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The first of something is memorable for everyone. And if that first happens to be an LPGA debut at The ANNIKA, then even being the President’s granddaughter doesn’t make you immune to wanting a keepsake. For Kai Trump, the exemption at the Pelican Golf course and the missed cut might not shield her from the scrutiny. But a little memento she managed to grab, as it slipped out of her hands, did give her something to hold on to.

In her recent YouTube video, she entered her house after a relaxing sauna, and then flaunted a worn-down golf ball in her camera. This ball was actually the one she played her two rounds with in The ANNIKA.  “I’m like very sentimental sometimes,” she said in her new video. “I actually signed the ball…One of my agents was going to give it away to a kid…I was like, ‘No, don’t give that away. I’ll sign another one.'”

Later, after her rounds, as she signed a bunch of balls for the fans, she noticed that one looked quite similar. “I realized it was mine because of the wear on the ball, and then also like the line was fading,” Trump explained. “I knew it was the ball I used.”

That week, at Pelican tested Kai Trump’s grit. Her total was an 18 over par with a total of thirteen bogeys, four double bogeys, and four birdies. The latter came only on the last day of her contention. Yet, the crowd to witness her play was massive.

As she prepared herself on the 10th tee for the opening shot, hundreds of spectators lined up to get a glimpse. Wherever Kai Trump went, the gallery followed her. By the time she walked off the 18th, despite a poor performance, the fans were all lined up by the ropes. Their notepads held at length waiting for autographs.

After her drive just leaked into the right fairway bunker at the par-4 16th on Friday, Trump laid up into a little valley short of the green. Having yet to hit an elite chip, Trump played the shot into the slope and watched it check about 4 feet from the hole. Had she scored that shot, she would’ve won a two-year lease on a Lamborghini Urus. Even her mother, Vanessa Trump, was seen among the crowd, cheering.

“Excellent!” she yelled. “Sorry, I just had to cheer for my daughter,” she then apologized to the nearby spectators, as reported by Golf Channel. 

But none of it was in Kai Trump’s mind.

The news of her debut at the LPGA had already caused a lot of ruckus. And now she was slipping away from the cut. Kai Trump feared the hate would intensify. But the scrutiny mostly remained till the internet. The crowd on the course proved otherwise. So intense was their presence that Security had to constantly manage the movements, asking people to walk with their hands in front.

At the end of the day, the result was what everyone expected. Kai Trump didn’t proceed into the weekend rounds. Her presence was merely there to catch more attention at the LPGA event, in which the officials succeeded.

“I need to put this somewhere,” Kai Trump said as she looked for a space to put the golf ball. “I feel like this is a very special golf ball…LPGA ball right there. That’s sick.”

Kai’s gesture proved that firsts are always special. No matter how long or how short it has been playing.

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The first is special for everyone – even for Rory McIlroy

April 2025 will be forever marked in Rory McIlroy’s calendar. That was the month he finally achieved his long-awaited career Grand Slam after winning the Masters. 17 years of waiting, and the first thing he did after accomplishing it? Taking home all 1,100 leftover Masters pin flags from the merchandise facility.

He wanted to sign his name inside the iconic logo, and so he bagged them all. Asked how many he’s signed since that day, McIlroy laughed one day and said, “A lot…I have no idea. But I’ll never get sick of signing them.”

The night when McIlroy returned from the iconic Augusta, the Green Jacket was placed carefully on the chair. The next day, his eyes open at 3:30 am, a sleep of only three hours. As he looks around the room, trying to make sense of what has happened, his eyes land on the chair.

“Yeah, that did happen yesterday,” he said.

He then placed it in his wardrobe, where it remains hung. All his life, he imagined himself wearing that jacket and never taking it off the day he won the Masters. But now, it feels too special for him to do that.

“I’m reluctant to wear it,” Rory McIlroy once said. “I have it hanging in my wardrobe in a place where I can see it every day…I haven’t worn it as much as I thought I would.”