![\"2184547669\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2020\/05\/cc_annika.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.644.suffix\/1731521655885.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nCaitlin Clark\u2019s introduction to the LPGA Tour was a giant success, and she\u2019ll return to The Annika again next month.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another big get for the LPGA Tour.<\/p>\n
Clark, who plays for the Indiana Fever in the WNBA and is a celebrity wherever she goes, loves golf. She played in The Annika pro-am at Pelican Golf Club outside of Tampa last year and had thousands of fans lining the fairways in Fever and University of Iowa jerseys. She has an endorsement deal with Gainbridge, which is the presenting sponsor of the Annika event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an amazing time at The Annika last November and participating in the pro-am alongside Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam, two of the best in the game,\u201d Clark said in a release on Thursday. \u201cI\u2019m honored to be an ambassador for a company in Gainbridge that is so committed to elevating women\u2019s sports. I can\u2019t wait to return to Tampa in November to play in the Pro-Am with the best women golfers in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the best golfers in the world were also enamored of Clark. Maria Fassi finished her round last year and ran to the 18th hole to get a chance to meet Clark. Clark\u2019s swings went viral on social media, especially after she hit one tee shot into the gallery, proving she\u2019s just like us sometimes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Caitlin Clark hits her shot on the third tee of the 2024 Annika.<\/p>\n
Douglas P. DeFelice<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to welcome Caitlin back to The Annika,\u201d LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler told Golf Digest. \u201cShe\u2019s a true superstar who brings incredible energy wherever she goes. The atmosphere at Pelican is going to be off the charts, and we\u2019re excited for the LPGA fans to experience it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Clark is ultra-competitive, and golf is a sport she loves to play in the offseason. She is coming off a disappointing second season in the WNBA in which she played in only 13 games (the last in mid-July) because of lower body injuries. Her fever team managed to reach the WNBA playoff semifinals before losing to eventual champion Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Clark will get those competitive juices going again at Pelican, and it will be interesting to see how her game has improved from last year. In the pro-am, she played nine holes with Sorenstam and nine with then-World No. 1 Korda. It\u2019s unknown who she\u2019ll be scheduled to play with this year on Nov. 12.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s clear is that she has fun teeing it up and fans love watching the rare opportunity to see her do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so fun,\u201d Clark said of her round last year. \u201cObviously, getting to see [LPGA players] do what they do up front, people would pay for that. I got to do it for free and have fun with them. Definitely a fun morning \u2026 very lucky and fortunate. Hung in there. Did all right. It was a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s a good thing for the game that Clark enjoys it and has the power to introduce golf to basketball fans, children and folks who are simply curious. So many athletes, such as Stephen Curry, Tony Romo and Aaron Rodgers are enamored with the game.<\/p>\n
Everything Clark does seems to turn to gold, from swinging a club to watching a Kansas City Chiefs game in a suite with Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n
When Clark became a star while playing basketball at Iowa, she was known to be an intense player who spent countless hours in the gym. Golf was one thing that could get her to focus on something else for a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur coaches were, like, \u2018You need to get away from the gym,\u201d even though that\u2019s really hard for me to do sometimes,\u201d Clark said last year. \u201cI still want to be active and do something, so I\u2019m going to go to the golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golf is a game for life, and Clark returning to the LPGA next month should bring plenty of buzz back again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an honor to play in the pro-am with Caitlin last year,\u201d Sorenstam said in the release. \u201cThe crowds were amazing, and we are excited. \u2026 She added such a great dynamic to our event, and her passion for golf and competitiveness were fun to witness firsthand. I look forward to having her back and continuing to introduce the great game of golf to the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark\u2019s introduction to the LPGA Tour was a giant success, and she\u2019ll return to The Annika again…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-217923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}