Young golfing phenom Kai Trump, the 18-year-old high school senior and granddaughter of President Donald Trump, completed the second round of her first professional golf tournament on Nov. 14, tallying four birdies on her scorecard in the process.
Kai Trump, competing as an amateur, shot a five-over-par 75 on Friday at the Annika—a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournament named for golfing legend Annika Sorenstam—held at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
She started her second round with two pars before making a birdie—the first of her career in a professional tournament—on the third hole. Another birdie followed on the seventh hole, and she scored back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th holes, the latter in dramatic fashion, narrowly missing a hole-in-one.
A few bogeys impacted her score, including a triple on the fifth hole and a double on the 15th. Her performance was a turnaround from the 13-over-par 83 she shot during the first round of play, but her 18-over-par total leaves her out of contention, having missed the cut going into the weekend.
“The whole time I was nervous, without a doubt, but I think I did pretty good for the first time, being the youngest player in the field,” Trump told reporters after her first round on Nov. 13.
“I was definitely more nervous than I expected, but, you know, I think I hit a lot of great shots out there.”
She said adrenaline coursing through her veins made club selection challenging.
“I was hitting it way farther than I normally do, and I especially noticed that around some of the par threes,” Kai Trump said.
One strength of the young golfer’s game is her distance—averaging 242 yards during the tournament—and accuracy—hitting 89 percent of fairways—off the tee.
“It was pretty cool because I know I hit far, but kind of playing with the best players in the world and being literally right there or even outdriving them on some of the holes, it felt pretty good, it felt like my game’s at a good spot,” she said.
Overcoming jittery nerves while competing at a high level was a learning process, she told reporters.
“I learned a lot about myself this 18,” Kai Trump, who currently plays on the Benjamin School golf team, said.
“Being my first LPGA event, I kind of know how it goes and I felt like a little out of order at the beginning but I kind of got it going afterwards, and I learned a lot. It was amazing. I had a great time out there. For my first event ever, I think I played pretty good.”
The field of competitors included 108 golfers, including Nelly Korda—ranked second in the world and currently tied for fourth in the tournament at six-under-par after shooting 63 on Friday—and Grace Kim, the leader at nine-under par headed into the weekend.
Women’s National Basketball Association star Caitlin Clark also teed it up with the pros.
Kai Trump received a sponsor’s invitation to play from the Annika Foundation—a nonprofit founded by Sorenstam to empower young women.
The high school senior has a YouTube channel with almost 1.4 million subscribers where she highlights her golf game, including a recent round with her grandfather.
