BELLEAIR, Florida – The man on 18-year-old Kai Trump’s bag this week is an old family friend. Allan Kournikova, younger brother of tennis star Anna Kournikova, will caddie for Trump in her LPGA debut this week at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Given that this is the biggest competitive stage of her career — by a mile — the friendly and familiar face outweighed local knowledge.
“There is no one else I would want on the bag besides him,” said Trump, the eldest granddaughter of President Donald Trump, who grew up playing alongside Kournikova in South Florida.
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Kournikova, 21, actually burst onto the national golf scene as a 7-year-old when he was featured in the Netflix series “The Short Game,” alongside current LPGA player Alexa Pano.
“Couple weeks ago I watched ‘The Short Game’ for the first time in maybe almost a decade,” said Kournikova, who was a repeat winner at the U.S. Kids Golf European Championship and several U.S. Kids World Championships. “It was kind of refreshing to have a look at that all these years removed.”
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Kournikova won on the AJGA but did not play collegiate golf. For the past two weeks, the pair have worked hard dialing in her game at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida. Kournikova echoes the sentiment of many when praising her ball-striking. They’ve spent much of their time working on different shots around the greens, which is paramount at Pelican Golf Club.
“It’s one of those things where that if you get into the situation at an earlier enough stage you get used to it,” said Kournikova of navigating the spotlight. “The more time under that situation, the better you get at it. I don’t think there’s one cookie cutter way to handle it. But she’s gotten very, very good at it.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Who will caddie for Kai Trump in her LPGA debut? It’s a familiar name
