Caitlin Clark has joked about changing into knowledgeable golfer, saying in September that’s how she’d spend her offseason till it bought chilly in Indiana, however though it was simply that – a joke – Clark continues to be higher than common on the course.
“I can get within the mid-80s, if I’m fortunate, however often I’m simply praying to interrupt 100,” Clark mentioned throughout The Annika Girls’s Management Summit Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Clark will participate in The Annika pro-am, taking part in the primary 9 with present world No. 1 Nelly Korda and again 9 with match namesake Annika Sorenstam – two gamers who can educate Clark lots about energy and finesse on the hyperlinks.
Whether or not Clark hits that “fortunate” mid-80s or fights to interrupt 100 stays to be seen, however we do know she’s been practising with a coach again in Indianapolis. The unhealthy information is, she’s flying blind.
The WNBA celebrity is scheduled to compete in Wednesday’s pro-am at The Annika.
“I haven’t even seen [the course],” Clark admitted when chatting with the media. “I’ll be on the market at 7 a.m. and hoping for the most effective. Discover out the place I’m alleged to intention, and I hope it goes there.”
Clark has been taking part in golf since she was a child, when she had a “pink little cute golf-club set rising up” that she bought for one among her birthdays. She’d all the time beg her dad to take her out to the course and beloved watching the game on TV, particularly Rory McIlroy – one among her favourite gamers.
These days, it may be laborious for Clark to seek out time to play, particularly when the WNBA season runs from Could to September – prime course time, particularly up north. Nonetheless, the “common golfer” with a 16-ish handicap makes time, whether or not or not it’s along with her Indiana Fever teammates or her household (she’ll play some programs in Arizona on their Thanksgiving journey in just a few weeks’ time).
This isn’t Clark’s first pro-am – she performed on the John Deere Traditional in 2023, the place her group completed 5 underneath.
Whereas The Annika match and its pro-am are happening at Pelican Golf Membership in Belleair, Florida, Clark has fairly just a few locations she’d wish to play sooner or later, with Pebble Seashore being the primary that got here to thoughts, however so far as the right here and now goes, Clark’s aim is straightforward:
“I simply don’t need to hit anybody with a golf ball. That’s my No. 1 precedence!”
It’s a humble admission from one of the crucial well-liked basketball gamers and athletes in America proper now. Even so, whether or not she playing cards an 80 or 120, individuals might be tuning in – a part of the explanation she is given a lot credit score for the ladies’s sports activities growth in recent times.
Separated by three a long time, neither Caitlin Clark nor Annika Sorenstam got down to be trailblazers. Their needs and skills simply led them down that path.
When requested about what recommendation she would give to girls’s golf about how one can step extra into the highlight, Clark didn’t have something particular – “They’re doing fairly nice.” – however she did speak in regards to the significance of getting eyes on girls’s sports activities, basically, and the way it’s a catalyst for progress.
“I feel one of many coolest issues is when individuals present up for the primary time, after which they proceed to come back again,” Clark mentioned. “As soon as they offer it a possibility, they see how nice the product is, you realize, no matter that’s. Whether or not they activate the TV, after which they’re going to show it on once more. Whether or not they purchase a ticket and so they’re following alongside, sitting within the seats at a sport. Individuals notice how great the product is and the way nice girls’s sports activities are. I feel that’s been, not my greatest piece of recommendation, however, give it an opportunity. Flip it on. Watch it. You see how great the product is.
“Clearly girls’s basketball has grown lots, nevertheless it’s each girls’s sport. You take a look at golf, you take a look at gymnastics, you take a look at volleyball – it’s throughout the board – and I feel that’s what’s actually cool. It’s solely rising, however there’s nonetheless a lot room to maintain going and going. As any person that’s beloved girls’s sports activities from a younger age, it actually will get me enthusiastic about the way forward for the place it could go.”
