Caitlin Clark wants to play golf, and the LPGA is on board

Caitlin Clark’s historic first season in the WNBA has come to a close, wrapping up a remarkable year for America’s newest sports hero. Carrying your college team to the NCAA title game and your pro team to the playoffs, all the while serving as the gateway for an entire new wave of fans, is quite a burden, and unsurprisingly, Clark is exhausted.

Asked about her plans for the offseason, Clark offered up an interesting answer. “I don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow, I don’t know what I’m going to do the next day,” Clark said after the Fever were eliminated from the playoffs. “Maybe play some golf. That’s what I’m gonna do until it becomes too cold in Indiana. So I got that. I’ll become a professional golfer.”

She was joking … wasn’t she? Surely even the hypercompetitive, athletically gifted Caitlin Clark can’t just pick up golf in an offseason … right?

Clark gained an important ally in her quest to hit the links: the LPGA, which happily responded to Clark’s wishes on Thursday.

The LPGA has enjoyed two runs of dominance this season, one from Nelly Korda and a more recent one from Lydia Ko, but hasn’t been able to translate that into a breakout, the way the WNBA has with Clark. The Indiana Fever regularly sold out arenas and drew millions of viewers because of Clark; the LPGA would love to get a little of that kind of good-PR bump.

Now, nobody seriously thinks Clark could become a professional golfer in the next few months; this is all in fun. There are plenty of basketball players who are decent golfers (Steph Curry), halfway decent (Michael Jordan) and, well, other (Charles Barkley), but the gap between pro golf and other sports is vast and unbridgeable. But hey, if Clark can change the trajectory of an entire sport in just one season, you never know …