Kai Trump won’t be playing the weekend at The Annika, but the president’s granddaughter improved by eight strokes in carding a 5-over-par 75 during the second round in Belleair, Fla. on Friday.
After going without a birdie during Thursday’s round of 83, Trump drained four during a second round that included a little bit of everything at the Pelican Golf Club. The 18-year-old high school senior offset those birdies with four bogeys while carding one double- and one triple-bogey.
“For the first day I was definitely really nervous. I think the nerves just got to me,” she said. “When I went out there today I felt very calm and peaceful to be honest with you. That’s why I played better.”
Trump briefly got under par for the round when she birdied the par-3 third hole. She promptly bogeyed the next and the triple came on the par-4 fifth hole. But Trump rebounded to birdie three of her next six holes.
“Things are going to happen. Once it happens you can’t go back in time and fix it,” she said of the triple. “The best thing I could do is move on. Like I told my caddie, Allan, kind of just started laughing. It is what it is. We got that out of the way, so let’s just move on. It was pretty easy to move on after that.”
The youngest player in the field and a controversial sponsor exemption into her first LPGA Tour event, Trump improved significantly in several key areas on Friday. That included hitting 11 of 14 fairways (up from 8 on Thursday) and 10 of 18 greens (up from 7) while cutting her total putts from 36 to 29.
For the weekend, Trump averaged a very respectable 241.0 yards off the tee. She also parred the daunting 18th hole for the second consecutive day to cap her tournament.
Despite likely finishing last in the 108-player field, Trump took plenty of positives away from a week that included playing in Wednesday’s pro-am. She will return to high school before preparing for college, having committed to play for the University of Miami next fall.
There also is more golf ahead with grandpa Donald Trump. What will his granddaughter say when he asks about Friday’s round?
“That I hit a great shot on 18 two days in a row,” she said with a smile.
