Kai Trump, daughter of Donald Trump, Jr. and granddaughter of the president, is quite the golfer. So it’s no surprise that she is set to make her LPGA debut at The Annika next month, before she even starts college.
And what a prestigious start! ESPN says The Annika “typically has one of the strongest fields of the year outside the majors.”
Did Kai qualify for this honor with her past golf performances? Is she a nationwide phenomenon? LOL, nope.
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Kai is there on a “sponsor’s exemption,” sometimes called a “sponsor’s invitation,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a fancy way of saying that sponsors that provide significant backing to the tournament get to fill some slots that aren’t filled by people who actually qualified. That can be someone who just missed the cutoff, someone at the start or end of an illustrious career, or, apparently, it can be the granddaughter of the president.
For this year’s The Annika, there were three sponsor exemption slots. The other two people selected were Wake Forest Senior Anne-Sterre den Dunnen and Northwestern All-American Lauryn Nguyen.
Who are they, anyway? They’re probably not as good as the nepograndkid, right?
Well, den Dunnen got her invite because she just helmed Wake Forest to the Annika Intercollegiate Title earlier this year. Before attending Wake Forest, she won multiple national and international titles, including the under-18 Italian girls’ title.
Nguyen just finished her college career at Northwestern as the national champion. In four years, she was a two-time All-American, a four-time All-Big Ten, and a four-time Academic All-American.
Kai Trump, on the other hand, has not yet gone to college and is ranked 461 in the American Junior Golf Association. She’s at 979 on the Universal Golf Rankings’ junior girls list. Her biggest tournament appearance thus far was the Sage Valley Junior Invitational, where she finished last and shot 52 over par.
Chat, is 52 over par bad?
Well, a score like that would mean a career-ending round for a professional. Good thing she’s a Trump and doesn’t have to worry about things like what numbers mean.
However, as every press release about this thing notes, Kai Trump did finish third in a “South Florida PGA Srixon Medalist Tour” event. This is a regional junior tour, but they keep dropping that part.
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But hey, isn’t it nice that Kai gets a nepo slot at this tournament so she can promote her new nepo video series and her nepo clothing line?
Of course, Kai is pretending she is actually qualified to be here, which is pretty much how all the Trumps behave about everything, pretending they’ve achieved something on merit when actually it’s either because someone fears them or is fawning over them.
“My dream has been to compete with the best in the world on the LPGA Tour. This event will be an incredible experience. I look forward [to] meeting and competing against so many of my heroes and mentors in golf as I make my LPGA Tour debut.”
Man, imagine working hard your whole young golf-playing life to ascend through junior ranks and grueling college tournaments to find out you’re paired with someone who has barely cracked the top 1,000 in junior rankings because the president is her grandpa. Her grandpa who, it bears mentioning, gave the namesake of the tournament, Annika Sörenstam, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Jan. 7, 2021, one day after his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Oh, well. Maybe this will be where Kai begins to shine? But if not, perhaps she can just get someone to drop the ball in favorable positions for her, just like they do for dear old granddad.
