As Caitlin Clark is ready to take on the golf course on Wednesday in the LPGA Pro-Am, fans are curious to know her holding idol. While Clark had revealed that she was a big fan of golf as a kid, she never divulged who she followed. However, she has achieved a stage in the W which is said to have similarities with Tiger Woods. Therefore, when the question was asked today, many fans expected her to take the 11x PGA Player of the Year’s name. But this time, the ROTY shared her own choice, showing her individuality.

“Honestly, I tried to watch as much as I can and Rory was probably one of my favorite players growing up. I wish I always had the TV on watching him. But I had this pink little cute golf club growing up that I got for one of my birthdays. So I always begged my dad to take me out, go golfing but… Yeah, I loved it. I tried to be around it as much as I could… as much as I had time for it. I just played about every sport growing up, but I remember when I had like one-off weekend of not playing like soccer, basketball whatever it was…,” Clark expressed sharing the name of Rory McIlroy.

“I begged my dad to take me in. Obviously wasn’t very good but I loved being outside, trying something new adjust to the challenge of golf. Obviously a lot different from definitely basketball and the team aspect is much more individual so that’s another challenge I love about it too,” Clark expounded.

McIlroy is a 3X PGA Tour Player of the Year who was at the zenith of his achievements in the early 2010s. During that time he won the PGA Championship twice in 2012, and 2014, besides being the PGA Player of the Year in those two years. Certainly, he would have swamped the TV channels when Clark was a kid.

Clark had previously too revealed that she was around six when her dad Brent Clark taught her the sport, and since then being a multi-sport athlete she fell in love with it. The incident the Des Moines-born was referring to about being gifted a golf set was most probably during her eighth birthday when her dad got her a set of pink kids’ clubs.

In another interview, Clark revealed she started golf when she was “in third or fourth grade.” In her own admission, she “was terrible. I couldn’t hit it off the ground, but I loved doing anything that was competitive.” Plus she also enunciated that her competition with family members fueled her passion. But now that she revealed that McIlroy was her favorite player it would have disappointed fans.

Caitlin Clark draws comparison to Tiger Woods

What Tiger Woods did can hardly be replicated. The 15X major Champion changed PGA’s financial landscape. It is said that he influenced his fans and contributed to the sport so much that before him there were 24.4 million golfers, while the numbers skyrocketed to 29.8 million in 10 years. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Woods was the Michael Jordan of golf. And Nancy Lieberman compared the two to Clark.

“This point has happened before. You’ve you know well enough that in 1984 when Michael Jordan came into the NBA. The ratings in the NBA were not great Chicago stadium was you know a third full and he comes in from college winning the championship of at North Carolina and you know the Jordan roles are in effect. They’re knocking you know the heck out of them he’s getting the Lion Share of the attention the games are now getting put all of his games are on TV and he just was a polarizing figure,” Lieberman stated while also bringing Tiger Woods into the conversation. And it no denying with Clark coming into the league, the ratings have suddenly gone up. Plus she featured in 19 out of the 22 games that crossed the 1 million viewership mark.

Despite the comparisons, Clark has found her favorite in McIlroy, and hopefully, much like the golf star, she will impress all when she picks up the tee tomorrow.