{"id":244540,"date":"2025-11-05T03:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/244540\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T03:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T03:02:13","slug":"husband-of-lpga-legend-defends-kai-trump-decision-i-think-its-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/244540\/","title":{"rendered":"Husband of LPGA legend defends Kai Trump decision: “I think it’s crazy”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annika Sorenstam’s husband Mike has defended the decision<\/a> to offer Donald Trump’s granddaughter a sponsor exemption into an LPGA Tour event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week Kai, 18, announced she will be making her LPGA<\/a> debut at The Annika later this month.<\/p>\n

The $3.25m (\u00a32.45m) tournament is hosted annually by 10-time major champion Sorenstam and will be played over 13-16 November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kai, who has committed to the University of Miami in 2026, said it was her “dream to compete with the best players on the LPGA Tour”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She will play in the same field as England’s Charley Hull<\/a>, former World No.1 Nelly Korda<\/a>, Lexi Thompson and Lilia Vu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Kai’s inclusion in the event has drawn some criticism, with some believing that it is simply a publicity stunt and that the place should be offered to someone more deserving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She is currently 461st in the American Junior Golf Association ranking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sorenstam’s husband Mike McGee doesn’t understand the backlash and explained his point of view on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For anybody that says [she] doesn’t deserve to be there, I think it’s crazy,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The idea is to highlight women’s golf, and she’s going to do it to a diverse crowd of millions more people that would tune in [who] otherwise wouldn’t tune in.”<\/p>\n

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He also stressed that the decision was not made by his wife. That decision is down to the tournament sponsor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The LPGA Tour have also backed the decision.<\/p>\n

Rick Lasky, the LPGA’s chief tour business and operations officer, also told the station: “Sponsor invitations are an important way to spotlight emerging talent and bring new attention to our tournaments and the LPGA.<\/p>\n

“Kai’s broad following and reach are helping introduce golf to new audiences, especially among younger fans.”<\/p>\n

Kai is the eldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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She currently has more than six million followers across her social media platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week she uploaded a behind-the-scenes vlog showing her trip to the 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her mother, Vanessa Trump, is currently dating 15-time major champion Tiger Woods<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Woods and Vanessa went public with their relationship in March.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Annika Sorenstam’s husband Mike has defended the decision to offer Donald Trump’s granddaughter a sponsor exemption into an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-244540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}