A splash of celebrity attention hit The ANNIKA 2025. To start, the WNBA legend Caitlin Clark was up there again to tee it off for the second time at Pro-Am. And then there was a sponsor exemption that hijacked the discussion throughout the week.

Kai Trump’s sponsor exemption received a mixed response. While some said she should be given a chance, others noted that there are many other, more deserving amateurs. Amidst all the buzz, longtime followers were wondering what, exactly, they were watching. The focus shifted from LPGA pro golfers to those who were better suited to make headlines.

While the LPGA and The ANNIKA organizers could make this a major event, some golf analysts believe that this is not the right approach to increase the event’s popularity on the LPGA Tour. Chris Solomon and Tron Carter were discussing the event on their No Laying Up Podcast. Solomon inquired about the event and the sponsor exemption that dominated the entire past week.

“I think Annika chose Wake Forest, either junior or senior, who won her collegiate event. The Gainbridge chose someone else, and then the club, the Doyle Family in the club chose Kai Trump. And listen, it generated a ton of publicity, not all of it good. Caitlyn Clark was there again. But I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that the LPGA needs to be doing. That’s not the kind of publicity that they need. They need, you know, kind of long-lasting eyeballs,” Tron Carter responded.

There were three sponsor invitation receivers at The ANNIKA 2025.

The Wake Forest University senior that Carter is talking about is Anne-Sterre den Dunnen. She is a senior at the university. She performed well enough to make the cut and finish at T56. In fact, she performed better than many known names from the LPGA, such as Megan Khang, Lexi Thompson, and Lilia Vu.

The other one to receive an invite from Gainbridge was Lauryn Nguyen, an all-American from Northern University. Lastly, it was Kai Trump who got an invitation from the Doyle family.

Trump carded rounds of 83-75 to finish 18 over par. She was last on the leaderboard, with the second-worst performance being 12 over par. Despite all the good wishes and words of wisdom from Tiger Woods, Donald Trump, and her mother, Vanessa, her performance was devastating.

But the organizers at The ANNIKA are bringing in these big names to make the event popular. Yet, Carter feels that’s not the publicity they should be aiming for.

Instead, the headlines should be of the LPGA stars who are out there to earn as many CME points as possible to qualify for the final event.

“It’s just tough when it’s the second to last event and they’re trying to make it into one of their their version of like a signature event, similar to how the founders was, and it’s ladies scratching and clawing to get into the CME Tour Championship, and you’ve got kind of a sideshow going on,” Tron Carter remarked.

Chris Solomon jumped in, echoing similar feelings.

“I was checking scores Thursday, Friday more than I would normally, right? And I follow the LPGA, I would say, relatively closely. So that’s hard to argue that that’s not a positive thing, but it is hollow, right? It just feels like it is done for the wrong reasons. I don’t even mean politically. I just mean like I saw way too many stats on Twitter about how impressions were up and all of the sideshow stuff that just makes me cringe because I know it is a sideshow.”

Nelly Korda and company have faced popularity issues for quite some time. There are only a handful of golfers on the tour who are making the headlines. However, Carter and Solomon insist that these tactics should not be the solution.

There are many big names regularly playing in The ANNIKA.

For instance, Nelly Korda, Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson, and Rose Zhang have participated in the event for quite some time now. Many LPGA stars are trying to get CME points and get their place in the season-long championship event. Only the top 60 on the CME points list qualify for the championship event. No Monday qualifying or alternate list is available. The entry is strictly about earning enough points across the LPGA regular season.

In fact, many LPGA stars made their way into the CME Tour Championship through The ANNIKA 2025.

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LPGA stars who qualified for the CME Tour Championship at The ANNIKA

Four of the last five golfers to qualify for the season finale did so by putting on a show at The ANNIKA 2025.

One of them is Nataliya Guseva. She jumped 7 positions to end at 57th on the list. Guseva carded rounds of 69-67-63-68 to finish 13 under par. She, along with Haeran Ryu, finished T7 on the leaderboard. Her third round of 63, especially, helped her secure 95 points to qualify for the CME Tour Championship.

Besides Guseva, Lucy Li also made it to the event by getting 148.33 points at The ANNIKA.

She finished T4 with rounds of 70-65-65-66. This, along with her strong finishes at the Dow Championship (T6) and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (T12), got her to 58th position on the list. “I am really excited,” Li said about qualifying for the CME Group Tour Championship. “That was the goal coming into this week, was to try to make it to next week, and so I’m really proud of myself if I’m able to be there.”

Brooke Matthews and Pajaree Annanarukarn also secured their spots at the event after impressive performances at The ANNIKA.

Matthews moved up three spots and finished 59th on the Race to the CME Globe. Her T9 finish with rounds of 70-69-64-65 gave her 77.500 points. With her tie for 56th at The ANNIKA, Pajaree Anannarukarn was the last to secure her spot for the CME Tour Championship. She claimed 4.300 points with rounds of 70-70-69-71.

But there were many, including Rose Zhang, Any Yang, Lilia Vu, Yuka Saso, and Danielle Kang, who missed making it to the CME Tour Championship.

Clearly, Tron Carter and Chris Solomon weren’t happy because these LPGA stars, who performed impressively to secure their spots in the season-finale event, weren’t making the headlines.