The Gainbridge-directed Annika has an impressive list of engagements that include Nelly KordaLexi Thompson and Charlie Hull. The field for the LPGA’s penultimate event added another big name on Tuesday when Kai Trump, the 18-year-old granddaughter of President Donald Trump, announced she will make her LPGA debut at Pelikani Golf Club in Gainbridge, thanks to the invitation of a sponsor.
“It has been a dream of mine to compete at the professional level and I would like to thank the Pelican Golf Club for the invitation,” said Trump, who has verbally committed to play college golf at the University of Miami. “I’m looking forward to doing it and competing with the best players in the world at one of the premier venues on the tour.”
Trump is ranked 979th The new girls of the Universal Golf Rankings list. Trump’s biggest tournament to date was the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, where she finished last in a field of 24 golfers, shooting 52-over with rounds of 89-79-83-89. However, in July, Trump finished third in a Srixon PGA Medal tournament in South Florida. Trump also has a large following on social media, which includes 1.3 million subscribers on to YouTube and 3.5 million further TikTok. According to On3 recruitment websiteTrump has a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) valuation of $1.2 million.
Kai Trump won’t be the only big-name, non-LPGA player to make it to the Pelican. WNBA star Caitlin Clark will show it off again in the pro-am on Wednesday. Clark, who was the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year, played in last year’s pro-am alongside Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam, who drew a massive crowd.
“It was fun to see how relaxed she was,” Korda said of playing with Clark. “Obviously, with the media attention she’s gotten in maybe the last year and a half, two years, you can see how she’s getting comfortable playing in front of a bigger crowd. And she was just enjoying it a lot. You could tell. Like she’s obviously very talented. She was picking the ball up really clean. She was missing some shots to the right, but I asked her how many times she’s been playing with her comp a week. golf once a week. So to only play once a week, she was playing really well.”
The 120-player field at Annika is the final LPGA event before the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla.
