It is the second year for the legendary golfer Annika Sorenstam to host the ANNIKA Driven by Gainbridge. This year, the event will be packed with high-class talents like Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Ruoning Yin, and many others before the final event, the CME Group Tour Championship. But the highlight of the event is surely Caitlin Clark teeing up with Korda and Sorenstam for the Wednesday Pro-Am. The 22-year-old WNBA phenom will meet the stars from the LPGA Tour at the Pelican Golf Club.

Since the 2021 season, the Pelican Golf Club in Bellaire, Florida, has been hosting the LPGA Tour on its course. First known as the Pelican Women’s Championship at Pelican GC, the event name was changed as Sorenstam took the hosting powers in 2023. Initially, as Hurricane Milton wreaked havoc in the Tampa Bay Area, there was uncertainty that Pelican Golf Club may not host the event anymore. However, in just a week, the golf course was cleared of all the flooding, and the grass was mowed, as nothing ever disrupted the course.

The 18-hole was first designed by Donald Ross in 1925; however, after 100 years of its existence, the design plan was lost. So in 2018, after the Doyle family bought the course a year ago, the course was redesigned by Tom Fazio’s colleague, Beau Welling. He followed Ross’s design and concept and also considered the Golden Age architecture to make the Pelican Golf Club. The course was then stretched to 7,000 yards, playing 70 pars. The course is said to be the only course on the west coast of Florida to have 36 Bermudagrass, which ensures that there is greenery all around the year.

In 2022, the Pelican Golf Club hosted ‘The Match’ between Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy vs. Justin Thomas & Jordan Spieth. It has been one of the historic and iconic courses in the Tampa Bay Area, and it also shares many similarities with the Augusta National, or to say it was made to be the Augusta National of Bellaire.

Augusta National was an inspiration behind Pelican Golf Club

When the founders of the Tampa-based DEX Imaging, the Doyle Family, took over the Pelican Golf Club, one of the owners, Dan Doyle Jr., had one small dream. He wanted the Pelican Golf Club to become what the Augusta National is in men’s golf. In simple words, he wanted that if there is ever a women’s Masters, the Pelican Golf Club should be the venue for it.

And for more reasons than one, the Pelican Golf Club may have the ability to be the women’s Masters venue. Just like Augusta National, the Pelican Golf Club is also a second-shot golf club with its fairways fairly inviting, and even if the ball ends up in the tree, it is quite easier to make a recovery. However, it is the greens and area around it that make it harder for the pros. Brittany Lincicome, the 8-time LPGA Tour winner, once noted that greens have so much undulation that it depicts as if elephants are buried underneath.

With broad fairways, there are only a few water hazards at Pelican Golf Club. However, the sand bunkers resemble exactly that of ANGC, and rightfully so because Fred Ridley, a member of Pelican GC, chose the white crushed quartz sand from Arkansas. The Pelican Golf Club is indeed a terrific and challenging course. Who will be the lucky one to conquer it this year? Stay tuned to find out.