Caitlin Clark Can Hoop, But Can She Golf?

Golf’s pull on the world's greatest athletes is always fascinating to me. Jordan, Steph Curry, Tony Romo, and people of that ilk have all famously caught the bug. We recently saw the King of basketball take his shot on the course—check out a breakdown of his swing here—so it’s only fitting we now take a look at the Queen’s move.

Caitlin Clark is a polarizing and transcendent figure not just in women’s basketball but in sports as a whole. She broke the NCAA record for points, was the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft, and was ultimately crowned Rookie of the Year in her debut season. They’ve had to move games into bigger arenas just to account for the sheer mass of fans that come to watch her hit shots from everywhere on the court.

She’s gone beyond being just a basketball player—she’s a household name.

So it makes sense that once videos surfaced of her playing golf, everyone tuned in to see what kind of swing she had.

After enjoying her time at the event last year, the WNBA star will make her second appearance at The Annika Pro-Am at Pelican Golf Club in Florida on November 12th. She made headlines last year when she accidentally snap-hooked one into the gallery. Nobody was hurt, and she handled it with class.

I stumbled upon a good down-the-line video of Clark’s swing from last year’s RSM Classic pro-am and decided to break it down. Let’s jump into it.

Setup

(Note: the camera angle isn’t exactly ideal, but this is the best I could find for a good down-the-line angle)

Every good swing starts with a solid setup, and Caitlin does that here.

She has a good bend at her waist, her shoulders, hips, and feet are all square to the target, however, similar to Lebron, she reaches ever so slightly with her arms. Ideally, I'd like her to stand just a tad closer to the ball. This small change would make everything flow more naturally. We will see the downstream effects as we move throughout her swing.

Takeaway

Really good stuff here. If I’m nitpicking, the club is just a tad bit inside on the way back (this would be more pronounced if the camera was directly behind her).

This could be attributed to her setup and being a bit far away from the ball. It's tough the keep the clubhead outside the hands during the takeaway when you stand too far away from the ball.

Outside of that, everything else is very solid here. Her front knee begins to flex ever so slightly, showing she's using the correct muscles going back. Her lead arm is still straight and her trail arm has proper bend. All good stuff.

Top of the Backswing

There is a lot to like here. She gets the club into a good position at the start of her backswing, and continues that all the way to the top. She has a great turn going back, both with her shoulders and her hips. She maintains a good amount of bend in her knees. Many amateurs lock-out their trail leg, but Clark avoids that here. She's in a great spot to utilize the ground and generate some power on the downswing (Lebron could learn a lot from this).

Downswing

Again, she does a lot of things right at every part of her swing. You can see she utilizes the ground to gain some speed on her way down by pushing off with her right foot. She may do it a tad bit early for my liking, however, I would rather see this than just standing flat-footed.

If I were to pick a thing to correct, it’s that the club is a bit “over the top” here. Going back to her backswing, Clark's takeaway was slightly inside. In golf, like physics, every action requires an equal or greater reaction. When you take the club back inside, you are going to need to come back over the top to square it up. This is where a slice can comes from. If you're over the top but fail to square the face, hello, banana ball.

However, Caitlin is just marginally over the top here. This is something that could be ironed out after a few range sessions.

Impact

This is money. Hips turned externally through the ball and towards the target. The head stays stable, and her posture is perfect. Really impressive for someone who doesn’t do this for a living.

Post Impact

I can’t overstate how good this is. Club exits left, and the clubhead stays outside of the hands. Every amateur golfer would KILL to get to this position after impact. You can play some really good golf from here.

Follow Through

A photo finish. I wish more golfers would focus on just finishing in a balanced position like this and the rest of the swing will usually follow.

Overall Takeaways

As I said about 45 different times throughout this, Caitlin does a lot of really good things in her swing. When breaking it down position by position, there's not a lot that makes you want to cringe, which is rare for casual golfers.

If I had one tip to give her, it would be to stand just a bit closer to the ball. I think that would do wonders for her takeaway and help her get the club more on plan, which would then prevent her from having to go “over the top” during her downswing.

All in all, her swing is every bit as impressive as her game on the court: powerful, athletic, and naturally gifted. Can't wait to see more swings from the all-star next week in Florida.