Caitlin Clark has one goal for this week’s LPGA pro-am appearance.
“I don’t want to hit anyone with a golf ball. That’s my No. 1 priority,” she said.
The WNBA’s biggest star touched down on Florida’s west coast on Tuesday ahead of her much-anticipated showing in The Annika’s Wednesday pro-am, where she’ll play nine holes with tournament host Annika Sorenstam and nine more with World No. 1 Nelly Korda. But unlike most of her fellow competitors, Clark got a pre-pro-am press conference. Two of ’em, in fact. Clark talked sports, leadership and yes, a little golf alongside Sorenstam.
Here’s what we learned:
Clark is a 16 handicap
“I’ve tried to practice as much as I can. I mean, you know, I’m just the average golfer. I’m going to hit some good, I’m going to hit some bad. It is what it is,” Clark said. She’s been working with Martha Foyer-Faulconer, the pro at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., and she’s clearly talented — but still honing in her scoring.
“My handicap is like 16,” she said. “Stroke-a-hole, average golfer.”
Clark got a little more specific: Her best rounds are in the mid-80s, she said.
“But usually I’m just praying to break 100.”
Clark played ‘literally everything’ growing up
It’s always fascinating to hear pro golfers talk about which other sports they played growing up. It was fascinating to hear a non-golfer explain where golf and other sports fit in, too.
“I grew up playing literally everything and I was super competitive,” she said. “My parents just tossed me out there and wanted me to get my energy out. Whether it was soccer, softball, golf, track, I really did it all. When I got into high school, I knew basketball was my future. I loved it and I wanted to practice it.”
That was an understatement. It turns out Clark wanted to practice basketball so much that it actually annoyed her teammates in other sports.
“That was probably what set [basketball] apart from all the other sports I played,” she said. “They were just kind of like, for fun with my friends. I was really competitive, but I didn’t take extra time out of my day to go work on my game and be better than everybody else.
“I think that’s what helped figure out the path I wanted to take. Like, I remember in high school I played soccer and I was on varsity and I loved it. But my teammates would get mad because I would go and practice and work out and do basketball right before we had our soccer games. They like, couldn’t believe I was doing that. I had to give up soccer even though I loved it.”
Sitting beside her, Sorenstam could relate.
“I played soccer, too,” she said. “You said tennis, that was really my love. Growing up in Sweden it was Bjorn Borg, national hero, and I tried everything he did, but it didn’t work out.”
Clark schedules out her offseason weeks
Want to better organize your life? Follow Clark’s Sunday routine.
“Gosh, now that I’m not in-season, I try to plan my week out before I start the week, like every Sunday,” she said. “I think that helps me know exactly what I have to get done, when I’m going to get my workouts in. I’m somebody that I need to know when I’m going to work out, whether that’s basketball, weightlifting, this or that.”
The planning, Clark said, helps her stay accountable. And yes, she’s old-school in her organization:
“I sit down and use pen and paper and write it out. I don’t even type in my notes. That’s just how I do things. I feel good and know exactly what I have to get done.
“Once you accomplish those things, you feel like you’re in a good place.”
There’s one area Clark prefers golf to basketball
“What’s so beautiful about golf is, I think, being outside, I love that,” she said. “That’s the of the one bad thing about the WNBA. It’s in the spring and summer, fall. I miss a lot of opportunity to play golf. Now that the season ended, I try to play as much as I can.”
It’s getting cold in Indianapolis, Clark said, where she’s been spending her time. But she has a family trip to Arizona coming up; she’ll be bringing her clubs.
“It’s something fun to do,” she said. “I make it competitive. Go out there with your friends and have as much fun as you can and do something outside of basketball is really what I love about it.”
Clark watched Rory McIlroy growing up
Clark isn’t part of the post-Covid golf boom — she was eager to watch and play from a young age.
“Honestly I tried to watch as much as I can,” she said, asked for her golfing origin story. “Rory was probably one of my favorite players growing up. I would have the TV on watching him. I had this pink cute golf club set growing up that I got for one of my birthdays. I would beg my dad to take me out and go golfing.
“I remember when I had one off weekend of not playing soccer or basketball, whatever it was, I begged my dad to take me. Obviously wasn’t very good, but I just loved being outside and trying something new and the challenge of golf. Obviously a lot different from definitely basketball and the team aspect. It’s much more individual. So that’s another challenge I love about it, too.”
Two things set her apart
OK, probably more than two things. But when Clark was asked what drives her, she knew exactly what to say.
The first?
“Wanting to be the best. Like, I don’t want anyone to be better than me in whatever it is. I just want to be better than everybody else,” she said.
The second?
“I think I’m very real with myself, too. I know when I maybe haven’t done my best in something I’m going to be the first person to look in the mirror and know what I need to get better at.
“Those two things help me be the best. I can be very honest and real with myself. Definitely the younger generation struggles with that. They always want to point fingers.”
Has Clark grasped the magnitude of her rise to stardom? Based on what she says, it seems like she has. It’s just that she seems so down-to-earth about the whole thing that you almost forget just how out-of-this-world the entire thing has been.
“For me, it’s really cool to see the way things have changed,” she said. “When I first started in college, it was Covid, so not many people in the stands, maybe no one, then 300 people, friends and family only.
“By the time I was at my senior year, you couldn’t get a ticket unless you were going to pay a lot of money. It’s just really cool to see how everything has changed.
“I’ve tried to stay the same person I was as a little girl growing up with the boys. I feel like I’m just me and that’s when people love and can relate to. Just stay that way that keeps it fun and what I enjoy about it.”
