Caitlin Clark's Favorite Olympic Sport May Not Be Basketball
Indiana Fever rookie sensation Caitlin Clark is a generational talent on the basketball court.
But basketball is Clark's job. Now that the 22-year-old has a month off from playing WNBA games, she's likely spending a lot of time indulging in her preferred pastime: playing golf.
Clark has been an avid golfer for most of her life. A 2023 article from Golf Digest wrote, "Clark’s dad, Brent, began taking Caitlin to play golf when she was around 6, and she remembers getting a set of pink-and-blue kids clubs for her eighth birthday."
The article also notes that Clark, "tries to play golf four times a week in the summer." And all this time spent on the course has sharpened the former Iowa Hawkeye's swing.
Clark claims that her handicap is in the low 80s, and she showcased a gorgeous drive while playing a few holes with two-time majors champion and PGA Tour mainstay Zach Johnson during the 2023 John Deere Classic pro-am.
Right down the middle.@CaitlinClark22's got game @JDClassic 💪 pic.twitter.com/rFLEZuvtKI
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 5, 2023
Clark considers the golf course a place where, "You can clear your mind, do something you really love, and have the peace and quiet of just your friends around or even just yourself,” per Golf Digest.
However, that doesn't mean she's not competing out there.
Clark said during a July 30 Fever media availability session that she hasn't been on the course with any Fever teammates quite yet. But after learning that her teammate Grace Berger played on a golf team that won a high school state championship, Clark seemed incentivized to challenge Berger on the course before their WNBA season reconvenes on August 16.
Some golf talk with Caitlin Clark today at Fever practice. I asked Clark if she had played with Grace Berger, who won a state championship in golf in high school. Clark… was unaware of that fact: pic.twitter.com/XWt85OiL4x
— Tony East (@TonyREast) July 30, 2024
The Team USA Women's Basketball team is playing Nigeria during the Paris 2024 Olympics quarterfinals at 3:30PM EST on Wednesday, August 7.
If she isn't at a Fever practice, Clark will probably be watching the game.
But only because it isn't occurring at the same time as the Paris Olympics Women's Golf event, which begins earlier that morning.
GRANT YOUNG
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.