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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Officials at Augusta National know a goat when they see one, whether they wear the red and black on Sunday or the black and gold in Iowa.
Keaten Clark won't be playing in the Masters anytime soon — that's one of the few endeavors where she might struggle a little — but the marks she set during her college career and her recent appearance in the women's NCAA Tournament have inspired the Green Jackets who run Augusta.
“The way Caitlin plays the game, her passion, her energy, she really captures the imagination of fans,” Augusta National club president Fred Ridley said Wednesday. Clark and Iowa lost to South Carolina on Sunday in the NCAA women's basketball tournament, a hugely popular game with more than 18 million people watching.
Ridley knows exactly how a transformative figure — a “unicorn,” as he and many others call it — can revolutionize an entire sport. Tiger Woods won the Masters in 1997 at the age of 21 — a year younger than Clark is now — and golf has never been the same since.
“We need more unicorns,” Ridley added, and he wasn't just talking about women's basketball.
“We hope more people come like us [Clark]“And we certainly hope people will get involved in golf,” he said.
If a Clarke-like unicorn emerges in the golf world, she will likely play in Augusta National's five-year-old Women's Amateur Championship. Past ANWA participants have already won 13 LPGA events, 27 Women's European Tour events and three majors.
“Right now anyway, Kaitlyn Clark is an amateur. She's a team player,” Ridley said. “We think the young women playing here in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship are just as capable. … Hopefully we can continue to bring compelling individuals out here to play in our tournament.”
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