The sun had yet to awaken in this homespun coastal port along Florida’s mid-Gulf Coast, and fans at the LPGA’s Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican were waiting for Caitlin Clark to show up for work.
Usually, Wednesdays of tournament week represent a quiet and slow day, but already there was a palpable buzz building at Pelican. It was different. Special. Clark made her way from her overnight accommodations next to the clubhouse to the practice tee, where her bag and a caddie awaited. LPGA pros with morning times were lined up hitting balls beneath bright lights that illuminated the area.
It was a fitting setting for Clark’s pro-am debut on the LPGA circuit. Beneath the brightest spotlight is precisely where the 22-year-old Clark, a basketball savant, seems to be at her best.
Golf never was the first sport of choice for the WNBA’s freshly minted rookie of the year. That became clear in her youth, when basketball edged ahead as her No. 1 passion. Clark played a bunch of sports, everything she could. Her soccer teammates would wonder why she would leave the field and head directly to the basketball court to shoot, and practice. And then shoot and practice hoops some more.
Obviously, the extra work she put in during her early days in West Des Moines, Iowa, would pay off. By the time Clark left the University of Iowa, the home-state product would lead the Hawkeyes to not one, but two Final Fours, where twice (2023 and ’24) the team lost in the championship game. She departed campus in the spring having set the all-time NCAA Division I record (men or women) for points, finishing with 3,951. Clark was the first pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. That’s when Indiana came calling.
She and the tournament at Pelican share a sponsor that is forceful behind its mission to grow women’s sports: Gainbridge, an insurance and financial services company based in Zionsville, Indiana. A few months back, that’s when golf came calling.
Given her legend, the only surprising thing about Clark’s arrival at The Annika is that she did not step forth out of a hazy, misty cornfield to get to the first tee. That’s why the fans who gathered, those who lined up five deep to see her strike her opening tee shot, the ones wearing red Indiana Fever and gold Iowa Hawkeyes jerseys adorned with Clark’s famed No. 22, would gather in the dark to watch a 16-handicapper who can shoot in the mid-80s but “prays to break 100” play a little golf.
As moments go, it was as mystical as it was magical.
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