Basketball star Caitlin Clark to play in pro-am at LPGA’s The Annika

LOS ANGELES – Fresh off being named the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) Rookie of the Year, the Indiana Fever’s star guard Caitlin Clark will turn her attention to golf, at least for a day in November.

Clark, whose affinity for golf is well known, will participate in the pro-am competition at The Annika on Nov 13 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow. I don’t know what I’m going to do the next day. Maybe play some golf. That’s what I’m gonna do until it gets too cold in Indiana. I’ll become a professional golfer,” Clark said in September.

Clark is a Gainbridge ambassador, and the day before the pro-am, she will serve as a panellist at the Women’s Leadership Summit at the site of the tournament.

“I love golf, so the opportunity to play in the pro-am for a tournament with a legend like Annika Sorenstam’s name on it is so exciting,” Clark, 22, said in a statement.

“Gainbridge is a leader in supporting women’s sports, and that’s clear through their commitment to me, this event, Billie Jean King and Parity Week. I’m looking forward to seeing the LPGA players on the driving range, being part of the Women’s Leadership Summit, and, of course, teeing it up in the pro-am with Annika.”

Ten-time Major champion Sorenstam’s name was used in conjunction with the tournament for the first time in 2023, with that event won by American Lilia Vu. This edition will be held from Nov 14 to 17.

While Clark is enjoying time off, the New York Liberty are dreaming of a WNBA title.

The team’s comeback story got a thrilling new chapter with a second straight trip to the Finals, as the team once relegated to a 2,100-capacity stadium in the suburbs have Brooklyn’s Barclays Centre rocking.

The top-seeded Liberty eliminated the Las Vegas Aces in the semi-finals on Oct 6, a year after the Aces denied them the championship, and will vie for their first title against either the Connecticut Sun or Minnesota Lynx.

Their on-court success has been matched by huge gains in the ledger book, with an average regular-season attendance of 12,729 – up 64 per cent over 2023 – and season-ticket membership up 152 per cent at the venue they share with the National Basketball Association’s Brooklyn Nets.

“This was a brick-by-brick rebuild,” said Liberty chief Keia Clarke.

It marks an astonishing turnaround from 2017, when the Madison Square Garden Company announced it would sell the franchise and booted the team from its eponymous venue.

The Liberty were sent off to play at the Westchester County Centre, a tiny venue an hour from mid-town Manhattan and light years away in prestige, before Nets owner Joseph Tsai and his wife purchased the team in 2019 and made plans to move them to Brooklyn. REUTERS