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Kai Trump made her LPGA debut Thursday at The Annika at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida, taking a tremendous step toward what has been a lifelong goal.
But first, he’ll play college golf for the Miami Hurricanes and officially join the upcoming recruiting class early this week to compete next fall.
“It was a great day for our program, a great day for our university, and Kai is a big part of that. It’s a class we’ve been working on for a long time,” Miami women’s golf head coach Jim Garren said of The Annika in an interview with Pak Gazette Digital.
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Kai Trump made her LPGA debut on Thursday, days after officially committing to the University of Miami. (Jim Garren)
President Donald Trump’s 18-year-old granddaughter will no doubt draw attention to hurricanes next year: Her Thursday morning field session was packed with media and fans of both her grandfather and herself via her YouTube channel. But for Garren, recruiting Trump was strictly a golf decision.
“We signed Kai as a golf prospect. We saw the potential of what she could do. This whole thing with us has been strictly golf,” Garren said. “And look, at the end of the day, we all knew when her popularity skyrocketed, but if you look back and when that date occurred, that was a month after the initial moment we were able to make it to the class of 2026. So we’ve been following her for a long time, we knew about her potential in golf and we had done our due diligence long before she came to prominence. So the forward-looking side of that has always been there for us. She knows we’re coming at this from the golf side.”
The extra eyes won’t hurt either, as Garren said he feels responsible for growing the game and expanding the Miami brand.
Kai Trump plays in the Annika Pro-Am golf tournament at Pelican Golf Club. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/Image Images)
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“I think any time you can raise awareness, not just at the University of Miami, in our program, in our athletics department, it’s a good thing,” Garren added. “I was fortunate to see Caitlin Clark here yesterday and what she has brought to not only women’s basketball, but women’s athletics as a whole. I was very fortunate to work at Oklahoma when Patty Gasso was in the midst of starting this incredible softball career. So not only do I think the attention adds a lot to our program, but it helps us develop and helps us continue to recruit world-class players and do what we need to do as a program. I consider the attention a good thing. for women’s athletics as a whole, and specifically for women’s college athletics.
“If we can bring someone into our program to help us with that, we’re absolutely comfortable with that. Our job is to continue to grow the games. Yes, we have to compete for championships, and that’s part of coaching. But as administrators of the game, we have to continue to grow it. And I think any type of exposure that we can get in Miami, not just for our program, but for our brand in general, which, in my opinion, is one of the most recognizable brands and logos in the world, absolutely, we welcome the exposure.”
And by the time Trump is competing for titles at the U, Garren predicted she would be ready for the moment.
Kai Trump plays in the Annika Pro-Am golf tournament at Pelican Golf Club. (Nathan Ray Seebeck/Image Images)
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“I’m sitting here at The Annika right now, looking at how many people come to see her play golf; you can’t emulate that in practice. You can’t emulate the pressure it takes to play in front of so many people at her age. She’s been on a world stage for a year,” Garren said.
“The pressure for her as far as golf goes, playing in a Division I golf tournament, it’s going to be easier for her. And if you look at it, who can take the pressure? Kai benefits every time she hits the golf ball, she’s in the spotlight. So for us, she’s going to get better at golf, and it’s our job to develop her as a player, but from the pressure, there’s nothing we can put in front of her that she hasn’t seen yet.”
It wasn’t a great start for Trump, as he finds himself at the bottom of the rankings entering Friday. But she is by far the youngest player in the field and can now play with the house money and without stress.
