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The LPGA felt the Caitlin Clark Effect once again Wednesday, as the WNBA star brought the unmatched spotlight that follows her in and outside of basketball to the Tampa area’s annual tour stop for the second straight year.
Clark teed off her pro-am round at 8:30 a.m. ET in front of a huge crowd that was five people deep surrounding the first tee box at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla., which this week is hosting The Annika driven by Gainbridge, the penultimate event on the 2025 LPGA schedule before next week’s CME Group Tour Championship.
Playing alongside No. 2–ranked Nelly Korda for the first nine holes, the scenes on the course were similar to Clark’s debut at the tournament a year ago, when large crowds flocked to the star athletes.
And on TV, Golf Channel increased its coverage of Clark’s presence from last year. The network’s Golf Today studio show had live look-ins from Florida, where LPGA play-by-play announcers Grant Boone and Morgan Pressel were in the broadcast booth, and on-course reporter Tom Abbott followed Clark’s group—both unprecedented moves for a pro-am.
“It’s crazy,” Korda said during an on-course interview with Golf Channel. “That first tee was something out of a book, almost. But it’s so fun. It’s cool to see how many people she brings together to another sport.”
Fans were seen wearing Indiana Fever and University of Iowa Clark basketball jerseys, as well as other custom Clark-themed gear. Clark’s Fever teammates—Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull—walked with her throughout the day as guest caddies. The Fever’s official social media accounts were posting live Clark golf content throughout the round.
“I think it just shows how powerful supporting one another can truly be,” Clark said of the attention around her and Korda on Wednesday. “I’ve always been a big advocate of that, supporting women’s sports and always been a big fan, whether it’s golf or soccer or volleyball, whatever it is.”
Golf Channel used Clark’s pro-am round to promote its new WNBA coverage in 2026, and a wider rebranding to USA Sports, which on Wednesday was officially announced as the new name of sports coverage on Versant networks. Previously, Golf Channel and USA Network sports telecasts fell under the NBC Sports moniker, but that will no longer be the case after Comcast spun off its cable networks.
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