BELLEAIR — When The Annika tees off at Pelican Golf Club on Nov. 12, the LPGA Tour event will again feature a stacked field of the game’s top players chasing a hefty purse on one of the tour’s most respected courses.
Those things matter to Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, the tournament’s namesake. But she may be prouder of something else: how the event went from being seen as an inconvenience by some club members and town residents to a fixture embraced by nearly everyone in the small, tight-knit community.
“That’s the goal,” Sorenstam said in an Oct. 17 interview with the Beacons. “The tournament has got to be a win-win for everyone and involve the community the way that we are. I mean, we have 700 volunteers, a concert series, we allow kids 17 and under to get in for free, and we celebrate veterans and first responders, which is critical. So, we try to do a lot of different things like that, and I feel like it’s become a tradition. It’s an annual thing, like this is what we do at this time of the year.”
Sorenstam put her name on the tournament in 2023 through a partnership with the Doyle family, which owns Pelican, and Gainbridge, a financial services platform, becoming the first player with her name on an LPGA Tour event since Lorena Ochoa in 2017. She credited the Doyles, Pelican staff and event manager Outlyr with smoothing out the rough edges from the tournament’s early years, after it debuted as the Pelican Women’s Championship in fall 2020.
Parking, traffic and noise initially drew residents to Town Commission meetings and to the Indian Rocks Road club to complain.
“I think the team does a good job addressing the concerns,” Sorenstam said.
“This event could be a pain in the butt for members, and for the community with traffic and other concerns,” she added. “But hopefully now they understand this is good for them, the exposure, and the locals get a chance to watch it and get to know the players. So, everything has been taken care of, and I bet they’re proud of this happening in their town. And that’s so important to us.”
Under Sorenstam, the tournament has added local sponsors, made appearances at Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Rays games and woven itself into the life of the community.
Last year, tournament officials joined sponsor invite Lauryn Nguyen at the Belleair Bluffs Wine Walk, where she hosted a putting contest, and Town Commissioner Patricia Barris put Nguyen up at her home for tournament week.
The event has also added AdventHealth as a sponsor, along with an annual Women’s Leadership Summit, a sneaker design contest for pediatric cancer patients and free clinics for young players. Its pro-am has drawn WNBA star Caitlin Clark and Kai Trump, a University of Miami golfer and granddaughter of President Donald Trump.
The approach has won over players, too. World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who won at Pelican in 2021, 2022 and 2024, recently called it her favorite stop on the tour. She is entered again this year, along with defending champion Linn Grant.
“When the players look at the schedule, they look at several things to determine if they’re going to play,” Sorenstam said. “And we check a lot of the boxes — the field, the course, the time of year and how we treat the players and caddies. So, it’s been a good combo.”
She also praised title sponsor Gainbridge, which has been a driving force in promoting women’s sports.
“They do so much for women’s sports and to promote the event,” she said.
Sorenstam said she will be in Miami in early November for a NASCAR race in which Michael McDowell’s No. 71 car will carry the tournament’s colors.
“We’re trying to spread the word about the tournament through different channels — we’ve had Caitlin Clark come out twice to support the event — because it brings out another fan base and gets more people to come out and experience it,” she said. “And it’s so cool to see how all the sports can bring people together.”
Another big reason to host the tournament, Sorenstam said, is introducing young players to the game through her foundation and the free clinics it holds on-site every year.
“One of the beneficiaries is my foundation, and it’s all about empowering the next generation of women and helping to advance the game,” she said.
Several players in the field have competed in Annika Foundation events, she noted.
“I’ve seen many of them grow and mature and improve,” Sorenstam said. ”And we want the next generation of players to see that and be part of it and start dreaming of being out there. And that’s an important part of our tournament.”
Clark won’t play in this year’s pro-am, but Sorenstam believes the tournament is now ingrained enough in the community to succeed on its own merits.
“We make it hard on us sometimes when people say, ‘How can you improve it this year?’” she said. “And we understand we’ve got to keep it moving forward and keep advancing and make it fun and interesting.
“But at the end of the day, the goal is to have everybody involved think they’re getting a piece of it — the sponsors, the players, the fans and the charities. They’re the core components that are critical to the success of a tournament. And I think as long as the hurricanes stay away, we will be OK.”
For schedules and ticket packages for The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, visit theannika.com.
