‘She’s just another girl. She’s just like any other golfer,’ a father assured his young daughter as she stood with an autographed flag clutched in her hands and her eyes transfixed on the putting green at Pelican Golf Club.
The golf flag, purchased from the tournament’s gift shop, already bore the signatures of some of the biggest names in women’s golf; Nelly Korda, Brooke Henderson, Charley Hull.
Yet, there was no question whose autograph she so desperately coveted. It was the same player who commanded the attention of every spectator – young and old, male and female – crammed around the practice area: Kai Trump.
But the father was wrong. Kai Trump was not just any golfer this week. No other player in this field was being accompanied by an entourage of eight Secret Service agents.
No other player had received pre-competition advice from a prestigious trio of golf’s greatest Tiger Woods, 10-time major winner and tournament host Annika Sorenstam, and the President of the United States of America.
No other ‘girl’ in the field was making her professional golf debut as a high school senior. And none of her competitors boasted seven million followers across Instagram and TikTok.
Kai Trump headlined the LPGA’s The ANNIKA tournament in Florida this week
The president’s granddaughter poses for photos with young fans following her round
And that is exactly why Kai, an amateur junior golfer, had been handed a sponsorship exemption to The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge, a tournament on the world’s top women’s tour, the LPGA.
The controversial exemption had been as divisive as her grandfather’s politics. Some hailed the tour for its out-of-the-box thinking, viewing it as a quest to raise the profile of women’s golf. Many spread criticism and vitriol across social media like wildfire, claiming that it would turn the tournament into a circus and hoping for Kai to crash and burn.
In one way, the latter side of the feud got its wish. The LPGA’s Kai Trump experiment came to an end after just two rounds. The First Granddaughter missed the cut having shot a total of 18-over, six shots more than her closest competitor.
But for Kai and her inner circle, it was nothing but a victory.
‘I’m really excited to see what’s ahead, because if she wants to pursue her career in this game, she can play at the highest level in my opinion,’ her caddie and close friend Allan Kournikova – brother of tennis legend Anna – told The Daily Mail.
‘As far as talent goes, she’s got as much talent as anyone,’ he added. ‘I think it’s raw talent as of now. I told her when we were walking off the green, I said, “Can you imagine if you did this every week, just how comfortable you’d be?”
‘I mean, these girls come here, it’s like a 9-to-5 for them. They’re clocking in, they show up, they play, they leave. 20 weeks a year they’re doing this. This is our first time.’
Yes, Kai naturally was out of her depth. As Kournikova highlighted, it was her first time competing on such a stage. As she herself stressed multiple times throughout the week, she is still only a senior in high school.
Kai had close friend and golfer Allan Kournikova on her bag throughout the tournament
The teenager carded a total score of 18-over, which saw her finish last and miss the cut
Despite officially signing with the University of Miami this week, she has yet to tee it up even at collegiate level and has only played a limited schedule of junior golf.
She’s 461st in the American Junior Golf Association rankings and shot 52-over at the Junior Invitational in March, a prestigious small-field junior tournament and her previous biggest event.
To have had the pluck to compete alongside some of the biggest names in women’s golf was respectful. To show her face again after an opening 13-over was admirable. To bounce back and shoot a five-over second round was impressive.
‘She’ll never play a more pressure-filled round in her career,’ her future University of Miami assistant coach Jim Garren told The Daily Mail.
‘Not only her first start but her first pro start and a big-time event. And she’s coming from junior golf straight to that.
‘She hasn’t even reached our level yet,’ he added referring to the collegiate golf circuit, ‘so it’ll never get harder for her career.’
The LPGA stage was a gargantuan leap for Trump. But it wasn’t her golfing resume that earned her the invitation, rather it was her CV of notoriety. There was no hiding it, her millions of social media followers and, of course, her famous last name were her golden ticket.
Tournament organizers didn’t shy away from the truth, either.
Despite struggling during her opening round, Kai returned to perform gallantly in her second
Kai is pictured with grandfather, US president Donald, out on the golf course last month
‘The idea of the exemption, when you go into the history of exemptions, is to bring attention to an event,’ Pelican Golf Club owner Don Doyle Jr., the man who gifted Kai her chance, said.
‘[Kai’s] lovely to speak to and she brought a lot of viewers through Instagram and things like that that normally don’t watch women’s golf was the hope, and we’re seeing it now on Instagram and social media.’
‘I think any tournament wants buzz,’ Sorenstam, the golf legend for whom the tournament is named, agreed.
‘[…] In this case Kai brings a lot of different people to the sport and we want people to hear about our tournament and be part of it.’
And Kai delivered on her end of the bargain.
Around 200 spectators had crammed around the tee box to watch the eldest Trump grandchild begin her LPGA debut on Thursday. They jostled with secret service agents and armed themselves with their mobile phones to capture The First Tee Shot.
On Friday, it appeared that her opening score of 13-over had deflated the blooming interest in her quest when a mere couple of dozen spectators gathered at her 8:17am tee time. An hour or so later, it became apparent that it was the early wakeup call that was the deterrent.
The crowd swelled to a hundred-strong, bursting with a smattering of ‘TRUMP’ emblazoned caps and, more importantly, young female golf fans – the LPGA’s target.
The teenager was supported by her mother, Vanessa Trump, who walked the course
Kai, accompanied by her entourage of Secret Service agents, signed countless autographs
One girl was overheard telling another that she had even skipped school to catch a glimpse of Kai during Thursday’s opening round. She sadly couldn’t skive both days; after all, she had a test on Friday.
