Last year, the LPGA tried something new to attract the fandom. They invited WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark to their 2024 pro-am for The ANNIKA. Clark, who was also a brand ambassador for the event sponsor, Gainbridge, played with Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam. The event became a massive success and was the “most-watched non-competitive round” in LPGA history. That one day led to 395 television segments and even won a 2025 “Brand Activation of the Year” award. This gave them a bold blueprint for 2025.

This season, the strategy was doubled down.. First, they invited Kai Trump, the 18-year-old granddaughter of President Donald Trump. Critics complained about her No. 461 junior rank. But the organizer saw a different number: Trump’s 9 million social media followers, as they wanted to start a national conversation. Second, they brought back the anchor. Caitlin Clark returned for the 2025 Wednesday Pro-Am once again as an already proven, positive, and safe bet. And this time, the Golf Channel gave the pro-am unusual live coverage like a major final round.

This big gamble worked. As per Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, Wednesday at the tournament saw a 63 percent increase in media coverage from 2024 to 2025 and a 30 percent increase in onsite year-on-year growth wrt the blended average of attendance, concessions, merchandise, and parking. Crowds were “five people deep” just to watch the Pro-Am. Fans wore Indiana Fever jerseys and showed up for Clark. But the new story is digital. The online numbers show an undeniable effect.

On that one pro-am day, the tournament’s Instagram views exploded, a 591 percent increase from last year. And traffic to the event’s official website also jumped. The conversation on X was just as wild. The event generated 18,325,849 impressions and over 241,000 people engaged with the posts. And the report showed that for the first 3 ½ days of the tournament, the impression, including print, TV, radio, and digital, reached over 3 billion. That number was close to last year’s total for the week. Caitlin is fond of these exciting times, too.

“It’s always cool when you see the number of people that come out and want to support not only me, but just women’s sports in general,” Clark said on November 12. “Obviously, we’re in a very exciting time where all sports across the board are seeing more and more viewership and more people buying tickets, more people buying merchandise, whatever it is. That’s a really exciting thing.”

So, the critics can debate the invites all they want, but The Annika sure turned the tables.

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The players in the field understand the mission, too

“We had great crowds these past few days, and we just have to build off that, and not let these moments go,” said Olivia Cowan. Cowan played with Kai Trump in the first and second rounds and is currently in a tie for 44th place with a round-by-round score of 68-72-69. “I think we need to do more outside of golf. It’s obviously quite hard to get a lot of eyeballs on us, but it’s growing, and we’re getting closer. And today, having her[Trump] out here these two days and having the people coming out to watch, has definitely improved that,” Cowan also added. 

Charley Hull, another top Golfer who also had plans to play with Trump on Tuesday, but due to travel delays, it didn’t happen, said almost the same thing. “I think it’s good because golf is hard for people to just turn on and watch if you haven’t watched it before,” said Hull. “So having that kind of interest of people playing who don’t play the sport, big names, coming in, playing the pro-ams, is good for the event and good for the organizers and stuff … because, I think any publicity is good publicity, I suppose.”

But here is the million-dollar question- Is all this buzz just smoke?

The new LPGA boss, Craig Kessler, knows the challenge. Fans cannot just “parachute in” for one day. And the ideal picture is to get those new eyeballs on the Tour’s own stars. The LPGA wants them to watch Korda, Hull, and others every week. And Kessler and the LPGA also know it can’t be a long-term antidote to lure the people.  So, they need to develop a long-term strategy to increase the popularity and visibility of the sport. Maybe that’s why they signed a partnership with Golf Saudi and are reportedly moving the site of the Chevron Championship to a more accessible place.