BELLEAIR, Fla. — Caitlin Clark brought her golf game and a lot of excitement to the LPGA Tour on Wednesday when the basketball star played a game that drew a bigger crowd than the tour usually gets for its tournament rounds.
Clark played nine holes against Nelly Korda, the No. 1 player in women’s golf who is competing for the first time in nearly two months after a minor neck injury. Played 9-a-side at Pelican Golf Club with Annika Sorenstam, tournament manager named Annika.
In a brief interview with Golf Channel, the WNBA rookie of the year was asked if she got any tips from Korda.
“I watched it and it’s amazing,” Clark said. “But golf is hard.”
The gallery was packed behind the bars to watch Clark, and he signed autographs for hundreds of fans when the pro-am was over.
Clark has an endorsement deal with Indiana-based Gainbridge, which is the sponsor that introduces the LPGA Penalty Championship to the program. She also participated in a women’s leadership conference organized by Gainbridge.
“It would help grow women’s golf,” Brittany Lincicome said Tuesday, bringing Clark a basketball to sign for her daughters.
Korda comes from a high sports family. Her older sister, Jessica, played in the Solheim Cup and her younger brother Sebastian is number 23 in the men’s tennis rankings. Their father, Petr Korda, won the 1998 Australian Open in tennis.
She said she messaged Clark on Instagram, but nothing beats spending time inside the wires.
“To see the impact he has on people, to bring people here, and to see how strong he is in the sport, it was great to see in person today,” Korda said.
Clark said he likes to go golf — he played in the John Deere Classic pro-am last summer on the PGA Tour — and has contributed one putt to three-point range.
“It was good to see how relaxed he was,” said Korda. “Obviously with the media attention he’s gotten over the last year and a half, two years, you can see how comfortable he is playing in front of a big crowd. And he’s really enjoying it. You can tell.
“He’s definitely talented. He was picking the ball really clean. He was missing a few shots to the right, but I asked him how many times a week he plays and I think with the amount of commitments he has, he probably hits the golf course once a week.”
Korda last played in the Kroger Queen City Championship on Sept. 22, a week after leading the Americans to victory in the Solheim Cup. He talked about having migraines and thinks his neck injury that kept him out of the Asian swing may have had something to do with it.
Korda has already won LPGA player of the year for the first time. He leads the Race to the CME Globe but still needs to win next week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, which will award the winner $4 million.
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