Caitlin Clark has joked about changing into an expert golfer, saying in September that’s how she’d spend her offseason till it received chilly in Indiana, however regardless that it was simply that – a joke – Clark remains to be higher than common on the course.
“I can get within the mid-80s, if I’m fortunate, however normally 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 event namesake Annika Sorenstam – two gamers who can train Clark rather a lot 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 dangerous information is, she’s flying blind.
“I haven’t even seen [the course],” Clark admitted when talking to the media. “I’ll be on the market at 7 a.m. and hoping for the perfect. Discover out the place I’m purported to purpose, 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 received for certainly one of her birthdays. She’d at all times beg her dad to take her out to the course and liked watching the game on TV, particularly Rory McIlroy – certainly one of her favourite gamers.
These days, it may be onerous 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 it’s together with her Indiana Fever teammates or her household (she’ll play some programs in Arizona on their Thanksgiving journey in a number of weeks’ time).
This isn’t Clark’s first pro-am – she performed on the John Deere Traditional in 2023, the place her crew completed 5 below.
Whereas The Annika event and its pro-am are going down at Pelican Golf Membership in Belleair, Florida, Clark has fairly a number of locations she’d wish to play sooner or later, with Pebble Seaside 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 widespread basketball gamers and athletes in America proper now. Even so, whether or not she playing cards an 80 or 120, folks might be tuning in – a part of the explanation she is given a lot credit score for the ladies’s sports activities increase lately.
When requested about what recommendation she would give to ladies’s golf about learn how to step extra into the highlight, Clark didn’t have something particular – “They’re doing fairly nice.” – however she did speak concerning the significance of getting eyes on ladies’s sports activities, normally, and the way it’s a catalyst for development.
“I believe one of many coolest issues is when folks 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, , 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. Folks understand how super the product is and the way nice ladies’s sports activities are. I believe that’s been, not my greatest piece of recommendation, however, give it an opportunity. Flip it on. Watch it. You see how super the product is.
“Clearly ladies’s basketball has grown rather a lot, however it’s each ladies’s sport. You have a look at golf, you have a look at gymnastics, you have a look at volleyball – it’s throughout the board – and I believe 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 liked ladies’s sports activities from a younger age, it actually will get me enthusiastic about the way forward for the place it could possibly go.”
