My first reaction to Kai Trump receiving a sponsor into this week’s LPGA event: terrible idea. Her game isn’t ready for this kind of spotlight; there’s too much on the line at the season’s penultimate event to have a circus break out.
But, after much reflection, I’ve changed my mind.
Between the presence of Caitlin Clark in the pro-am and President Donald Trump’s granddaughter in the 108-player field, this might become one of the most talked-about LPGA events in the tour’s 75-year history. For those who understand how painstakingly tough it is for women’s golf to break through the golf world, let alone the sports world and beyond, these opportunities don’t come often.
For example: American Nelly Korda, a statuesque player with an elite sports pedigree who boasts one of the best swings in the game, won seven times on the LPGA last season and nothing changed.
The tour desperately needs more outside-the-box thinking, even if controversial.
The purpose of a sponsor invite is to make the sponsor happy. Whether that means inviting local talent, a burgeoning star or a former NFL quarterback (i.e., Tony Romo on the PGA Tour). Most sponsors use their invitations to gain more exposure, thereby growing the tour and their bottom line.
Kai Trump might be the first LPGA sponsor invite based purely on celebrity. While she’s a competitive player with professional aspirations, Trump wasn’t invited because of her tournament record or potential.
And before any arrows are directed at LPGA HQ, this wasn’t their idea.
The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican gets three invitations, and each major stakeholder gets to pick one. Host Annika Sorenstam’s went to Wake Forest senior Anne-Sterre den Dunnen. The Demon Deacons won the 2025 Annika Intercollegiate, and den Dunnen earned the exemption, which is given to a member of the winning team. Gainbridge invited Northwestern All-American Lauryn Nguyen. And the club, owned by the Doyle family, invited the third amateur, Trump, an 18-year-old high school senior who last week signed with the University of Miami.
The Tampa Bay area event, the penultimate tournament on the LPGA’s 2025 calendar, launched in 2020 as the Pelican Women’s Championship and, since the beginning, organizers have overdelivered. Dan Doyle Jr., CEO of DEX Imaging, met with the LPGA about hosting a tournament at Pelican before the club even opened its doors.
Doyle learned to play the game on the original Donald Ross design, which opened in 1925 and was previously known as Belleview Biltmore Golf Club. The Doyle family purchased the club in 2017 and hired the Beau Welling Design group to oversee renovations. The inaugural Pelican Women’s Championship was staged in November 2020, three months after the club hosted a roundtable and fundraiser for President Trump.
People won’t like the decision to invite Kai Trump based on several factors, politics being chief among them. Some won’t like it because her golf resume pales in comparison to most sponsor invites.
Her Rolex AJGA Ranking is 461st. She played in three AJGA events this season with an 83.6 average. At the premier Junior Invitational at Sage Valley last spring, she carded rounds of 89-79-83-89. Trump has yet to play in a USGA event and is not among the more than 3,000 listed in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
There’s no way around it: The LPGA stage is a gargantuan leap for Trump.
Pelican Director of Golf and COO Justin Sheehan and his wife Nathalie, the club’s director of women’s golf, played with Kai shortly before the tournament announced her invitation. Justin said he was impressed with her ball-striking and noted that she drove it exceptionally well. The green complexes at Pelican are difficult for everyone, making it a second-shot type layout. One of the most well-conditioned courses on tour, the greens are typically among the fastest players see all year. The 36-hole cut last year was over par.
High scores among sponsor invites are not unusual, even for well-established players competing on a big stage for the first time. Six years ago, at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, sponsor invite Presley Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Nation, shot 96-103, 47 strokes behind her closest competitor. The Oneida Nation sponsored the event for three years and owned the host course. Representation was important to the tournament sponsor.
If the goal of The Annika is to draw more eyeballs to the women’s game, Kai Trump’s more than 8 million social media followers and YouTube subscribers put her in a category above most female sports stars. The social reach of the LPGA’s best players pales in comparison. Only Muni He, the Chinese golfer/influencer who dates Formula 1 driver Alex Albon, comes close.
The Trump name is the most recognizable brand in the world. President Trump’s eldest granddaughter burst into the national spotlight last July at the Republican National Convention, where she dazzled on stage and drew plenty of laughs, calling President Trump a “normal grandpa” who gives the grandkids candy and soda when their parents aren’t looking.
For many insiders, the biggest concern of having Kai Trump at The Annika is what’s at stake for everyone else in the field.
Those at the top are vying for year-end awards. Those in the middle are trying to qualify for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship and a chance at a $4 million winner’s prize. Those at the bottom are fighting to keep their jobs for next year.
But if the LPGA wanted to keep The Annika pure to protect all that’s at stake, then make it part of a playoff series and do away with sponsor invites. Fill the field solely off the CME points list.
But, as that’s not the case, sponsor invites are in play, and those who get paired with Trump will have to make the most of it.
When Yani Tseng brought the first LPGA event to Taiwan 14 years ago, 10,000 people followed her for 18 holes. Most of the fans had never been to a golf tournament, and LPGA players who were grouped with Tseng spent much of the round trying to get people to stand still and be quiet.
Was it fair to those players? They certainly faced a tougher road than anyone else in the field, but it was Tseng’s popularity that gave them another chance to compete.
Those who write checks and promote women’s golf are making business decisions. Bringing in Mardy Fish to play in the 2022 3M Open on the PGA Tour was a business decision. (Fish, the first ATP player to compete on the PGA Tour, shot 81-74 to miss the cut.) The NFL’s Romo made four starts on the PGA Tour in 2018 and 2019.
If Serena Williams became a golf junkie, got down to scratch and told a reporter that she’d love to play in an LPGA event, tournaments would be racing to the phone to get her in the field.
How many of those with a strong opinion about the Trump invitation even knew about The Annika prior to two weeks ago?
When Sorenstam accepted a highly controversial invitation to play on the PGA Tour in 2003, Judy Rankin was among those who thought it was a mistake. That is, until Sorenstam teed it up. Rankin suddenly found herself invested in every shot at Colonial, enthralled by the whole scene.
Sorenstam, for the record, is fully supportive of this invitation.
It took a lot of guts for Kai Trump to say yes to this opportunity, but she has also grown up on a stage that dwarfs anything LPGA players have experienced.
What is the line for bringing in a celebrity player to compete in an LPGA field?
For a tour that has lost ground even in the women’s sports space, it’s a debate worth having and a line worth moving.
