Kai Trump, the granddaughter of President Donald Trump, showed a marked improvement in the second round of her LPGA debut at The Annika, trimming eight strokes off her opening-day score.
After finishing Friday’s round, Trump said a shift in her mindset made the difference. She felt far more settled than she had on Thursday, when nerves affected her play.
“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.
“I did everything I could possibly have done for this tournament. So, I think if you prepare right, the nerves can … they’re always going to be there, right? They can be a little softened. So, I would just say that.”
That calmer approach was tested early. Trump ran into trouble on the third, fourth and fifth holes, but she steadied herself and responded by birdieing three of the next six.
“Things are going to happen. Once it happens, you can’t go back in time and fix it,” she said. “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.”
Even with the improvement, Trump finished last in the 108-player field and won’t make the weekend cut. She ended her two rounds at 18-over 158, sitting 27 shots behind leader Grace Kim and 17 strokes outside the projected cut line.
Still, her effort drew encouragement from LPGA standout Charley Hull, who noted the difficulty of the course and the pressure surrounding a first start.
“That’s really good considering this is not just an easy LPGA event. This is probably one of the harder courses that we play on,” Hull said, per Golf Channel. “So, for her to come out, she had to be so nervous. It was her first LPGA event. I remember my first event. I was really nervous, and she’s got a lot of pressure on her and a lot of eyes on her.”