But skipping school certainly paid off when Kai took the time to satiate the mob of hysterical fans waiting behind the scoring tent at the 18th green. She and her security detail worked down the line, signing flags, MAGA caps and golf balls as the agents barked out orders to keep hands out of pockets and stand back.
On the course, her shots were accompanied by the soundtrack of, ‘Great job, Kai,’ and ‘We love your granddad.’ The MAGA-loving spectators applauded every shot – the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.
Even after a wayward tee shot that overshot the back of the green at the par-three 12th, a fanatical woman leaned over the railing of the looming hospitality grandstand to declare that ‘it was alright, that’s not too bad.’
Two groups ahead, World No 2 Nelly Korda, the defending champion and biggest name in women’s golf right now, didn’t have a tenth of that crowd following her. Not even close. On Saturday morning, after Kai’s exit, that gallery at the 12th lay empty as the leaders began their rounds.
The circus was enough to put anyone off their game. Her playing partners, major winner Hinako Shibuno and Germany’s Olivia Cowan could have been excused for turning on their young protégée. The frustration at the scene was surely bubbling under the surface. But the pair remained steadfastly encouraging and even complimentary – something not commonly found among competitors on the tour.
‘Good birdie,’ Shibuno chirped out on the fourth tee following Kai’s first gained shot of the tournament. Cowan offered similar congratulations after Kai’s later successes.
The only cracks in the players’ serene and focused demeanor were Cowans’ caddie’s pleas for the spectators to follow the simplest of golf etiquette: Stay still and shut up.
Kai chats with her mother, who wore a Sun Day Red cap, in between holes
Kai played alongside Germany’s Olivia Cowan (pictured) and Japan’s Hinako Shibuno
By the second day, Cowan herself had to issue a demand for a fan to silence the camera on their phone. She subsequently left her chip shot far short of the pin. ‘F*** off,’ she yelled, looking up to the heavens.
But even that didn’t discourage Kai’s admirers and their pilgrimage across Pelican.
And among them was her proud mother Vanessa Trump.
The 47-year-old easily stuck out among the MAGA-mad crowd. She cut an elegant figure in sleek all-black athleisure wear, diamond studs and a Sun Day Red cap – a nod to her boyfriend Tiger Woods and his clothing line.
But her enthusiasm was as great as the spectators who swarmed around her. As Kai began to sink birdies during her second round, Vanessa burst into encouraging cheers, shouting out, ‘Let’s go, Kai.’
Vanessa, the ex-wife of Donald Trump Jr, casually chatted with members of Kai’s supporting team. She shook hands with spectators who dared to approach her to express their admiration. She even graciously stopped to take a photo with a tournament photographer.
‘I’m very proud of my daughter. She played very well,’ Vanessa said of her daughter’s performance.
Vanessa wasn’t the only one in Kai’s corner. The teenager had enlisted Kournikova as her bagman. She has known him since they were young with the pair growing up together.
Kournikova (left) is the half-brother of tennis sensation Anna Kournikova
The pair appear to be close friends with Allan attending President Trump’s inauguration
Ahead of the tournament, Kai insisted that ‘there is no one else I would want on the bag besides him.’
For his part, Kournikova, 21, had faith that Kai would have held her own regardless of who was carrying her bag but did admit that he was grateful he could lend her any support he could.
‘I definitely think it played a role. I mean, look, she’s a great player. I think she could have done well, regardless,’ he told The Daily Mail.
‘I definitely think comfort is a big thing. Anybody that plays at a high level or plays golf in general knows that when they’re comfortable, they always do better. So, if I could have brought any more comfort level to her, then that’s obviously what I want to do and help her do the best she can.’
In March, Kai had crumbled under the similar mayhem of the Junior Invitational. The tournament, billed as ‘the most prestigious event in junior golf,’ had been her chance to announce herself on the stage of elite golf. Instead, it exposed the challenges of the limelight.
‘I didn’t play so well but I think I learned a lot in that tournament not playing well,’ she admitted earlier this week, reflecting on the junior tournament. ‘Just I learned a lot about my game, what I have to work on, where I have to be.’
Following her LPGA debut, Kai confessed that she was surprised by the nerves that rattled her game. She revealed that they had even plagued her more than her Republican National Convention speech that first launched her into the spotlight.
But regardless of the anxiety, as she announced herself on the LPGA stage, Kai was a world away from the girl who left Sage Valley deflated.
Tournament host Annika Sorenstam pleaded for people to give Kai a chance
While Kai cut a dejected figure, trudging to the next tee head down and chewing her lip in March. This week, she steadfastly held her head high; a smile plastered on her face.
‘We can’t emulate in practice what these galleries and this type of player is doing. Just that experience is going to help the whole team,’ Coach Garren insisted.
‘We’ve had some ladies that have played in tour events but not with these kinds of numbers of people. This has made her better, which makes the team better.’
No one ever expected Kai to win the tournament. The ANNIKA’s goal was to breathe life into the dying interest in the women’s game. Hers was merely not to embarrass herself.
‘I don’t think anybody here is thinking that she will be the one holding the trophy on Sunday. It’s about opportunities and memories and lessons learned,’ Sorenstam declared.
‘Give this girl a chance,’ she pleaded.
Kai repaid the tournament for that chance with a fanfare of attention. The question now is; how can the LPGA Tour retain it?
Unabashedly cashing in on the Trump name, cannot be the answer week in and week out.
Even Sorenstam didn’t have the solution. ‘If I could answer, I’d be the commissioner,’ she said.
