After a regular season shortened to 13 games by injuries, Caitlin Clark is turning recovery time into a reset on the grass, returning to Pelican Golf Club for a pro-am that blends competition with community.
This year, she is not walking the course alone. Fever teammates Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull are slated to step in as celebrity caddies, joined by soccer legend Briana Scurry and NASCAR driver Carson Hocevar.
The idea is part golf, part theater, and wholly on brand for an athlete who has embraced crossover moments without losing sight of the work. For fans who followed her from Carver Hawkeye Arena to Gainbridge Fieldhouse, it is another chance to see how her competitiveness translates between sports.
According to the event’s latest rundown, Clark will again open alongside World No. 1 Nelly Korda for the first nine holes before joining sponsor invitee Lauryn Nguyen on the back nine.
The pairing carries a built-in comfort level. Clark and Korda shared the fairway last year, and Korda‘s takeaways sounded like a scouting report from one elite player to another.
“It was great to see how relaxed she was….Obviously, with the media attention she’s gotten over the past year and a half, you can see how comfortable she is playing in front of a large crowd. She was just really enjoying it,” Korda said.
“You can tell she’s very talented. She was picking the ball really clean. She was losing a couple of shots to the right, but I asked how many times a week she plays, and with all her obligations, she probably gets to the course once a week. For just playing once a week, she was playing really well.”
A second year on the fairways, the same drive to improve
What stood out most from Clark‘s first Pelican appearance was not a single shot. It was the time that followed. When the crowds thinned and the sun dropped, she stayed on the range in sweatpants, barefoot, repeating swings until the light ran out.
Some balls leaked, some flew true, and none of it seemed to matter as much as the next swing. The goal, she told staffers, was practical. With fans still filtering around the grounds, she wanted to groove contact and trajectory so there was no risk of a stray shot in traffic.
That rhythm carried into the next day. Clark played eight strong holes and nearly two more before fatigue took hold, an understandable arc for a competitor toggling between two elite environments.
She even played host for a back nine with Annika Sorenstam, a moment that nudged the outing from curiosity to meaningful education. The lesson was less about club selection and more about poise. Watch the best do ordinary things with precision, then copy the tempo.
The off-course impact has been just as notable. Event organizers say last year’s ticket sales reportedly jumped 12 times over the previous edition, a spike fueled by basketball fans who wanted to see a familiar star in a different setting.
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