The LPGA Tour is back this week with The ANNIKA tournament at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, where three-time champion Nelly Korda will defend her title against the LPGA Tour’s best golfers.
However, the tournament wouldn’t be complete without Wednesday’s pro-am event, and one of the most popular athletes in the world was in attendance again, drawing a massive crowd and media presence.
Despite their prominence in the golf scene, it wasn’t the top two players in the world who drew such a crowd, Nelly Korda and Jeeno Thitikul. It was Caitlin Clark, who is once again providing a platform for women’s sports.
Clark attended the same event last season, and Golf Channel adapted its entire programming schedule to showcase her match with Nelly Korda and Annika Sörenstam. The Caitlin Clark effect was real, as it was the most-watched non-competitive round in LPGA Tour history.
This year, the network provided live coverage of the event again, and even performed live interviews during the round which featured her Indiana Fever teammates Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull, who joined her inside the ropes as guest caddies.
It’s safe to say that viewership was strong for this year’s event as well, drawing attention to her playing partners, Nelly Korda and Lauryn Nguyen. Korda is one of the most dominant golfers on the LPGA Tour with 19 professional wins and a No. 2 spot on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Nguyen is an All-American golfer from Northwestern who has recently turned pro and received a sponsor’s exemption for this year’s tournament.
Even if fans just tuned in to watch Caitlin Clark play, the LPGA hopes that, as a result, fans also appreciated the incredible talent of the players on the LPGA tour and became more interested in the game.
The Caitlin Clark effect
Clark is no stranger to growing women’s sports and platforming female athletes. In 2024, she was responsible for a massive uptick in the popularity of women’s professional basketball. Twenty-three WNBA games reached more than 1 million viewers that season. Before Clark entered the league, the WNBA hadn’t averaged more than 1 million viewers in any game since 2008.
As a result, talented players like Angel Reese and teammate Sophie Cunningham gained platforms that have made the WNBA grow even more popular.
But that’s not to say the LPGA Tour hasn’t also seen a growth in popularity in recent years. July of 2023, for example, was the most-watched month ever on the LPGA Tour. Additionally, major team events like the 2024 Solheim Cup drew 657,000 viewers, more than doubling their viewership from the previous year.
With that said, the tour is still looking to grow even further, and it’s hard to say if Clark will have the same effect on women’s golf as she did on the WNBA, but Annika Sörenstam thinks having her out there at the ANNIKA is a good start.
“Clark added so much excitement to the tournament. We had a lot of people come out; they were standing on the first tee at 7 a.m., waiting for her to see that first shot,” Sörenstam said in an interview with the Golf Channel on Monday.
She added, “She loves the game of golf, and I’m so glad that she wanted to come back because it brings more people to the game, brings more people to the tournament, and that’s really what we’re looking for.”
There’s no doubt, Clark’s presence at the tournament provided a boost for a league that’s already on an upward trend. Now, it’s up to the players on the tour to capitalize on that spotlight and continue elevating the game.
