The LPGA’s Kai Trump-Caitlin Clark buzz ends with big looming questions

Through the first five days, the LPGA week at the Annika achieved its short-term goal.

Buzz. Impressions. Chat.

The week started with a relatively packed press conference for 18-year-old Kai Trump, the granddaughter of President Donald Trump, who was in the field thanks to a sponsor invitation from the Doyle Family, owner of Pelican Golf Club. There are two ways to view the Trump invitation. She is the 461st ranked junior golfer in the world and has never won a USGA event. Given the stakes of the penultimate event on the program, Trump does not deserve a place in the field. She has LPGA aspirations and will play collegiately at the University of Miami, but it was clear that this week would be a huge step forward in competition for her – one that would almost certainly end in high scores and a missed selection. But the point of Trump’s invitation was about another number: her more than 8 million followers on social media. And if her brief stop at the Pelican generated the kind of attention that could help the LPGA break through to a different audience, isn’t it worth it?

Once Trump’s participation was announced, the Annika became the kind of conversational event that the LPGA must find a way to recreate on a regular basis without a celebrity in the field. That was the idea.

WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s return performance at Wednesday’s pro-am drew even more attention, both in person and on social media.

By date obtained by Beth Ann Nichols of GolfweekClark’s pro-am appearance generated 2,693 posts on X, leading to 241,704 engagements and 18,325,849 impressions. The tournament’s Instagram account saw a 591 percent increase in views year-on-year. At the scene, there was a crowd several rows deep trying to see the WNBA superstar next to Nelly Korda. The crowd wasn’t as large as it was for Clark’s 2024 pro-am appearance, but the draw of her star power was still evident as she smiled and laughed her way through nine holes while working on her improved game.

“I think it just shows how powerfully supportive women can really be,” Clark said during a walk-and-talk with Golf Channel during the pro-am. “I’ve always been a big supporter of that, of supporting women’s sports. And I’ve always been a big fan of golf, football, volleyball or whatever.”

But as the weekend at the Annika began with a packed leaderboard and Clark and Trump in the background, bigger questions loomed: What was the LPGA’s plan to keep the new eyeballs they acquired from Clark and Trump? The impressions and social media views are nice. But new commissioner Craig Kessler and the LPGA need to have a strategy to take advantage of them by having them return to watch Korda and the tour’s other stars, not skydiving for a few days every year at the Annika or wherever they create a celebrity boost. Clark and Trump have thrust the LPGA more into the spotlight, but neither is the antidote to the breakthrough long-term growth the tour is seeking. What Kessler and the LPGA need to do is develop a long-term strategy to increase the sport’s popularity and visibility, from improved television windows to getting the biggest stars to play a bigger role in promoting and advancing the tour.

From a micro perspective, Trump’s invitation was a worthwhile opportunity. But would the eyeballs she delivered stick around after the two days in which she shot 158? No, and especially not without a concrete plan to convince the non-LPGA crowd to stick around. Perfecting such a plan takes time, trial and error.

That’s the long game for Kessler and the LPGA. It’s why they signed a partnership agreement with Golf Saudi and why they are reportedly moving the venue of the Chevron Championship to a more accessible course.

The week at the Annika, which is still going strong with a star-studded ranking, didn’t end with Trump leaving Friday after an LPGA reality check. But the buzz, eyeballs and chatter from Clark and Trump quickly dissipated, leaving only the bigger questions for the LPGA to solve — questions that Clark and Trump can’t answer.

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