host and LPGA Hall of Famer, walked away impressed.
“She's super mature for 22,” Sorenstam, who is 54, said. of Clark. “Yeah, she's an older woman in a younger body if you know what I mean. In a good way. She handles herself really well and good with people, says the right things. ... She's a great representative of basketball and also women’s sports, in general.”
